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•  YORK 


THE  HISTORY 


UNITED  STATES  OF  NORTH  AMERICA; 


FROM     THE 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  WESTERN  WORLD  TO  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 


BY  W.  H.  BARTLETT, 


AUTHOR   OP    "WALKS   ABOUT   JERUSALEM,"    "FOOTSTEPS   OF   OUR    LORD   AND    HIS    APOSTLE6. 
"FORTY    DAYS    IN    THE    DESERT,"    "  THE    NILE    BOAT,"    "GLEANINGS   ON    THE    OVER- 
LAND  ROUTE,"    "  PICTURES    FROM    SICILY,"    &C,    &C. 


CONTINUED    BY 


B.  B.  WOODWARD,  B.  A,  F.  S.A. 

AUTHOR   OF  "  THE    HISTORY  OF    WALES,"    &C. 

VOL.  I. 


f     w  or  : 

f   VNIVERt^  ,  .  j 


NEW    YORK: 
VIRTUE,    &    YORSTON, 

12    DEY     STREET. 


t 


\1& 


PREFACE. 


Next  after  the  study  of  Revealed  Truth,  that  of  History  has  been  wisely  affirmed  to  be 
the  duty  of  every  man  who  would  discipline  his  understanding,  and  enlarge  his  sympathies, 
and  from  the  loftiest  point  of  view  which  it  is  permitted  to  mortals  to  attain,  see  the  furthest 
over  the  wide  domain  of  human  affairs.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  gather  from  Holy  Writ 
the  clear  assurance,  that  the  lessons  of  History  are  the  teachings  of  the  Great  God  him- 
self, given,  age  after  age,  to  men.  The  worth  of  historic  studies,  thus  regarded  as  a 
preparation  for  the  business  of  life,  and  as  a  means  of  popular  education  and  elevation,  it  is 
impossible  to  exaggerate. 

How  forcibly  these  remarks,  which  relate  to  the  Annals  of  the  entire  world,  ancient 
as  well  as  modern,  apply  to  the  record  of  events  which  are  of  living  interest,  must  be  mani- 
fest to  all.  And  a  series  which  should  include  the  uprise  of  a  nation  from  those  weak  and 
small  beginnings,  which  are  most  frequently  disguised  and  magnified  by  the  mists  of  an- 
tiquity, to  the  stalwart  manhood  of  unquestioned  power  ;  presenting  the  various  phases 
of  its  growth  in  their  bare  simplicity  ;  would  furnish  an  actually  Encyclopedian  course  of 
reading  for  all  who  desired  either  the  ethical  or  the  political  wisdom,  which  we  are  assured 
may  be  won  from  this  source.  Whilst,  if  the  story  be  that  of  one's  own  country,  and  the 
nation  whose  progress  is  traced  be  that  to  which  the  reader,  either  by  birth,  or  adoption, 
belongs,  the  influence  is  enhanced  a  thousand-fold ;  although  the  difficulty  of  gaining  and 
preserving  the  spirit  of  honest  fairness,  in  this  case,  is  proverbially  great. 

These  are  some  of  the  recommendations  of  the  History  of  the  United  States  ;  which 
has  superadded  to  all  such,  the  profound  and  stirring  interest  of  scenes  of  romantic  adven- 
ture, of  the  cultivation  of  the  love  of  liberty  until  the  endurance  of  the  very  name  of 
"  subject "  was  felt  to  be  a  treason  against  humanity,  of  the  achievement  of  national  in- 
dependence on  the  glorious  battle-field,  and  of  the  maturing  of  that  conquest  by  the  arms 
and  the  arts  of  peace.  And,  for  all  who  love  to  attempt  the  solution  of  that  complicated 
enigma — Society  ;  in  this  nation,  and  consequently  in  its  history,  are  found  co-existing  with 
a  glowing  passion  for  liberty,  the  most  inconsistent  species  of  limitation  of  its  exercise- 
that  imposed  upon  the  expression  of  opinion  ;  and  the  most  flagrantly  wrong  and  injurious 
form  of  bondage,  by  which  an  entire  race  was  ever  oppressed. 


IV  PREFACE. 

'  Not  one  of  these  various  incentives  to  historical  study  has  been  overlooked  in  the  compo- 
sition of  this  work,  which  has  been  especially  undertaken  as  a  popular  and  complete  History 
of  the  great  American  republic.  The  materials  employed  have  been,  in  good  part,  the  letters, 
state-papers,  records,  &c,  &c„  which  are  the  original  sources  for  the  various  periods  ;  and 
for  the  rest,  care  has  been  taken  that  they  should  be  authentic  and  trustworthy. 

It  must  be  very  particularly  observed  that  this  is  not  a  Party-History.  The  proceedings 
of  all  parties  are  related  with  strict  impartiality,  and  canvassed  and  discussed  with  a  view 
to  their  Tightness  alone.  Hence  it  differs  widely  from  other  works  of  a  similar  character ; 
and  in  the  extent  of  its  range  not  less  than  in  its  general  tone  and  spirit. 

The  first  volume  narrates  the  discovery  and  colonization  of  the  country,  and  the  earlier 
and  more  momentous  disputes  respecting  the  possession  of  it ; — the  arbitrary  rule  of  the  im- 
perial government  of  Great  Britain,  by  which,  just  as  with  England  herself  by  the  absolutism 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  desire  and  the  capacity  for  political  liberty  were  nurtured, — the  events 
of  the  war  by  which  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  was  effected, — the  unsettled 
period  which  immediately  succeeded  the  peace,  —  and  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution. 

The  second  volume  contains  the  history  of  the  Administrations  of  Washington,  John 
Adams,  and  Jefferson,  and  of  the  Home  Affairs  of  Madison's  Administration.  It  treats  of 
that  period  in  the  existence  of  the  Union  during  which  the  leading  idea  for  interpreting  the 
Constitution,  and  putting  it  into  operation,  as  an  instrument  of  government  for  the  nation, 
was  determined. 

And  the  third  volume  traces  the  progress  and  fortunes  of  the  Great  Republic  of  the  West, 
from  "  the  Second  War,"  down  to  our  own  times.  The  attainment  and  carrying  out  of  a 
national  policy,  it  will  be  seen,  is  the  prevailing  principle  of  the  period  surveyed  in  this  part 
of  the  work :  which  concludes  at  the  point  where  the  widely  different  tasks  of  the  Historian 
and  the  Journalist  meet,  and  historic  candour  and  impartiality  begin  to  experience  the  per- 
turbing influences  of  the  politics  and  passions  of  the  passing  hour. 

The  first  three  books  in  the  first  volume  are  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Bartlett ;  the  remainder 
of  the  work  is  by  the  continuator  of  his  labours, 

B.  B.  WOODWARD. 


BOOK  T. 


FROM    THE    DISCOVERY   OF    THE    CONTINENT   OF    AMERICA,    TO    THE    FIRST 
INTERCOLONIAL    WAR. 


I. — Earliest  Discoveries  in  North  America.— Sebastian  Cabot.— Verezzani.— Cortereal. 

— WlLLOUGHBY    AND   ChANCELOUR. — CARTIER    AND   THE    FRENCH   IN   CANADA.— DISCOVERY   OP 

the  Mississippi  by  Soto. — The  Huguenots  and  Catholics  in  Florida. 

II.— Gilbert's  Expedition  to  Newfoundland. — Discovery  of  Virginia,  and  first  Attempts 
at  its  Colonization.— Gosnold's  Voyages. 

III.— Settlement  of  New  France.— The  Jesuits  at  Mount  Desert  Island.— Discoveries 
of  Champlain. — Foundation  of  Quebec. — Destruction  of  Port  Royal. 

IV.— Voyages  and  Discovery  of  Henry  Hudson.— Settlement  of  New    Netherlands. 

V. — The  Pilgrim  Fathers.— Robinson  and  his  Church  in  England  and  at  Leyden. — 
Negociations. — Voyage  of  the  Mayflower. — Hardships  and  Mortality. — Settlement 
at  Plymouth. 

YJL— Colony  of  Massachusetts   Bay.— Preliminary  Attempts.— Emigration  under  Win- 
throp. — Establishment  of  the  Theocracy. — Religious  Intolerance. — Roger  Williams    \/ 
and  Mrs.  Hutchinson.— Foundation  of  Connecticut.— The  Pequod  War. 

VII.— Colonization  of  Maryland  by  Lord  Baltimore.— Its  Advantages  and  Progress. — 
Dispute  with  Clayborne.— Establishment  of  Religious  Toleration. 

VIII. — The  New   England  States  during  thc   Parliament.— Persecutions  of  the  Bap-    " 
t18t8  and  quakers   in  massachusetts.— elliot  and  the  indians.— general  progress 
of  the  Northern  Colonies.  '  . 

IX.— The  Aboriginal  Indians. — Their  Physical  and  Mental  Characteristics,  Customs, 
Manners,  Antiquities,  and  Languages. 

X.— Progress  of  New  Netherlands.— Dissolution  of  New  Sweden. — Difficulties  with 
Connecticut. — Capture  of  New  York  by  the  English. — Recapture  by  the  Dutch,  and 
final  Cession  to  England. 

XI.— Continuation  of  the  History  of  Virginia,  from  the  Death  of  James  I.  to  the 
Deposition  of  James  II. 


XII. — Foundation  of  Carolina. — Locke's  System  of  Legislation  found  unsuitable.— Dif- 
ficulties with  the  Colonists. — Abrogation  of  the  "  Grand  Model." 

XIII. — Affairs  of  Massachusetts,  from  the  Accession  of  Charles  II.  to  the  Deposition 
of  James  II.  —  Difficulties  with  the  English  Government. —War  with  Philip   of 

POKANOKET. — ABROGATION   OF   THE   CHARTER. — AFFAIRS    OF   THE    OTHER   COLONIES. 

XIV Foundation  of  Pennsylvania.— Life  of  Penn.— Grant  from  Charles  II. — Estab- 
lishment of  the  Colony. — Disputes  with  the  Settlers. 

XV.— Progress   of  New  France. — The   Jesuits.— Their    Discoveries.— Descent  of  thb 
Mississippi.— Expedition  of  La  Salle. 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


VOLUME     I. 


PAGE 

EMBARKATION  OF  THE   PILGRIM  FATHERS {Frontispiece.) 

VIGNETTE— WASHINGTON'S    HEADQUARTERS,    NEWBURG ( Engraved  Title.) 

SMITH  RESCUED  BY  POCAHONTAS 39 

THE  PEQUOD  WAR../. 86 

THE  ESCAPE  OF  THE  DUNSTAN  FAMILY 193 

BATTLE  OF  LEXINGTON 150 

THE  DEATH  OF  GEN.   WOLFE 274 

DEATH  OF  GEN    MONTGOMERY 372 

KOSCIUSKO'S  MONUMENT 41S 

GEN.  BURGOYNE  ADDRESSING  THE  INDIANS 428 

MISS  McCREA  TAKEN  BY  THE  INDIANS 439 

TRENTON  FALLS 454 

GEN.  MARION  AND  THE  BRITISH  OFFICER 482 

VIEW  FROM  FORT  PUTNAM 499 


^ 


°r  rut *>* 


HISTOET  OF   AMEEICA. 


CHAPTER  L 


EARLIEST  DISCOVERIES  IN  NORTH  AMERICA.  —  SEBASTIAN  CABOT.  —  VEREZZANI,  —  CORTEREAL.  — 
WILLOUGHBY-  AND  CHANCELOUR.-— CART1ER  AND  THE  FRENCH  IN  CANADA.— DISCOVERY  OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI   BY  SOTO. — THE    HUGUENOTS   AND    CATHOLICS   IN   FLORIDA. 

On  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of  CHA'P- 
Portugal,  arose,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  that  spirit  of  maritime  adventure  of  T~jr7^r 
which  the  first-fruits  were  to  be  the  discovery  of  a  New  World.  The  ma- 
riners' compass,  invented  by  a  native  of  the  little  republic  of  Amalphi,  had 
given  an  impulse  to  navigation,  and  citizens  of  Genoa  and  Florence,  the  seats 
of  reviving  art,  science,  and  literature,  were  the  principal  pioneers  of  daring 
and  successful  enterprise.  To  find  a  shorter  path  to  the  riches  of  the  East, 
of  which  Marco  Polo  had  recently  given  such  glowing  accounts,  Columbus, 
steering  boldly  across  the  western  ocean  beyond  the  known  limits  of  naviga- 
tion, lighted  upon  the  verge  of  that  vast  continent,  of  the  true  nature  of  which 
he  died  without  entertaining  a  suspicion.  To  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  first 
to  conjecture  its  real  import,  was  destined  the  glory  of  giving  to  it  a  name  As 
succeeding  adventurers  followed  up  the  track,  they  were  astonished  at  dis- 
covering in  Mexico,  and  in  Central  and  Southern  America,  states  which  had 
long  subsisted  in  a  high  degree  of  civilization  and  luxury ;  and  the  accounts 
of  the  chroniclers  who  accompanied  them  teem  with  expressions  of  surprise 
at  the  magnificence  of  their  monuments,  the  remains  of  which  have  been  so 
accurately  brought  before  us  by  recent  travellers. 

Not  such  was  then  the  condition  of  the  northern  half  of  this  great  continent, 
which  was  destined  to  afford  a  lasting  seat  to  the  power  and  enterprise  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race.  Along  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries, 
we^re  scattered,  indeed,  at  wide  intervals,  the  vestiges  of  prior  occupation, 
mounds,  partly  natural  and  partly  improved  by  art,  walls  and  fortifica- 
tions, exclusively  composed  of  earth,  with  arms,  pottery,  and  other  traces  of 
the  former  occupation  of  semi-civilized  tribes,  to  which  tradition  but  dimly 
pointed.  But  the  whole  sea-board,  from  the  shores  of  the  Northern  Ocean  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  entirely  destitute  even  of  these  rude  vestiges,  and 

B 


A.  D.  1492 


%  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,   the  vast  primeval  forests  with  which  it  was  covered  were  exclusively  occu- 
.  pied  as  hunting  grounds  by  the  roaming  savages  of  the  Red  Race. 

Traditions  of  a  discovery  of  America  long  anterior  to  that  of  Columbus  are 
contained  in  the  ancient  Chronicle  of  Olaus,  who  relates  that  the  hardy  Nor- 
wegian rovers  who  colonized  Iceland  as  early  as  the  year  874,  left  also 
settlers  in  Greenland,  who,  in  A.  D.  982,  launched  westward,  and  finding  there 
a  milder  seat  of  habitation,  and  woody  valleys  overgrown  with  wild  vines, 
gave  to  it  the  name  of  Vinland,  supposed  to  be  identical  with  Massachusetts 
or  Rhode  Island.  Danish  antiquaries  confidently  adduce  elaborate,  and  what 
they  consider  irrefragable,  evidence  of  this  early  settlement,  and  of  successive 
visits  to  the  same  coasts ;  but  their  opinions,  though  not  without  advocates, 
are  by  no  means  generally  received  by  American  antiquaries,  and  cannot  be 
cited  as  a  portion  of  authentic  history. 

To  England  justly  belongs  the  claim  to  the  first  indisputable  discovery  of 
the  northern  continent.  Her  hardy  sailors  had  long  acquired  their  character- 
istic nerve  and  sinew  in  buffeting  the  stormy  seas  of  their  own  coasts  and  the 
neighbouring  continent,  and  even  in  trading  voyages  to  Iceland.  The  country 
was  emerging  from  the  confusion  occasioned  by  the  wars  of  the  Roses  under 
the  prudent  and  thrifty  management  of  Henry  VII.  Yet  the  spirit  of  intel- 
lectual culture  and  enlightened  enterprise  which  centred  in  Italy,  Portugal, 
and  the  Hanse  Towns  had  scarcely  as  yet  penetrated  to  England,  and  thus 
we  find  that,  after  the  success  of  Columbus  had  given  the  first  impulse  to 
voyages  of  discovery,  they  were  still  for  some  time  projected  and  carried  out 
by  the  agency  of  foreigners. — "  I  cannot,"  says  Charlevoix,  "  dispense  with  a 
passing  remark.  It  is  very  glorious  to  Italy,  that  the  three  powers  which  now 
divide  between  them  almost  the  whole  of  America,  owe  their  first  discoveries 
to  Italians — the  Spanish  to  Columbus,  a  Genoese,  the  English  to  John  Cabot 
and  his  sons,  Venetians,  and  the  French  to  Verezzani,  a  citizen  of  Florence." 
Giovanni  Gaboto  or  Cabot,  had  settled  in  Bristol,  then  the  second  port  in 
England;  and  it  is  a  singular  coincidence,  that  this  ancient  city,  which  sent 
forth  the  first  fleet  of  discovery  to  North  America,  should  have  also 
equipped  the  famous  "  Great  Western  "  steam  ship,  the  first  expressly  con- 
structed to  shorten  the  communication  with  that  continent,  which  the  lapse 
of  three  centuries  had  so  astonishingly  altered.  At  this  sea-port  the  expedi- 
tion "  was  bound  and  holden  only  to  arrive."  The  Commission,  signed  at 
Westminster  on  the  5th  of  March,  1495,  (in  less  than  two  years  after  the 
return  of  Columbus  from  America,)  authorized  Cabot,  with  his  three  sons, 
Lewis,  Sebastian,  and  Sancho,  "  to  seeke  out  and  discover  whatsoever  isles, 
-countreys,  regions,  or  provinces  of  the  infidels  and  heathen,"  to  set  up  the 
royal  "  banners  and  ensigns  in  every  village,  towne,  castle,  isle,  or  continent," 
to  take  possession  of  them,  and  to  carry  on  an  exclusive  trade  with  the  inhabit- 
ants, reserving  a  fifth  part  of  the  profits  to  the  crown.  The  British  merchants 
equipped  four  vessels ;  another,  on  board  of  which  John  Cabot  himself  em- 
barked, with  his  son  Sebastian,  born  to  him  at  Bristol,  was  furnished  by  the 
•parsimonious  monarch.    Of  their  first  voyage  the  records  are  but  scanty — but  it 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  6 

is  certain  that  they  were  the  real  discoverers  of  the  continent  of  America.  On  chap 
the  24th  of  June,  1497,  about  five  in  the  morning,  they  fell  in  with  that  land  — ~ 
m  which  no  man  before  that  time  had  attempted."  The  land  they  called  Prima 
Vista,  or  first  seen,  generally  regarded  as  part  of  the  coast  of  Labrador.  Shortly 
after  they  reached  an  island,  which,  as  being  descried  upon  the  day  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  they  called  St.  John's  Island.  Thus  England  had  the  glory 
of  the  first  discovery  of  North  America,  and  acquired  such  right  of  preoccupa- 
tion as  this  circumstance  was  supposed  to  confer. 

The  enterprise,  but  timidly  encouraged  by  Henry,  was  now  more  vigorously 
pursued.  A  new  patent  was  granted,  and  Sebastian  Cabot  undertook  a  second 
voyage,  in  destination  and  result  differing  little  from  the  first,  save  that  he  is 
supposed  to  have  followed  the  coast  as  far  southward  as  Virginia.  He  is 
reputed  to  have  made  a  third,  but  the  accounts  respecting  it  are  not  clear ; 
Robertson  and  other  writers  mention  but  one  voyage,  and  the  details  given 
by  Hakluyt  are  confused.  Mr.  Bancroft  considers  that  "the  main  fact  is 
indisputable,"  that  Cabot  entered  Hudson's  Bay,  and,  still  bent  on  the  great 
object  ever  present  to  the  adventurers  of  that  age,  the  discovery  of  a  North- 
west passage  to  "  Cathai,"  which  is  in  the  East,  the  China  of  which  Marco 
Polo  had  given  such  glowing  accounts,  and  the  "  bringing  of  the  spiceries 
from  India  into  Europe."  Finding  the  sea  still  open,  he  continued  his  course 
until  he  had  advanced  so  far  toward  the  North  Pole,  that  even  in  the  month 
of  July  he  found  monstrous  heaps  of  ice  floating  in  the  sea,  when  a  for- 
tunate mutiny  of  his  sailors,  forcing  him  to  return,  in  all  probability  saved  the 
intrepid  adventurer  from  destruction.  This  third  voyage  from  England  of 
Sebastian  Cabot  is  supposed  to  have  taken  place  after  he  had  entered  into  the 
service  of  Spain,  as  pilot  major  to  Charles  V.,  under  whose  auspices  he  made 
a  voyage  into  South  America.  The  discovery  of  a  passage  to  the  Indies  still 
continued  to  be  the  favourite  object  of  his  hopes.  He  suggested  to  the  com- 
pany of  merchants  adventurers  the  disastrous  enterprise  in  which  Hugh  Wil- 
loughby  and  Chancelour  perished,  which,  though  it  failed  in  its  object,  led  to 
the  discovery  of  Archangel.  This  great  navigator  was  more  fortunate  than 
most  of  the  early  pioneers  of  American  enterprise.  He  lived  to  escape  the 
perils  of  many  voyages,  and  he  died  full  of  years  and  honours.  "  Wearing 
old,"  he  says,  "  I  give  myself  to  rest  from  my  travels,  because  there  are  now 
many  young  and  lustie  pilots  and  mariners  of  good  experience,  by  whose 
forwardnesse  I  doe  rejoice  in  the  fruit  of  my  labours."  Although  he  founded 
no  colonies  in  the  countries  he  discovered,  he  may  thus  be  said  to  have  formed 
a  school  of  intrepid  explorers,  and  by  his  example  and  instructions  to  have 
given  a  great  impulse  in  England  to  that  spirit  of  maritime  adventure  which 
has  since  become  the  national  characteristic. 

During  the  long  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  this  spirit  continued  to  gain 
ground  among  the  English,  whose  expeditions  now  extended  from  the  sunny 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  to  the  icy  seas  of  the  North.  The  monarch  him- 
self, though  too  much  absorbed  by  his  own  selfish  passions,  his  controversy 
with  the  see  of  Rome,  and  the  struggle  between  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.,  to 

B   2 


4  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.   take  a  lively  interest  in  the  progress  of  discovery,  was  not  altogether  ncg- 

' —  lectful  of  the  bold  adventurers,  whose  courage  and  success  had  already  began 

'  to  prompt  the  jealousy  of  Spain.  To  one  expedition  to  the  North-west,  at  least, 
he  lent  his  "good  countenance,"  as  well  as  some  slight  assistance.  This 
was  the  voyage  of  Hore  and  his  companions,  related  by  Hakluyt,  from  the 
statements  of  a  sole  survivor  of  miseries,  so  extreme,  that  many  perished 
with  hunger;  and  others,  if  his  story  be  true,  were  reduced  to  the  horrors 
of  cannibalism.  All  attempts  at  settlement  were  as  yet  abortive,  but  the 
fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  long  frequented  by  the  French  mariners,  were 
also  prosecuted  by  the  English  with  activity  and  success,  so  much  as  to  lead 
to  parliamentary  regulations  for  their  encouragement. 

But  the  discovery  of  the  passage  to  India  still  continued  to  be  the  object 
that  agitated  the  hardiest  and  most  sanguine  spirits.  Sebastian  Cabot,  unde- 
terred by  his  own  fruitless  attempts,  had,  as  before  observed,  proposed  a  course 
by  the  North-east,  and  a  company  of  adventurers  being  formed,  he  was  ap- 
pointed governor,  and  framed  a  set  of  instructions  derived  from  his  own 
experience,  the  command  of  the  expedition  being  given  to  Sir  Hugh  Wil- 
loughby.  "  At  the  first  setting  forth  of  these  North-eastern  discoverers,"  as 
Hakluyt  well  observes,  "  they  were  almost  altogether  destitute  of  clear  lights 
and  inducements,  or  if  they  had  an  inkling  at  all,  it  was  misty  as  they  found  the 
northern  seas,  and  so  obscure  and  ambiguous,  that  it  was  meet  rather  to  deter 
than  to  give  them  encouragement.  Into  what  dangers  and  difficulties  they 
plunged  themselves,"  says  the  old  chronicler,  " {  animus  meminisse  horret,'  I 
tremble  to  relate.  For  first  they  were  to  expose  themselves  unto  the  rigour 
of  the  stern  and  uncouth  northern  seas,  and  to  make  trial  of  the  swelling  waves 
and  boisterous  winds  which  there  commonly  do  surge  and  blow."  The  "  drifts 
of  snow  and  mountains  of  ice,  even  in  the  summer,  the  hideous  overfalls,  un- 
certaine  currents,  darke  mistes  and  fogs,  and  other  fearful  inconveniences," 
which  the  English  adventurers  had  to  encounter,  he  contrasts  with  "  the  milde, 
lightsome,  and  temperate  Atlantick  Ocean,  over  which  the  Spaniards  and 
Portuguese  have  made  so  many  pleasant,  prosperous,  and  golden  voyages,  to 
the  satisfaction  of  their  fame-thirsiy  and  gold-thirsty  minds,  with  that  reputa- 
tion and  wealth  which  made  all  misadventures  seem  tolerable  unto  them." 
Willoughby  and  Chancelour  were  divided  by  storms,  and  after  doubling  the 
"  dreadful  and  mistie  North  Cape,"  the  terrors  of  a  polar  winter  surprised 
them,  but  with  very  different  issue.  The  former  sought  shelter  in  an  obscure 
harbour  of  Lapland,  to  die  a  fearful  and  a  lingering  death.  In  the  following 
spring  his  retreat  was  discovered,  the  corpses  of  the  frozen  sailors  lay  about 
the  ship,  Willoughby  was  found  dead  in  his  cabin,  his  journal  detailing  the  hor- 
rible sufferings  to  which  they  had  been  reduced.  Chancelour,  more  fortunate, 
entered  the  White  Sea,  and  found  a  secure  shelter  in  the  harbour  of  Archangel. 
Here  the  astonished  Muscovites  received  their  first  foreign  visitors  with  great 
hospitality,  and  Chancelour,  on  learning  the  vastness  of  the  empire  he  had 
discovered,  repaired  to  Moscow,  and  presented  to  the  czar,  John  Vasolowitz, 
a  letter  with  which  each  ship  had  been  furnished  by  Edward  VI.     The  czar 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  5 

dismissed  Chancelour  with  great  respect,  and  by  an  invitation  to  trade  with  chap. 
his  subjects,  opened  to  the  English  a  new  and  promising  career  of  commerce. ! — 

The  French,  as  well  as  the  English,  had  entered  at  an  early  period  into 
the  pursuit  of  the  northern  fisheries.  Even  in  1504,  the  boats  of  the  hardy 
Norman  and  Breton  mariners  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the  Great  Bank, 
and  in  Charlevoix's  time,  it  was  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  mariners  that 
Denys,  an  inhabitant  of  Honfleur,  had  even  traced  a  map  of  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence.  Francis  I.,  emulous  of  the  additional  splendour  of  renown  and 
wealth  which  the  discoveries  of  the  Spaniards  bestowed  on  the  kingdom  of 
his  rival,  Charles  V.,  and  desirous  perhaps  of  giving  the  same  encourage- 
ment to  maritime  adventure  that  he  had  bestowed  on  literature  and  art, 
engaged  Juan  Verezzani,  a  Florentine,  to  explore,  on  his  behalf,  new  regions 
in  the  unknown  West.  With  a  single  vessel,  the  Dolphin,  this  mariner 
left  Madeira,  and  was  the  first  to  fall  in  with  the  middle  continent  of  North 
America.  The  description  of  his  discoveries  given  to  the  sovereign  who 
had  sent  him  forth,  and  the  earliest  ever  penned,  has  all  the  freshness  and 
vivid  colouring  of  a  first  impression. 

After  "  as  sharp  and  terrible  a  tempest  as  ever  sailors  suffered,  whereof 
with  the  Divine  help  and  merciful  assistance  of  Almighty  God,  and  the  good- 
ness of  our  ship,  accompanied  with  the  good-hap  of  her  fortunate  name, 
(the  Dolphin,)  we  were  delivered,  and  with  a  prosperous  wind  followed  our 
course  west  and  by  north,  and  in  other  twenty-five  days  we  made  above  400 
leagues  more,  when  we  discovered  a  new  land,  never  before  seen  of  any, 
either  ancient  or  modern."  This  was  the  low,  level  coast  of  North  Carolina, 
along  which,  illumined  at  night  by  great  fires,  they  sailed  fifty  leagues  in 
search  of  a  harbour ; — at  length  they  cast  anchor  and  sent  a  boat  on  shore. 
The  wondering  natives  at  first  fled  to  the  woods,  yet  still  would  stand  and 
look  back,  beholding  the  ship  and  sailors  "with  great  admiration,"  and 
at  the  friendly  signs  of  the  latter,  came  down  to  the  shore,  "marvelling 
greatly  at  their  apparel,  shape,  and  whiteness."  Beyond  the  sandy  coast, 
intersected  "  with  rivers  and  arms  of  the  sea,"  they  saw  "  the  open  country 
rising  in  height  with  many  fair  fields  and  plains,  full  of  mightie  great  woods," 
some  dense  and  others  more  open,  replenished  with  different  trees,  "  as  plea- 
sant and  delectable  to  behold  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine.  And  your  Majesty 
may  not  think,"  says  the  Florentine,  "that  these  are  like  the  woods  of 
Hercynia,  or  the  wild  deserts  of  Tartary,  and  the  northern  coasts,  full  of 
fruitless  trees ;  but  they  are  full  of  palm  trees,  bay  trees,  and  high  cypress 
trees,  and  many  other  sorts  unknown  in  Europe,  which  yield  most  sweet 
savours  far  from  the  shore."  The  land  he  represents  as  "  not  void  of  drugs  or 
spicery,  and"  (with  the  idea  ever  uppermost  at  that  time  in  the  minds  of  dis- 
coverers) "  of  other  riches  of  gold,  seeing  that  the  colour  of  the  land  doth  so 
much  argue  it."  He  dwells  upon  the  luxury  of  the  vegetation,  the  wild 
vines  which  clustered  upon  the  ground  or  trailed  in  rich  festoons  from  tree 
to  tree,  the  tangled  roses,  violets,  and  lilies,  and  sweet  and  odoriferous  flowers, 
different  from  those  of  Europe.     He  speaks  of  the  wild  deer  in  the  woods, 


A.  D.  1524. 


6  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  and  of  the  birds  that  haunt  the  pools  and  lagoons  of  the  coast.  But,  after 
his  rude  tossing  on  the  stormy  Atlantic,  he  is  beyond  measure  transported 
with  the  calmness  of  the  sea,  the  gentleness  of  the  waves,  the  summer  beauty 
of  the  climate,  the  pure  and  wholesome  and  temperate  air,  and  the  serenity 
and  purity  of  the  blue  sky,  which,  "  if  covered  for  a  while  with  clouds 
brought  by  the  southern  wind,  they  are  soon  dissolved,  and  all  is  clear  and 
fair  again." 

Desirous  of  taking  home  some  of  the  natives,  Verezzani  endeavoured  to 
carry  off  a  young  woman,  "  very  beautiful  and  of  tall  stature,"  but  she  suc- 
ceeded in  making  her  escape.  This  was  an  ill  return  for  the  kindness  of  the 
unsuspecting  Indians,  who  had  saved  from  destruction  a  young  sailor,  nearly 
drowned,  and  who  had  given  himself  up  for  lost,  even  when  rescued  by  the 
savages.  Sailing  along  the  coast  to  the  northward,  the  Italian  entered  the  noble 
Bay  of  New  York, — nearly  a  century  before  Henry  Hudson.  He  describes 
it  as  "  a  delightful  place  among  certain  little  steep  hills,  from  amidst  which  there 
ran  down  into  the  sea  an  exceeding  great  stream  of  water,  which  within  the 
mouth  was  very  deep,  and  from  the  sea  to  the  mouth,  with  the  tide,  which  we 
found  to  rise  eight  feet,  any  great  ship  laden  may  pass  up."  He  did  not, 
however,  ascend  the  river,  his  exploring  boats  being  driven  back  by"a  sudden 
squall  to  the  ships.  Still  sailing  to  the  north,  he  next  notices  an  island  in 
form  of  a  triangle  "  about  the  bigness  of  the  Island  of  the  Rhodes,"  and  comes 
to  an  anchor  in  "  a  passing  good  haven,"  supposed  to  be  that  of  Newport. 
There  the  Indians  appeared  to  him  the  "  goodliest  people  and  of  the  fairest 
conditions  that  he  had  found  in  his  voyage."  At  sight  of  his  gallant  vessel 
under  full  sail,  the  natural  enthusiasm  of  wonder  was  awakened  in  their 
minds,  they  uttered  loud  cries  of  admiration,  and  fearlessly  came  off  to  the 
ship — prudently,  however,  leaving  their  females  behind  them  in  the  canoes,  a 
precaution  which  no  persuasion  could  induce  them  to  renounce.  After 
Verezzani  had  remained  some  days  among  them,  he  still  continued  to  explore 
the  northern  coast  of  New  England  as  far  as  Nova  Scotia,  whence  he  re- 
turned to  France.  All  accounts  admit  that  this  was  not  his  only  voyage  of 
discovery.  According  to  Hakluyt,  he  was  thrice  on  the  American  coast,  and 
gave  a  map  of  it  to  Henry  VIII.  His  fate,  however,  is  uncertain ;  some 
suppose  that  he  perished  at  sea,  or  that  he  was  killed  in  an  encounter  with 
savages,  while  others  believe  that  he  escaped  from  all  his  perils,  and  found 
an  honourable  retirement  in  his  native  country. 

The  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  in  the  vain  quest  of  a  shorter  route 
to  the  Indies,  occurred  almost  at  the  same  time  that  Vasco  de  Gama,  by 
rounding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  had  ascertained  the  true  passage  to  those 
glowing  climes,  to  which  the  attention  of  the  Portuguese  was  soon  afterwards 
almost  exclusively  directed.  Yet  one  expedition  they  sent  out  to  the  shores 
of  North  America,  commanded  by  Gaspar  Cortereal,  who  in  1501  ranged  the 
coast  for  several  hundred  miles,  and  carried  off  a  considerable  number  of  the 
natives  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  but,  like  his  predecessors,  attempted  no  perma- 
nent settlement. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


The  voyage  of  Verezzani  was  unattended  by  any  settlement.  Francis,  chap. 
occupied  at  home  in  his  struggle  with  Charles  V.,  was  little  disposed  to  — *- — 
engage  in  fresh  attempts,  but  at  the  instance  of  Chabot,  Admiral  of  France, 
Jacques  Cartier,  an  experienced  mariner  of  St.  Malo,  a  small  but  enterprising 
fishing  town  on  the  coast  of  Brittany,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  a 
second  expedition.  Furnished  with  two  small  but  well-appointed  ships  of 
60  tons  burden,  on  the  20th  of  April,  1534,  he  reached  Newfoundland, 
which  he  nearly  circumnavigated ;  then  crossing  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
discovered  the  Baie  des  Chaleurs,  so.  called  from  the  intensity  of  the  summer 
heat,  equalled  only  in  the  Canadian  climate  by  the  excessive  rigour  of  the 
winter's  cold.  Then  stretching  to  the  N.  W.  to  find  a  passage,  he  landed  on 
the  point  of  Gaspe,  where,  in  the  presence  of  many  of  the  natives,  he  erected 
upon  the  entrance  of  the  said  haven  "  a  faire  high  cross  of  the  height  of 
thirty  feet,  in  the  midst  whereof,"  he  says,  "  we  hanged  up  a  shield  with  three 
Fleur  de  Luces  on  it,  and  on  the  top,  carved  in  anticke  letters,  this  posie —  Vive 
le  Roy  de  France"  Being,  however,  unprepared  for  wintering,  he  resolved 
to  return,  and  after  a  swift  passage,  reached  in  September  the  harbour  of 
St.  Malo. 

This  first  voyage  of  Cartier,  although  no  settlement  was  effected  by  him, 
seemed  to  open  a  new  career  of  discovery,  which  the  court  of  France  was  now 
more  disposed  to  encourage.  The  spirit  of  enterprise  gained  ground  among 
all  ranks ;  and  some  even  of  the  young  nobility  enrolled  themselves  among  the 
adventurers. 

The  next  expedition  was  consecrated  by  the  solemnities  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  On  Whit-Sunday,  the  16th  of  May,  1535,  the  whole  body  confessed, 
and  received  the  sacrament  and  the  episcopal  benediction  in  the  cathedral  of 
St.  Malo.  Three  well-furnished  ships  were  ready ;  the  Great  Hermina,  of 
120  tons,  of  which  Cartier  was  appointed  commander,  the  Little  Hermina, 
of  60  tons,  and  the  Hermerillon,  of  but  40.  They  departed  "  with  a  good 
gale,"  and,  proceeding  to  the  west,  they  reached,  as  Hakluyt  calls  it,  "  the 
goodly  great  gulfe,  full  of  islands,  passages,  and  entrances,  with  every  wind," 
which,  from  their  opening  it  on  the  day  of  St.  Lawrence,  they  named  after 
that  saint,  and  entered  the  "  great  river  of  Hochelaga,  never  before  explored," 
which  has  since  received  the  same  appellation  of  St.  Lawrence. 

Cartier  anchored  awhile  in  a  tributary  stream,  which  still  retains  his  name. 
Many  devices  were  attempted  by  Donnacona,  a  chief  of  the  country,  prompted 
by  jealousy  of  the  other  tribes,  to  prevent  him  from  ascending  the  river  to 
Hochelaga,  now  Montreal,  and  at  that  time  a  principal  Indian  settlement. 
But  Cartier,  penetrating  his  motives,  continued  his  voyage  up  the  river ;  and 
passing  through  Lake  St.  Peter's,  although  struggling  with  the  "  fierceness  and 
swiftness  "  of  the  downward  flow,  at  length  attained  the  desired  Hochelaga. 
His  arrival  created  a  feeling  of  enthusiasm  among  the  simple  Indians,  and  his 
landing  was  a  pageant  which  it  is  beautiful  to  realize.  "  As  they  stepped  on 
shore,  they  were  met  by  a  thousand  persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  who 
'  afterwards  entertained  them,  as  a  father  would  his  child ; ' "  their  boats,  on 


8  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  returning  to  the  vessels,  were  loaded  with  millet,  bread,  fruit,  and  other  pro- 
— ^  visions.  The  next  day,  Cartier,  "  very  gorgeously  apparelled,"  attended  by 
k.  d.  1535.  ^^  o-entlemen  and  twenty  sailors,  and  having  obtained  three  guides,  ascended 
the  mountain  which  overhung  the  Indian  settlement.  The  way  from  the 
shore  was  broad  and  well  beaten ;  and  after  he  had  proceeded  some  distance, 
he  was  met  by  one  of  "  the  chiefest  lordes  of  the  citie,"  arrayed  in  barbaric  splen- 
dour, in  skins  and  plumes,who  invited  him  to  repose  a  while  around  a  good  fire 
that  had  been  kindled,  and  entertained  him  with  a  discourse  "  in  sign  of  mirth 
and  amitie."  In  return  for  his  good  will,  the  French  commander  made  him 
a  present  of  hatchets  and  knives,  and  a  cross  which  he  instructed  him  to  kiss. 
As  Cartier  advanced  higher  and  higher,  his  eye  reposed  with  delight  upon  the 
wide-spread  expanse  that  gradually  opened ;  he  admired  the  scattered  groups 
of  oak  trees,  and  the  smiling  enclosures  of  bright  green  Indian  corn,  the 
noblest  of  cereal  productions.  When,  at  length,  he  gained  the  summit  of  the 
mountain,  transported  with  the  extent  and  magnificence  of  the  prospect,  he 
bestowed  on  it,  in  his  enthusiasm,  the  name  of  Mont  Royal.  From  this  com- 
manding elevation  he  beheld  the  broad  stream  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  dotted 
with  islands,  and  gay  with  Indian  barks :  a  vast  and  level  region  of  primeval 
forest  occupied  both  shores,  unbroken  but  by  a  few  Indian  settlements ;  above 
this  great  plain,  at  intervals,  arose  groups  of  bold  and  insulated  mountains, 
extending  far  toward  the  southern  horizon.  It  was  a  scene  fitted  for  the  seat 
of  empire ;  and  proudly  must  the  heart  of  its  first  discoverer  have  swelled 
as  he  gazed  upon  it,  and  indulged  in  visions  of  its  future  greatness. 

At  his  feet,  and  joined  to  the  spurs  of  the  mountain,  was  the  pretty  Indian 
town   of   Hochelaga,  enclosing  in  its  three  courses   of  ramparts,  the   fifty 
dwellings  of  the  Indians,  each  fifty  paces  long  by  fifteen  wide,  neatly  built 
of  wood  covered  with  fine  bark,  and  having  on  the  top  store  places  for  their 
corn.     This  beaten  to  powder,  and  made  into  cakes  baked  on  hot  stones, 
together  with  pottage,  stores  of  pulse,  dried  fish,  and  fruits,  especially  cu- 
cumbers and  melons,  formed  the  simple  but  abundant  food  of  the  inhabit- 
ants.    They  slept  on  fine  bark  covered  with  skins.     As  Cartier  descended 
into  the  open  space  in  the  midst  of  the  town,  the  chief  came  forth  to  meet 
him,  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  ten  Indians.     Seating  himself  with  the  French- 
man on  a  fine  deer  skin,  he  took  from  his  own  head  the  wreath  which  served 
as  his  distinctive  badge,  and  placed  it  upon  that  of  Cartier.     The  Indians, 
who  invested  their  visitors  with  supernatural  attributes,  brought  forward 
their  sick  in  order  that  they  might  be  healed.     "  With  the  simplicity  of  these 
poor  people,"  says  Charlevoix,  "  the  Captain  was  greatly  moved :  he  armed 
himself  with  a  lively  faith,  and  recited,  as  devoutly  as  he  was  able,  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.     He  then  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  the 
sick,  distributed  to  them  chaplets  and  Agnus  Dei,  and  made  them  understand 
of  how  great  virtue  these  were,  for  the  cure  of  all  sorts  of  infirmities.     This 
done,  he  engaged  in  prayer,  beseeching  earnestly  the  Lord  to  leave  no  longer 
these  poor  idolaters  in  darkness,  and  recited  with  a  loud  voice  the  passion  of 
Jesus  Christ.     The  Indians  listened  with  vague  feelings  of  awe  and  devotion 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  9 

to  these  pious  ceremonies,  which  were  terminated  by  a  burst  of  music,  which  chap. 
set  them  beside  themselves  with  wonderment  and  joy."  . '■ — 

.  •  AD.  1536. 

On  leaving  the  friendly  Hochelaga,  Cartier  returned  to  his  old  station  at 
the  river  now  called  after  his  name.  A  tradition  existed  in  the  time  of  Char- 
levoix, that  one  of  his  vessels  was  wrecked  upon  a  sunken  ledge,  opposite  its 
mouth,  hence  called  "  Jacques  Cartier's  rock."  Here  he  passed  the  long  and 
dreary  Canadian  winter,  "  in  ice  two  fathoms  thick,  and  snow  four  feet  higher 
than  his  ship's  sides ; "  and  losing  many  of  his  people,  of  all  ranks,  by  the 
ravages  of  the  scurvy.  On  the  approach  of  summer  he  gladly  prepared  to 
return  to  France ;  set  up  a  cross  in  sign  of  French  occupation ;  and,  partly 
by  force  and  partly  by  persuasion,  having  brought  off  Donnacona  and  some 
others  with  him,  he  in  July,  1536,  regained  the  well-known  harbour  of  St. 
Malo. 

The  noble  river  which  Cartier  was  thus  the  first  to  explore,  is  unique  in  its 
peculiarities,  and  perhaps  unequalled  by  any  other  in  the  world.  The  mag- 
nificent lakes,  or  rather  inland  seas,  of  which  it  is  the  outlet,  which  maintain 
the  even  and  unvarying  flow  of  its  majestic  current,  are  assumed,  upon  solid 
grounds,  to  contain  half  the  fresh  water  on  this  planet.  The  quantity  dis- 
charged hourly  by  this  amazing  flood,  is  estimated  at  1,672,704,000  cubic 
feet.  Its  basin  is  divided  into  three  parts,  the  higher  being  occupied  by  Lake 
Superior,  three  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  receiving  more  than  fifty  rivers. 
Through  the  falls  of  St.  Mary,  the  whole  of  its  waters  pour  into  the  Lakes  of 
Michigan  and  Huron,  of  scarcely  inferior  dimensions.  The  almost  unfathom- 
able depth  of  these  lakes  is  a  highly  interesting  phenomenon  in  physical  geo- 
graphy. Though  the  upper  level  of  the  two  last  is  618  feet  above  the  At- 
lantic, their  bottoms  are  nearly  300  feet  below  it.  By  the  straits  of  Detroit, 
these  upper  lakes  pour  down  into  the  basin  of  Lake  Erie,  which  is  230  miles 
in  length.  This  immense  body  of  water  rolls  incessantly,  in  its  resistless 
might,  over  the  sublime  cliffs  of  Niagara,  and  then  for  several  miles  of  swift 
descent,  through  the  profound  and  narrow  chasm  which  it  has  excavated  in 
the  course  of  ages,  roars  one  continuous  and  terrific  rapid,  one  whirl  of  foam 
and  terror,  forming  a  scene  altogether  unequalled  in  sublimity  upon  our 
globe.  By  this  channel  it  descends  to  the  level  of  Lake  Ontario,  the  last  and 
lowest  of  these  inland  seas,  200  miles  long  by  70  broad. 

The  river,  as  it  flows  out  of  this  lake,  varies  from  two  to  ten  miles  wide,  and  • 
is  divided  into  numerous  channels  of  every  width,  as  it  passes  through  the 
"  Thousand  Isles."  These  are  of  every  size  and  form,  and  for  the  most  part 
in  a  state  of  primeval  nature,  forming  a  scene  of  soft  and  romantic  beauty,  of 
dreamy,  fairy  strangeness — of  fantastic  intricacy,  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
terrific  grandeur  of  Niagara.  Hurrying  on,  with  its  burden  of  timber  rafts, 
over  the  tremendous  rapids  of  the  Long  Sault  and  La  Chine,  (which  interrup- 
tion is  now  surmounted  by  a  ship  canal,)  it  is  increased  by  the  influx  of  the 
romantic  Ottawa,  and  flows  past  the  city  of  Montreal,  the  growing  emporium  of 
Canada,  receiving,  as  it  proceeds  on  its  course,  the  waters  of  Lakes  George  and 
Champlain,  to  expand  at  length,  in  all  its  glory,  beneath  the  crested  crags  of 


A.  D. 1540. 


10  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Quebec.  From  this  city,  the  great  timber  depot,  it  is  550  miles  to  the  sea, 
navigable  for  ships  of  the  line  of  the  first  class,  while  vessels  of  600  tons  ascend 
to  Montreal,  which  is  upwards  of  730  miles  above  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

The  whole  of  this  stupendous  basin  (which,  when  Cartier  first  entered  it, 
was  the  haunt  of  the  roaming  savage)  is  fast  filling  up,  and  becoming  the  seat 
of  a  mighty  nation.  But  three  centuries  have  elapsed  since  it  was  discovered, 
yet  how  much  of  romantic  incident,  of  momentous  change,  and  of  astonishing 
progress,  has  filled  up  the  short  but  eventful  period  !  Upon  these  lakes, 
then  skimmed  only  by  the  wandering  canoe,  hostile  fleets  have  been  built, 
and  have  contended  in  deadly  conflict.  On  one  of  its  shores  feeble  colonies 
have  sprung  up  into  an  independent  nation,  rivalling  in  power  the  proudest 
states  of  the  old  world.  Populous  cities  adorn  the  banks  of  these  great 
inland  waters,  and  splendid  steam-boats  connect  their  remotest  extremities. 
Canals  have  been  cut  to  overcome  the  occasional  obstacles  presented  by 
nature,  and  a  chain  cf  internal  water  communication,  extending  from  the 
Atlantic  many  hundreds  of  miles  into  the  heart  of  this  mighty  continent, 
serves  as  a  highway  for  the  countless  emigrants  who  are  continually  pouring 
into  it  from  all  the  nations  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  next  attempt  at  a  settlement  was  made  by  Francis  de  la  Roche,  lord 
of  Roberval,  a  nobleman  of  much  provincial  reputation,  and  called  sometimes 
by  Francis  I.  the  "  petit  roi  du  Vimeu."  A  simple  commission  was  not  suf- 
ficient for  a  person  of  so  much  consideration ;  and  thus  the  king,  by  letters 
patent,  invested  him  with  the  cheap  and  high-sounding  titles  of  "  Seigneur 
of  Norimbega,  viceroy  and  lieutenant-general  of  Canada,  Hochelaga,  Sa- 
guenay,  Newfoundland,  Belleisle,  Labrador,  the  great  bay,  and  Baccalaos, 
(or  Newfoundland,)  with  power  and  authority  equal  to  his  own."  With 
him  were  associated  many  persons  of  quality ;  but  the  mariner  of  St.  Malo 
was  indispensable  to  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  and  Cartier  was  thus 
made  captain-general  and  commander  of  the  ships.  According  to  Charle- 
voix, however,  either  from  the  delay  incurred  by  RobervaPs  extensive  pre- 
parations, or  from  some  misunderstanding,  the  force  of  the  enterprise  was 
divided,  which  led  to  a  fruitless  result.  Cartier,  setting  sail  alone,  returned  to 
Canada,  but  added  little  to  his  former  discoveries,  and,  being  discouraged, 
in  the  following  year  returned,  entering  the  harbour  of  St.  John's,  New- 
foundland, at  the  same  moment  that  Roberval  arrived  there  from  France. 
A  want  of  concert  had  existed  between  them  from  the  beginning,  and  Cartier, 
unwilling  to  return  to  Canada  with  Roberval,  slipped  out  of  the  harbour,  and 
continued  his  homeward  course.  Roberval  repaired  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
built  one  fort  on  a  commanding  mountain  above  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  ano- 
ther at  its  base,  establishing  strict  discipline  among  his  motley  company  of 
exiles,  many  of  whom,  to  make  up  the  number,  had  been  ransacked  from  the 
prisons  at  home,  and  had  brought  their  vices  with  them.  The  result  answered 
but  little  to  the  pretensions  and  cost  of  the  adventure,  and  its  disappointed 
author  returned  to  his  more  solid,  if  less  high  sounding,  dignities  at  home. 
Yet  all  agree,  according  to  Charlevoix,  that  he  was  tempted  a  second  time  to 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


11 


A.  D. 1512. 


re-establish,  himself  in  his  viceregal  possessions,  accompanied  by  bis  brother,   chap. 
one  of  the  bravest  men  in  France,  and  by  a  numerous  company  of  adven- 
turers.    They  sailed  in  1549,  and  were  never  heard  of  more. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  progress  of  Southern  discovery.  Of  all  coun- 
tries that  inflamed  the  ardent  imagination  of  the  Spaniards  who  followed 
in  the  track  of  Columbus,  tempting  their  "fame-thirsty  and  gold-thirsty 
minds"  with  visions  of  immortal  discoveries  and  boundless  wealth,  Florida 
was  long  the  chief;  and  in  no  point  were  these  lofty  anticipations  so  signally 
falsified.  Credulity  and  avarice,  like  mocking  tempters,  lured  on  succes- 
sive adventurers  to  the  fatal  shore,  from  which  they  never  returned,  or 
returned  but  to  expire  in  the  anguish  of  disappointed  hope.  The  expedi- 
tions of  Ponce  de  Leon,  Narvaez,  and  Soto,  of  which  but  a  brief  abridgment 
can  be  given  here,  are  among  the  wildest  and  the  most  mournful  in  the  history 
of  American  discovery. 

Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  was  a  veteran  Spanish  warrior,  who  had  fought  against 
the  Moors  of  Granada,  and  afterwards  against  the  Indians  in  Hispaniola, 
under  the  governor  Nicholas  de  Ovando.  Restless  for  conquest  and  advance- 
ment, he  sought  permission  to  subdue  the  neighbouring  island  of  Porto  Rico, 
where,  after  many  a  struggle  with  the  natives,  he  at  length  established  him- 
self, and  amassed  considerable  wealth.  Being,  however,  superseded  in  this 
government,  he  listened  with  eagerness,  says  Irving,  to  the  stories  of  "  some 
old  Indians,  who  gave  him  tidings  of  a  country  which  promised  not  merely 
to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  his  ambition,  but  to  realize  the  fondest  dreams  of  the 
poet.  They  assured  him  that,  far  to  the  north,  there  existed  a  land  abounding 
in  gold  and  in  all  manner  of  delights ;  but,  above  all,  possessing  a  river  of 
such  wonderful  virtue,  that  whosoever  bathed  in  it  would  be  restored  to 
youth.  Ponce  de  Leon  was  advanced  in  life,  and  the  ordinary  term  of  exist- 
ence seemed  insufficient  for  his  mighty  plans.  Could  he  but  plunge  into  this 
marvellous  fountain  or  gifted  river,  and  come  out  with  his  battered,  war-worn 
body  restored  to  the  strength  and  freshness  and  suppleness  of  youth,  and  his 
head  still  retaining  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  age,  what  enterprises  might 
he  not  accomplish  in  the  additional  course  of  vigorous  years  insured  to 
him !  "  "  The  wonders  and  novelties  breaking  upon  the  world  in  that  age  of 
discovery  almost  realized  the  illusions  of  fable."  Ponce  de  Leon  fitted  out 
three  ships,  and  on  the  3rd  March,  1512,  sailed  from  Porto  Rico  with  his 
band  of  credulous  adventurers.  Touching  at  the  Bahamas,  among  which  he 
long  sought  in  vain  for  the  life-giving  fountain,  he,  on  the  2nd  of  April,  came 
to  anchor  off  the  coast  of  Florida.  The  land  seemed  beautiful  as  it  had  been 
described  to  him,  the  ground  was  bright  with  flowers,  from  which  circum- 
stance, and  from  having  discovered  it  on  Palm-Sunday,  (Pascua  Florida,)  he 
gave  it  the  name  which  it  retains  to  the  present  day. 

He  landed  and  took  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  the  Castilian  sovereigns, 
followed  the  coast  for  some  distance,  made  various  abortive  attempts  to  ex- 
plore the  interior,  and  returned  to  Porto  Rico.  He  had  sought  in  vain  for 
the  renewal  of  his  youth,  but  he  had  found  a  new  territory,  and  he  now 

c  2 


A.  D.  1526. 


12  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  returned  to  Spain  to  reap  the  reward  of  his  discovery.  The  king  created 
him  Adelantado  of  Florida,  and  intrusted  him,  moreover,  with  the  command 
of  an  expedition  against  the  piratical  Caribs  that  harassed  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments. Here  he  was  so  unsuccessful  that  he  retired  in  vexation  to  Porto 
Rico,  where  he  remained  for  some  years,  and  gave  up  all  thoughts  of  further 
adventure.  But  the  exploits  of  Cortez  aroused  at  length  the  slumbering  spirit 
of  Juan  Ponce ;  he  had  learned,  moreover,  that  the  supposed  island  of  Florida 
was  but  part  of  a  vast  continent,  which  imagination  painted  gorgeous  and 
wealthy  as  Mexico  ;  and,  old  as  he  was,  he  thirsted  to  explore  and  subdue  it. 
This  desire  was  destined  to  be  fatal  to  him ;  for  scarcely  had  he  landed  before 
he  was  wounded  in  an  encounter  with  the  Indians,  and  returned  to  Cuba  to 
close  his  career  of  illusion,  and  to  die  in  bitterness  of  soul. 

The  Spaniards  continued  to  extend  their  discoveries  and  conquests  around 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Grijalva  had  explored  Yucatan,  and  brought  thence 
those  reports  of  the  boundless  wealth  of  Mexico  which  excited  the  enterprise 
of  Cortez.  Vasquez  d'Ayllon  had  made  a  voyage  to  the  coast  of  Carolina  for 
the  seizure  of  slaves,  but  no  one  had  renewed  the  attempt  to  conquer  Florida. 
In  1528,  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez,  who  had  been  sent  to  arrest  Cortez  in  the  midst 
of  his  career  of  Mexican  conquest,  and  had  been  easily  defeated  by  him, 
desirous  of  emulating  his  wonderful  exploits,  obtained  permission  to  invade  the 
country  that  was  to  prove  as  fatal  to  himself  as  to  its  discoverer.  With  three 
hundred  men,  he  landed  at  a  spot  not  far  from  the  bay  of  Appalachee  ;  instead 
of  a  wealthy  and  long-established  empire,  such  as  he  had  expected  to  find,  he 
fell  in  with  a  collection  of  miserable  wigwams,  in  the  midst  of  swarnps  and 
morasses,  which,  almost  impassable  to  strangers,  afforded  to  the  fierce  hostile 
Indians  at  once  the  facility  of  attack  and  the  certainty  of  retreat.  His  fol- 
lowers, during  six  months  spent  in  misery,  were  wasted  away  by  sickness  or 
cut  off  by  ambush ;  with  a  handful  of  men  he  reached  the  coast ;  despair 
compelled  them  to  venture  to  sea  in  such  wretched  barks  as  could  be  hastily 
constructed.  Narvaez,  with  the  greater  number,  foundered  in  a  storm  ;  others 
were  saved  only  to  perish  of  famine ;  few  only  succeeded,  after  many  years 
of  wanderings  and  hardships,  in  reaching  Mexico.  The  marvellous  accounts 
of  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  one  of  these  survivors,  were  destined  to  lure  on  other  and 
more  gallant  adventurers.  He  persisted  so  solemnly  in  his  statement  about 
the  wealth  of  the  countries  he  had  seen,  that  we  are  almost  tempted  to  think 
he  might  really  in  the  course  of  his  wanderings  have  penetrated  into  that 
very  gold  country  of  California,  which  is  now  in  the  nineteenth  century  re- 
viving the  same  spirit  that  burned  in  the  breasts  of  the  early  adventurers. 

Ferdinand  de  Soto  was  the  son  of  a  squire  of  Xeres.  He  went  into  the 
Spanish  settlements  when  Peter  Arias  of  Avila  was  governor  of  the  West 
Indies ;  "  and  there,"  says  the  chronicler  from  whom  these  details  are  taken, 
"  he  was  without  anything  else  of  his  own  save  his  sword  and  target ;  and 
for  his  good  qualities  and  valour  Arias  made  him  captain  of  a  troop  of  horse- 
men, and  by  his  command  he  went  with  Fernando  Pizarro  to  the  conquest  of 
Peru."     Here  he  was  at  the  taking  of  Atabalipa,  as  well  as  at  the  assault  of 


A.  D.  1538. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  13 

the  city  of  Cusco.  Loaded  with  the  wealth  he  had  acquired,  he  repaired  to  chap. 
Spain,  appeared  at  court  with  great  magnificence,  obtained  the  daughter  of 
Pedro  Arias  in  marriage,  and  was  appointed  by  Charles  V.  Governor  of  Cuba 
and  Adelantado  of  Florida.  Vague  stories  of  the  extraordinary  wealth  of  that 
country  were  already  current,  when  the  reports  of  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  who  had 
just  returned  and  pronounced  it  to  be  the  richest  in  the  world,  influenced  not 
only  the  mind  of  Soto  himself,  but  also  of  the  whole  court.  Many  persons 
of  distinction  hastened  to  join  him;  and  already  imaginary  offices  and  titles 
were  distributed  among  them. 

The  Adelantado  departed  from  Seville  to  embark  at  San  Lucar,  with  all  his 
company.  It  was  like  the  gathering  to  some  gay  tournament  or  festival.  "  The 
Portuguese  showed  themselves  in  very  brilliant  armour,"  and  the  Castilians 
"  very  gallant  with  silke  upon  silke  ;  "  all  felt  as  though  they  were  about  to 
enter  upon  the  possession  of  a  rich  and  conquered  country.  This  spectacle 
of  such  "  braveries  "  liked  not  Soto,  who  had  shared  the  perils  and  hardships 
of  Pizarro.  He  commanded  that  they  should  muster  in  more  soldier-like  style, 
and  from  the  numerous  aspirants  selected  only  a  company  of  six  hundred  of 
the  most  promising,  with  whom  he  proceeded  to  embark. 

The  voyage  was  as  favourable  as  the  minds  of  the  adventurers  were  full  of 
credulity  and  hope.  On  reaching  Cuba,  Soto  sent  a  caravel  and  two  brigan- 
tines  to  explore  the  havens  of  Florida,  and  from  thence  they  brought  two  In- 
dians, as  well  to  serve  them  for  guides  and  interpreters,  as  because  they  said 
by  signs  there  was  much  gold  in  Florida.  At  this  news,  the  governor  and  all 
his  company  hastened  their  departure,  believing  that  they  were  going  to  "the 
richest  country  that  unto  that  day  had  been  discovered." 

On  Sunday,  the  18th  May,  1539,  Soto  departed  with  his  fleet  of  nine  ves- 
sels, and  a  fair  wind  carried  them  to  the  coast  of  Florida,  where  they  went 
on  shore,  two  leagues  from  a  town  of  an  Indian  lord  called  Veita.  They 
landed  their  213  horses,  and  with  all  their  force  began  to  march  along  the 
swampy  coast.  Never  were  such  splendid  expectations  so  suddenly  and  sadly 
undeceived !  The  Florida  Indians  appear  from  the  first  to  have  resisted  with 
unusual  fierceness ;  yet  Soto,  who  had  triumphed  in  Peru,  confident  of  the 
issue,  sent  back  the  ships  to  Cuba  for  provisions.  But  difficulties  thickened 
around  them  at  every  step.  Their  guides  escaped ;  a  party  sent  to  obtain 
others  advanced  through  morasses  impracticable  for  the  horsemen,  and  seized 
some  women,  upon  which  they  were  charged  by  twenty  Indians,  who  forced 
them  to  return  discomfited.  They  soon  discovered  that  they  had  no  con- 
temptible foes  to  contend  with ;  that  "  before  a  crossbowman  can  make  one 
shot,  an  Indian  will  discharge  three  or  four  arrows,  and  he  seldom  misseth 
what  he  shooteth  at ;  and  an  arrow,  where  it  findeth  no  armour,  pierceth  as 
deeply  as  a  crosse-bow."  And  when  they  had  at  length  obtained  another 
guide,  they  found  still  more  serious  obstacles  in  the  pestilential  swamps, 
marshes,  rivers,  and  pathless  and  tangled  forests  that  overspread  the  level 
coast.  Provisions  failing  them,  they  were  often  reduced  to  the  half-grown 
stalks  of  Indian  corn,  or  beet-root  sodden  with  water  and  salt;  privations 


14  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  embittered  by  the  insane  extravagance  of  their  previous  expectations.     Their 
perils  increased  as  they  continued  to  advance  ;  their  guide  fled,  and  was  only 


iMi.  '  recovered  by  being  hunted  down  with  bloodhounds.  The  hostility  of  the 
Indians  was  as  indomitable  as  their  subtlety  was  acute.  Carried  with  chains 
and  iron  collars  around  their  necks  to  fetch  maize,  they  would  often  turn  upon 
their  Spanish  guide  and  slay  him,  or  file  away  their  fetters  and  effect  their 
escape  to  the  woods. 

After  travelling  many  days  through  a  wilderness,  the  Indians  told  them 
they  could  not  advance  for  the  water ;  and  here  they  first  fell  in  with  traces 
of  Narvaez's  ill-fated  expedition.  The  whole  company,  in  despair,  now  coun- 
selled the  Governor  to  go  back  to  the  port  of  Spirito  Santo,  and  to  abandon 
Florida,  lest  he  should  perish  as  Narvaez  had  done ;  warning  him  that  if  he 
continued  to  advance  among  trackless  morasses,  his  retreat  would  certainly  be 
cut  off.  But  the  proud  spirit  of  Soto  would  not  acknowledge  the  failure  of 
such  magnificent  hopes ;  nor  was  he  as  yet  undeceived.  He  declared  that 
he  would  not  return  till  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the  truth  of  the  re- 
port of  the  Indians. 

Thus  passed  a  summer  and  two  winters  of  lingering  misery,  Soto  sternly 
and  inflexibly  refusing  either  to  give  up  his  enterprise  or  allow  his  followers 
to  settle.  They  adhered  to  him  with  devotion  prompted  alternately  by  hope 
and  by  despair.  Their  thirst  for  gold  tormented  them  as  does  the  mirage  in  the 
desert  the  traveller  perishing  with  thirst,  and  like  the  phantom  waters,  it 
eluded  all  their  research.  Their  wanderings  may  with  difficulty  be  traced. 
After  their  first  winter  they  advanced  into  the  Cherokee  country  and  Georgia, 
then  descended  to  the  southward  to  Mavilla,  or  Mobile.  They  desired  to 
occupy  the  town ;  the  Indians  fiercely  resisted ;  the  town  was  burned  in  the 
sanguinary  conflict,  and  though  the  Spaniards  were  the  victors,  their  bag- 
gage was  consumed  in  the  flames.  The  ships  had  now  arrived  with  succours  ; 
but  Soto,  infatuated  by  wounded  hope  and  pride,  refused  to  avail  himself  of 
this  last  chance  of  escape.  Obstinately  nourishing  his  illusions,  he  advanced 
into  the  Checkasaw  country,  and  there  wintered.  A  hundred  of  his  band 
had  already  perished  by  war  or  sickness.  After  another  terrible  encounter 
with  the  Indians,  who  set  on  fire  the  village,  burning  some  of  the  Spaniards, 
with  the  remainder  of  their  clothing,  and  their  horses,  he  obstinately  led 
his  half-naked  followers  still  farther  into  the  heart  of  the  western  wilds. 

At  length,  after  travelling  seven  days  through  a  desert  of  marshes  and 
thick  woods,  the  people  weak  for  want  of  food,  and  their  horses  miserably 
reduced,  they,  in  April,  1541,  approached  the  banks  of  the  mighty  Mississippi, 
rolling  through  a  solitude  never  before  visited  by  the  foot  of  the  white  man. 
The  scenery  around  them  was  wild  and  strange.  Here  immense  festoons  of 
Spanish  moss  trail  from  the  boughs  of  the  dark  cypress  ;  the  bear  houses  himself 
in  the  hollow  of  its  trunk,  while  the  alligator  is  seen  basking  in  the  morass,  or 
floating  past  on  some  tree  that  has  been  undermined  by  the  current.  The  lofty 
cotton-wood,  the  fan-like  palmetto,  the  impenetrable  cane-brake,  are  matted 
together,  forming  a  tangled  maze  of  the  rankest  verdure,  which  breeds  whole 


A.D.  Ml. 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA.  15 

legions  of  noxious  reptiles  and  bloodthirsty  mosquitos.  The  Cacique  of  the  chap 
country  artfully  sent  a  deputation  to  Soto,  to  inform  him  that  they  had  long 
ago  been  informed  by  their  forefathers  that  a  white  people  should  subdue 
them,  and  promising  he  would  come  and  pay  his  obeisances  to  the  Spaniard. 
Soto  encamped  a  short  distance  from  the  river,  obtained  a  supply  of  maize, 
and  began  to  prepare  barges  for  its  passage.  It  spread  out  before  them  with 
its  wild  expanse  of  turbid  waters,  of  great  depth  and  of  powerful  current, 
bringing  down  continually  trunks  of  trees,  torn  from  the  tangled  forests  that 
overhung  its  banks.  "  So  broad  was  it,"  (almost  half  a  league,)  "  that,"  says 
the  chronicler,  ' '  if  any  one  stood  still  on  the  other  side,  it  could  not  be  dis- 
cerned whether  he  were  a  man  or  no,"  The  next  day  they  were  astonished 
by  a  splendid  and  romantic  spectacle.  A  fleet  of  two  hundred  canoes  bore 
down  upon  them,  their  bows  and  arrows  painted,  and  with  great  plumes  of 
white  and  many-coloured  feathers,  having  shields  to  defend  the  rowers  on 
both  sides,  and  the  Indian  warriors  standing  from  head  to  stern,  with  their 
bows  and  arrows  in  their  hands.  The  canoe  which  carried  the  Cacique  had  a 
tilt  over  the  stern,  and  so  also  had  the  barks  of  the  principal  Indians.  From 
under  the  tilt  where  the  chief  sat,  he  directed  and  commanded  the  others ;  all 
joined  together,  and  came  within  a  stone's  cast  of  the  shore.  From  thence  the 
Cacique  said  to  the  Governor,  who  walked  along  the  river's  side  with  those 
that  waited  on  him,  "  that  he  was  come  thither  to  visit,  honour,  and  obey  him, 
because  he  knew  he  was  the  greatest  and  mightiest  lord  upon  the  earth, 
therefore  he  would  see  what  he  would  command  him  to  do."  Soto  yielded 
him  thanks,  and  requested  him  to  come  on  shore,  that  they  might  the  better 
communicate  together.  Returning  no  answer  to  that  point,  the  Cacique  sent 
him  three  canoes,  full  of  fish  and  loaves,  made  of  the  substance  of  prunes,  like 
unto  bricks.  And  after  Soto  had  received  all,  he  thanked  him,  and  prayed 
him  again  to  come  on  shore.  The  Spaniards  had  been  trained  to  mistrust, 
and,  believing  that  the  Cacique's  purpose  was  "  to  see  if  with  dissimulation 
he  might  do  some  hurt — since,  when  they  saw  that  the  Governor  and  his  men 
were. in  readiness,  they  began  to  go  from  the  shore — with  a  great  cry  the 
crossbowmen,  which  were  prepared,  shot  at  them,  and  slew  five  or  six  of  them. 
The  Indians  retired  with  great  order,  none  leaving  his  oar,  though  the  next 
to  him  were  slain;  and  shielding  themselves,  they  retired  farther  up  the 
river." 

The  Spaniards  were  filled  with  admiration  at  their  canoes,  "  which  were 
very  pleasant  to  behold,  for  they  were  very  great  and  well  made,  and  had 
their  tilts,  plumes,  paveses,  and  flags ;  and  with  the  multitude  of  people  in 
them,  they  seemed  like  a  /aire  armie  of  galliesP  Thirty  days  of  toil  were 
consumed  in  construction  of  four  barges,  and  Soto  prepared  to  pass  the  river. 
Three  of  the  barges,  each  bearing  four  horses  with  their  riders,  some  cross- 
bowmen  and  rowers,  led  by  Guzman,  one  of  the  most  resolute  of  the  officers, 
determined  to  make  sure  the  passage,  or  die.  But  the  Indians  offered  no 
opposition.  The  swiftness  of  the  stream  obliged  the  bargemen  to  ascend  a 
quarter  of  a  league  higher  up  the  banks,  whence  falling  down  with  the  cur- 


A.  D.  1542. 


16  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  rent,  they  landed  just  opposite  the  camp.  As  soon  as  those  that  passed  first  had 
landed,  the  barges  returned,  and  within  two  hours  after  sun-rise,  the  Governor, 
with  his  whole  company,  stood  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi. 

Soto  now  advanced  into  the  great  unexplored  wilderness  of  the  west, 
among  pathless  morasses  full  of  hostile  Indians,  who  had  watched  his  move- 
ments, and  began  to  harass  his  march.  The  barges,  which  were  compelled  to 
keep  close  to  the  banks  of  the  river  on  account  of  the  current,  were  attacked 
as  soon  as  the  horsemen  were  out  of  sight.  The  progress  of  the  Spaniards 
through  the  swamps  and  forest  was  slow  and  disheartening.  Sometimes 
they  would  pass  the  whole  day  in  the  morasses  up  to  their  knees,  and  were 
too  happy  to  find  dry  ground  at  evening,  "  lest  they  should  wander  up  and 
down  as  forlorn  men  all  night  in  the  water."  At  length  they  came  to  the 
territory  of  a  powerful  Cacique,  who  supplied  their  wants,  and  treated  them 
with  the  reverence  due  to  superior  beings.  Two  blind  men  were  brought 
forward,  and  the  Cacique,  "  seeing  that"  the  Governor  "was  The  Child  ot 
the  Sun,  and  a  great  lord,"  besought  him  to  restore  their  sight ;  which  re- 
quest Avas  earnestly  seconded  by  the  sufferers  themselves.  Soto  replied,  that, 
"in  the  high  heavens  was  He  who  had  power  to  give  them  health,  and  that 
this  Lord  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  man,  and  suffered  upon  the 
cross  to  save  mankind,  and  rose,  and  ascended  into  heaven  to  help  all  that  call 
upon  him."  He  then  commanded  the  Cacique  to  erect  a  lofty  cross,  to  wor- 
ship it,  and  to  call  upon  Him  alone  who  had  suffered  for  them.  As  he  ad- 
vanced, the  Indians  were  still  friendly;  one  of  the  Caciques  gave  Soto  two 
of  his  sisters  as  his  wives,  and  the  half-naked  Spaniards  were  now  well  clad  in 
garments  and  mantles  of  skins  and  furs  presented  by  the  natives.  Soto  had 
now  lost  250  men  and  150  horses,  nearly  half  of  his  entire  force,  and  he  de- 
sired to  send  to  Cuba  for  reinforcements,  still  believing  that  the  country  de- 
scribed by  Cabeca  de  Vaca  was  yet  undiscovered.  At  Auteamque,  supposed 
to  be  on  the  Washita  River,  they  passed  the  winter.  Here  they  lost  their 
interpreter  Ortiz,  which  reduced  them  to  the  greatest  embarrassment. 

The  winter  had  not  yet  ceased,  when  Soto,  impatient  to  advance,  left 
Auteamque ;  sometimes  delayed  by  the  snow  for  days,  and  up  to  the  stirrup 
when  trying  to  advance  through  the  swamps.  To  reach  the  sea  was  now  the 
absorbing  idea,  but  where  it  lay  no  one  knew.  Soto  eagerly  inquired  for  it ; 
the  Cacique  could  give  him  no  intelligence.  Mistrusting  his  report,  the 
Spaniard  sent  out  an  exploring  party,  who,  after  wandering  eight  days  in 
morasses  and  cane  brakes,  returned  only  to  confirm  the  intelligence  of  the 
Indians.  The  spirit  of  Soto  began  to  give  way, — his  men  were  falling  around 
him, — chagrin  and  disappointment  threw  him  into  a  wasting  fever,  which 
rapidly  cousumed  his  remaining  strength.  The  hostility  of  the  Indians  added 
to  the  perils  of  his  situation.  Before  he  took  to  his  bed,  he  summoned  the 
Cacique  of  Quigalte  to  come  to  him  and  do  him  reverence  as  to  the  Child  of 
the  Sun ;  but  the  Indian  replied,  "  If  he  would  dry  up  the  river,  he  would 
believe  him, — that  if  the  Spaniards  came  in  peace,  he  would  receive  them  ac- 
cordingly ;  and  if  in  war,  he  would  not  shrink  back  one  foot."     This  answer 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  17 

provoked  a  party  to  punish  the  independence  of  the  Cacique,  and  a  horrid  chap. 

massacre  of  the  Indians  was  the  funeral  obsequy  of  the  expiring  Soto.  Yet  there ! — 

is  something  touching  in  the  account  of  his  last  hours :  he  was  now,  he  said, 
about  to  give  an  account  to  God  of  his  past  life ;  and  desired  his  followers  to 
pray  for  him,  thanking  them  with  his  last  breath  for  the  singular  virtue,  love, 
and  loyalty  they  had  displayed  towards  him.  Devotedly,  indeed,  had  his 
fellow  adventurers  followed  him  for  a  long  period  of  misery  and  discourage- 
ment ;  their  loyalty  had  been  put  to  the  severest  test ;  and  their  sorrow  at 
the  loss  of  so  brave  a  commander  was  secretly  relieved  by  the  hope  that  Luys 
de  Moscoso,  whom  he  appointed  his  successor,  would  give  over  the  disheart- 
ening enterprise  and  return  to  Cuba.  Thus,  on  the  21st  of  May,  1542,  died 
"the  valorous,  virtuous,  and  valiant  Captain  Don  Ferdinand  de  Soto,"  (as 
the  Portuguese  Companion  calls  him,)  "  whom  fortune  advanced  as  it  useth 
to  do  others,  that  he  might  have  the  higher  fall." 

Luys  de  Moscoso  determined  to  conceal  his  death  from  the  natives,  for  Soto 
had  made  them  believe  that  the  Christians  were  immortal,  and  that  he  had  a 
supernatural  knowledge  of  all  that  passed  among  them.  The  corpse  was  at 
first  interred  within  the  town,  but  as  the  Indians  suspiciously  regarded  the  spot 
where  it  lay,  it  was  secretly  exhumed,  wrapped  in  mantles  full  of  sand,  and 
at  midnight  sunk  in  the  middle  of  the  river.  "  The  discoverer  of  the  Missis- 
sippi," finely  says  Mr.  Bancroft,  "  slept  beneath  its  waters :  he  had  crossed  a 
large  portion  of  the  continent  in  search  of  gold,  and  found  nothing  so  remark- 
able as  his  burial-place." 

To  reach  New  Spain  was  now  the  general  desire,  but  the  Spaniards  knew 
not  whether  to  embark  on  the  river  or  to  trace  its  banks.  They  were  ignorant 
of  its  course,  they  might  be  hurried  over  cataracts  or  be  led  into  a  wrong 
direction,  and  there  were  more  resources  on  shore.  There,  too,  they  might 
yet  realize  some  of  the  golden  visions  which  had  long  tormented  them.  They 
resolved  therefore  to  go  by  land,  but  their  resolution  only  added  to  the  sum 
of  their  sufferings ;  the  Indian  guides  misled  them ;  tortured  or  torn  by  dogs, 
their  fidelity  to  their  Caciques  was  unshaken.  After  a  long  and  weary 
wandering  as  far  as  the  skirts  of  the  prairies,  the  Spaniards  regained  the 
Mississippi.  Dissensions  and  sickness  added  to  their  distress ;  the  fatal 
report  of  Cabeca  de  Vaca  still  haunted  the  minds  of  the  more  adventurous, 
but  the  majority  determined  to  build  brigantines  and  to  proceed  by  water, 
though  fearing  with  reason  lest  it  should  happen  to  them  as  to  Narvaez, 
who  foundered  at  sea  with  his  wretched  barks.  A  Genoese  who  understood 
ship-building  was  providentially  among  them ;  "  without  whom,"  says  the 
eye-witness,  "they  had  never  come  out  of  that  country."  With  the  perse- 
verance of  men  whose  life  was  on  a  cast,  they  toiled  till  they  had  completed 
seven  crazy  brigantines,  with  which  (harassed  by  the  Indians  on  the  way) 
they  descended  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf,  and  creeping  cautiously  around 
the  coast,  the  forlorn  remnant  of  Soto's  gallant  company,  after  losing  one  of 
their  vessels  in  a  storm,  at  length  arrived  in  the  river  of  Panuco,  and  from 
thence  repaired  to  Mexico. 


18 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA 


A.  D. 1502. 


cii^ap.  Three  centuries  have  elapsed  since  these  events  took  place,  and  mighty 
changes  have  taken  place  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi !  The  red  races 
which  then  wandered  at  will  over  its  tangled  forests  and  boundless  prairies 
have  gradually  receded,  while  the  white  have  advanced,  pushing  the  outposts 
of  their  settlements  even  to  the  confines  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  soon  to  be 
joined  to  those  of  the  gold  regions  of  California.  This  vast  country  is  rapidly 
filling  up,  and  forming  one  compact  and  stupendous  confederation.  There  is 
just  now  a  mingling  of  the  past  and  present :  the  red  men  still  linger  upon 
the  soil,  and  traces  of  their  manners,  and  customs,  and  superstitions  still  sur- 
vive, side  by  side  with  the  evidences  of  an  advancing  civilization. 

After  the  death  of  Roberval,  Francis  I.  interested  himself  no  further  in 
America;  and  France,  during  the  succeeding  reigns  of  Francis  II.  and 
Charles  IX.,  shaken  to  its  foundation  by  civil  wars,  seemed  entirely  to  have 
abandoned  all  idea  of  colonization.  Admiral  Coligny,  desirous  at  once  of 
providing  a  safe  asylum  for  the  persecuted  Huguenots,  and  of  sharing  in  the 
reputed  wealth  of  Brazil,  had  proposed  to  Henry  II.  an  enterprise  in  concert 
with  the  Portuguese,  which,  however,  terminated  unfavourably,  from  the 
jealousy  of  the  latter.  He  now  turned  his  attention  to  Florida,  where  no  ob- 
stacles seemed  to  oppose  his  plan  of  a  permanent  settlement,  to  be  entirely 
composed  of  Protestants.  And  to  this  plan  Charles  IX.  listened  the  more 
favourably,  says  Charlevoix,  because  he  was  secretly  desirous  to  purge  his 
kingdom  of  these  detested  heretics. 

The  first  expedition  sent  out  by  the  Admiral  was  commanded  by  Jean  de 
Ribaut,  an  experienced  naval  officer  and  zealous  Huguenot.  Leaving  Dieppe 
with  two  ships,  in  Feb.  1562,  he  made  the  coast  of  Florida.  He  first  entered  the 
river  of  May,  now  the  St.  John's,  and  raised  a  small  column,  on  which  he 
engraved  the  arms  of  France.  The  Jordan,  or  Combahee,  was  however  his 
object,  and  running  to  the  northward  in  search  of  it,. he  entered  the  noble 
harbour  of  Port  Royal,  where  he  commenced  a  settlement,  and  built  a  small 
fort,  called,  after  the  sovereign  of  France,  Charles  Fort,  (Carolina,)  after  which 
the  country  was  subsequently  called.  Ribaut  returned  to  France  to  seek  for 
reinforcements.  In  the  mean  while  his  deputy  neglected  to  plant  crops,  and 
his  conduct  was  so  overbearing  that  he  was  cut  off  by  a  conspiracy.  To  add 
to  the  distress  of  the  little  handful  of  twenty-six  colonists,  the  fort  and  maga- 
zines were  destroyed  by  fire,  and,  with  famine  staring  them  in  the  face,  they 
had  no  alternative  but  to  build  a  frail  vessel  and  return  to  France.  The  fate 
they  dreaded  on  land,  befell  them  on  the  ocean, — they  were  reduced  to  the 
horrors  of  cannibalism,  and  such  of  them  as  survived  were  finally  picked  up 
by  an  English  vessel,  which  landed  most  of  them  in  France. 

The  civil  war  which  broke  out  in  that  kingdom  shortly  after  their  depar- 
ture, had  prevented  the  Admiral  from  attending  to  his  colony.  But  no  sooner 
was  a  hollow  peace  established  between  the  contending  parties,  than  he 
solicited  the  king  anew  for  his  assistance,  and  three  vessels  and  some  pecuniary 
assistance  were  afforded  him.  Rene"  de  Laudronniere,  another  naval  officer 
of  merit,  who  had  accompanied  Ribaut,  was  the  commander  of  this  second 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  19 

squadron.     Every  precaution  was  taken  to  insure  success  and  religious  unity,    chap. 

Several  young  men  of  family  formed  part  of  the  expedition,  and  some  veteran : — 

soldiers,  as  well  as  skilful  artificers,  were  selected,  while  Coligny  took  care 
that  not  a  single  Catholic  should  accompany  the  armament. 

Arrived  at  the  river  of  May,  the  savages,  repeating  often  the  welcome  word 
ami,  received  them  courteously,  conducting  them  to  the  pillar  set  up  by 
Ribaut,  which  was  crowned  with  garlands,  surrounded  with  baskets  of  offer- 
ings, and  regarded,  as  well  as  the  French  themselves,  with  a  superstitious 
reverence  and  respect.  Laudronniere  ascended  an  eminence,  the  sight  was 
lovely  and  inviting,  but  there  were  not  a  few  among  the  adventurers  whom 
the  thirst  for  gold,  rather  than  a  peaceful  settlement,  had  attracted  to  the 
enterprise.  A  bar  of  silver  had  been  presented  by  the  chief  Saturiora  to 
Laudronniere ;  he  eagerly  inquired  whence  it  came  ;  the  former,  engaged  in  a 
war  with  a  neighbouring  chief,  would  have  artfully  engaged  the  assistance  of 
the  French,  promising  to  conduct  them  to  the  shores  whence  it  was  extracted. 
Laudronniere,  however,  wisely  determined  first  to  establish  a  firm  footing  in 
the  country,  and  as  Charles  Fort,  the  settlement  of  Ribaut,  appeared  disad- 
vantageously  placed,  the  colonists  decided  on  placing  the  new  stronghold  on 
the  lovely  banks  of  the  May.  "  At  break  of  day,"  says  Laudronniere, "  I  com- 
manded a  trumpet  to  be  sounded,  to  give  God  thanks  for  our  safe  and  happy 
arrival ;  we  sang  a  psalm  of  thanksgiving  unto  God,  beseeching  the  continu- 
ance of  his  goodness,  that  all  might  turn  to  his  glory  and  the  advancement  of 
our  king."  The  prayer  ended,  every  man  began  to  take  courage.  A  fort  was 
built,  and  Laudronniere  sent  one  of  the  vessels  to  France,  to  seek  reinforce- 
ments, and  carry  the  news  of  his  success. 

"While  Laudronniere  was  endeavouring  to  extend  his  knowledge  of  the 
interior,  a  mutiny  broke  out  at  the  fort.  The  volunteers  of  family,  disgusted 
at  being  subjected,  like  the  rest,  to  the  toils  necessary  for  the  foundation  of  a 
colony,  and  others  who  desired  to  engage  in  search  for  gold,  or  enter  upon 
some  enterprise  that  would  enrich  them  for  life,  had  organized  a  formidable 
conspiracy.  The  Governor  behaved  with  prudence  and  spirit — some  were 
sent  back  to  France,  others  sent  to  explore  the  country.  But  all  his  pre- 
cautions were  vain.  A  band  of  insurgents,  who  had  determined  upon  a 
piratical  enterprise  against  the  Spaniards,  rose  suddenly  upon  Laudronniere, 
and  compelled  him,  at  the  point  of  the  dagger,  to  sign  a  commission  they  had 
prepared ;  they  then  departed  with  two  vessels,  one  of  which  was  lost,  the 
other,  after  different  acts  of  piracy  had  been  committed,  was  taken  by  the 
Spanish  Governor  of  Jamaica ;  a  few  escaped  in  a  boat  and  returned  to  the 
fort,  but  these  Laudronniere  promptly  seized  and  executed. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  neglect  to  cultivate  the  soil  had  reduced  the  settlers 
to  the  utmost  distress,  and  they  were  constructing  barks  to  return  home,  when 
they  descried  four  sails,  and  never  doubting  but  that  they  were  those  of  vessels 
from  France,  were  giving  way  to  ecstasies  of  joy,  when  they  discovered  that 
the  ships  were  those  of  an  English  cruiser,  Sir  John  Hawkins,  of  evil  reputa- 
tion, as  having  been  the  first  to  introduce  slaves  into  America,  with  a  cargo  of 

b  2 


A.  D.  1565. 


&0  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  which  he  was  then  on  his  way  thither.  This  nefarious  commerce  was 
not,  however,  then  regarded  as  infamous ;  the  English  commander,  far  from 
taking  advantage  of  the  miserable  plight  of  the  French  settlers,  behaved 
to  them  with  the  greatest  kindness.  He  went  to  shore  unarmed.  Lau- 
dronniere  received  him  at  a  dinner, — a  few  fowls  had  been  reserved  for  a 
pressing  occasion,  bread  and  wine,  which  the  colonists  had  not  tasted  for 
many  months,  were  furnished  from  the  English  ships,  and  this  cordial  inter- 
course so  won  upon  Hawkins,  that  after  furnishing  them  with  provisions,  he 
left  one  of  his  ships  at  their  disposal,  after  offering  to  transport  them  back  to 
France.  At  this  juncture  Eibaut  suddenly  arrived  to  assume  the  command 
of  the  colony,  and  Laudronniere,  against  whom  complaint  had  been  made, 
determined  to  return  to  France. 

It  might  have  been  fondly  hoped  that  the  newly  delivered  settlers  would 
now  have  been  free  from  all  fear  of  persecution  on  account  of  their  religion, 
and  that  here  they  would  have  been  permitted  to  live  in  peace,  but  a  fear- 
ful doom  was  hanging  over  them,  the  cruelty  which  had  driven  them  from 
their  homes  followed  them  even  on  these  remotest  shores. 

Pedro  de  Melendez,  a  Spanish  captain,  who  had  served  against  the  Pro- 
testants in  the  Low  Countries,  was  a  man  animated  by  the  wildest  enthu- 
siasm for  the  spread  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  had  been  actively  engaged 
in  carrying  into  effect  the  decrees  of  the  Holy  office ;  his  zeal  in  the  pur- 
suit of  these  objects  had  gained  him  the  confidence  of  the  court  of  Spain. 

Philip  II.  was  very  desirous  of  colonizing  Florida,  to  which  he  laid  claim 
as  a  discovery  of  his  subjects,  and  which  he  regarded  as  a  valuable  possession 
of  his  crown.  Melendez,  who  was  eager  to  undertake  the  work,  appeared  to 
him  a  suitable  agent.  The  salvation  of  the  Indians  by  an  enforced  reception 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  was  declared  by  him,  and  perhaps  with  sincerity,  to 
be  his  principal  motive  for  undertaking  the  enterprise.  He  was  to  be  consti- 
tuted hereditary  Governor  of  an  immense  territory,  and  was  to  invade  the 
country,  and  furnish  forth  a  body  of  settlers  at  his  own  expense.  While  en- 
gaged in  these  preparations,  he  received  news  that  the  Huguenots  had  an- 
ticipated him  in  the  formation  of  a  settlement,  and  that  Ribaut  was  on  his  way 
thither  to  carry  out  reinforcements.  This  circumstance  invested  the  enter- 
prise of  Melendez  with  the  additional  character  of  a  crusade  to  exterminate 
heresy,  and  so  many  volunteers  hastened  to  join  his  standard,  that  he  soon 
collected  a  considerable  force,  amongst  whom  were  twelve  monks  of  St. 
Francis,  eleven  priests,  a  friar  of  the  Order  of  Mercy,  five  ecclesiastics,  and 
five  Jesuits,  whose  office  it  was  to  animate  the  zeal  and  inflame  to  fierceness 
the  religious  passions  of  the  adventurers. 

The  ships  of  Melendez  were  scattered  by  tempests,  and  it  was  with  but  a 
portion  of  his  armament  that  he  reached  the  shores  of  Florida.  After  sailing 
some  days  along  the  coast,  he  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  to  which, 
having  made  land  on  the  day  of  St.  Augustine,  he  gave  the  name  of  that 
Saint.  From  the  Indians  he  learned^  that  the  forces  of  Ribaut  were  not  far 
distant,  and  shortly  after  he  fell  in  with  their  ships.     The  French  uneasily 


A.  D. 1565. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  21 

inquired  his  name  and  purposes.  To  this  he  replied,  "I  am  Pedro  de  chap. 
Melendez,  general  of  the  fleet  of  his  Catholic  Majesty,  Philip  II.  I  am  come 
here  to  hang  or  put  to  death  all  Lutherans  whatsoever.  My  orders  are  strict, 
and  when  I  am  master  of  your  ships  I  shall  execute  them  to  the  letter. 
If  there  be  among  you  any  Catholic  I  shall  spare  him,  but  for  the  heretics — 
they  shall  all  die."  This  atrocious  manifesto  was  answered  by  the  French 
with  a  burst  of  indignant  execration,  which  inflamed  the  fury  of  Melendez, 
and  he  would  have  ordered  the  attack  on  the  instant,  but  was  overruled  by 
the  more  prudent,  while  Kibaut  retired  unmolested  with  his  ships. 

On  the  return  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  post  they  had  chosen,  they  proceeded 
with  solemn  ceremonies  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  town  of  St.  Augustine, 
the  most  ancient  on  the  soil  of  the  United  States.  Melendez  was  ill  at  ease, 
his  force  was  weak,  and  he  feared  lest  the  French  should  return  with  rein- 
forcements, destroy  his  vessels  in  the  river,  and  cut  off  his  exposed  colonists. 
Neither  were  his  apprehensions  unfounded,  for  the  fiery  Eibaut,  in  spite  of 
the  remonstrances  of  those  who  advised  him  to  strengthen  his  fortifications, 
and  not  to  stake  all  upon  a  single  cast,  determined  at  once  to  seek  out  and 
destroy  his  enemy.  He  was  already  within  sight  of  the  Spanish  ships,  when 
the  ebbing  tide  forced  him  to  suspend  his  attack,  and  a  sudden  hurricane 
drove  his  vessels  out  to  sea.  Melendez  was  saved;  nor  did  he  doubt  that  a 
special  interposition  of  Heaven  had  been  vouchsafed  in  answer  to  the  suppli- 
cations of  the  true  believers.  Mass  was  again  said  and  a  council  called,  at 
which  he  urged  that  it  would  be  unfaithfulness  of  the  visible  succour  from 
above  to  hesitate  in  the  work  of  exterminating  the  Lutherans,  and  he  boldly 
proposed  to  them  to  surprise  the  settlement  of  Laudronniere.  His  fierce 
enthusiasm  triumphed  over  all  opposition,  and  after  struggling  four  days 
through  the  pathless  swamps,  in  the  obscurity  of  dawn  they  drew  near  to  the 
French  fort.  The  watch,  unsuspicious  of  danger,  was  negligent ;  with  a  sudden 
onset  the  Spaniards  broke  through  the  feeble  ramparts,  and  indulged  their 
religious  animosities  in  a  promiscuous  massacre.  Women,  children,  and  sick 
persons  were  involved  in  the  same  ruthless  butchery.  Some  who  trusted  to 
the  deceitful  promises  of  the  Spaniards  were  instantly  killed,  others  escaped 
in  the  confusion,  and  after  lingering  among  the  swamps  in  sight  of  their  ruined 
settlement  and  slaughtered  comrades,  contrived  to  get  on  board  a  French 
vessel  in  the  river,  commanded  by  the  younger  Eibaut,  who,  panic-struck, 
insisted  on  returning  to  France.  The  savage  Melendez  had  now  triumphed, 
the  clergy  formed  a  procession  in  his  honour,  the  cross  was  borne  by  priests 
chanting  the  Te  Deum  and  giving  God  thanks  for  the  providential  circum- 
stances which  had  at  once  rescued  themselves  from  peril,  and  enabled  them  to 
glorify  him  by  the  destruction  of  the  heretics. 

Meanwhile  the  storm  that  had  prevented  Bibaut  from  attacking  the 
Spaniards,  after  raging  for  several  days,  had  driven  the  whole  of  his  vessels 
upon  the  coast  of  Florida.  "With  his  shipwrecked  men  he  toiled  painfully 
along  the  desolate  shore  in  the  direction  of  his  ill-fated  colony.  Famished 
and  exhausted,  they  at  length  approached  the  fort,  where  their  reviving  spirits 


A.  D. 1567 


22  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ii  a  p.  suddenly  fell  as  they  beheld  the  Spanish  flag  displayed  upon  its  ramparts. 
Though  justly  dreading  to  fill  into  the  hands  of  men  whose  religion,  as  they 
well  knew,  could  excuse  the  breach  of  promises  made  to  heretics,  they 
might  yet  have  indulged  the  hope  that,  destitute  of  every  succour  as  they 
were,  the  utter  wretchedness  of  their  situation  would  move  the  Spaniards  to 
mercy.  But  the  cruel  and  wily  Melendez  thirsted  for  their  blood,  and  longed 
to  consummate  the  extermination  of  the  Huguenots  by  this  final  sacrifice. 
No  sooner  had  they,  confiding  in  his  ambiguous  promises,  surrendered  them- 
selves, than  they  were  marched,  with  their  hands  bound,  to  St.  Augustine. 
Melendez,  with  savage  satisfaction,  drew  a  line  with  his  sword  around  them, 
and  in  this  helpless  condition  they  were  immediately  butchered.  Their 
bodies,  after  being  mangled  with  the  wanton  ferocity  of  hate,  were  then  sus- 
pended to  a  tree,  with  the  inscription,  "  Not  because  they  are  Frenchmen,  but 
because  they  are  heretics  and  enemies  of  God." 

Melendez  afterwards  returned  to  Spain.  Nearly  nine  hundred  Frenchmen 
were  supposed  to  have  thus  fallen  victims  to  the  Spaniards,  at  a  time  when 
not  even  a  pretence  of  war  existed  between  their  respective  countries. 
The  spirit  of  an  insulted  nation  would  at  once  have  demanded  retribution,  but 
that  the  same  bigotry  that  had  prompted  the  horrid  deed  was  rampant  in  the 
French  court,  which  remained  entirely  passive.  It  was  even  questioned, 
whether  they  had  not  privately  given  notice  of  Bibaut's  expedition  to  the 
Spaniards.  And  thus  this  outrage  would  have  remained  unavenged,  but  for 
the  patriotic  daring  of  a  private  citizen.  Dominic  de  Gourges,  himself  a  Ca- 
tholic, had  already  suffered  from  the  cruelty  of  the  Spaniards.  A  brave  man 
and  taken  in  open  fight,  he  had  been  ignominiously  condemned  by  them  to 
the  galleys  :  the  ship  in  which  he  was  a  rower  was  taken  by  the  Turks,  and 
rescued  again  by  the  Knights  of  Malta ;  and  thus  he  was  restored  once  more 
to  his  native  soil.  He  sold  his  property,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  zealous 
friends,  privately  equipped  three  vessels,  constructed  to  ascend  the  rivers. 
Embarking  with  eighty  sailors  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers,  and  provided 
with  a  roving  commission  to  mask  his  purpose,  it  was  not  till  he  arrived  at 
Cuba  that  he  acquainted  his  companions  with  the  real  object  of  his  expedition. 
In  a  burning  speech,  he  then  reminded  them  of  the  atrocious  cruelties  of  the 
Spaniards,  of  the  shameful  impunity  in  which  they  gloried,  and  earnestly  be- 
sought them  to  assist  him  in  inflicting  that  retribution  demanded  by  their 
crimes,  and  to  compass  which  he  had  sold  his  own  estate,  and  embarked  his 
all  upon  the  cast.  His  words  excited  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  the  whole 
company,  and  they  vowed  to  follow  him  to  the  death.  On  landing  near  the 
river  May,  they  found  that  the  natives,  already  disgusted  with  the  Spaniards, 
were  ready  to  co-operate  with  them  in  their  proposed  attack.  One  of  the 
Spanish  forts  they  carried  by  storm ;  of  sixty  Spaniards  who  defended  it,  but  a 
handful  escaped ;  all  in  the  second  were  slain ;  and  De  Gourges  at  length 
became  master  of  the  whole  settlement.  Collecting  then  his  prisoners,  and 
setting  before  them  the  atrocities  that  had  brought  down  upon  them  this  signal 
retribution,  he  hanged  them  upon  the  same  trees  to  which  they  had  suspended 


A.  D.  1567. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  23 

the  French,  with  the  following  superscription,  "  This  I  do  not  as  to  Spaniards  chap. 
or  to  mariners — but  to  traitors,  robbers,  and  murderers." 

The  object  of  his  expedition  accomplished,  he  returned  to  La  Rochelle, 
where  his  countrymen  received  him  with  enthusiasm,  though  the  court  looked 
coldly  on  his  exploit,  and  the  Spaniards  used  every  interest  to  effect  his  de- 
struction. But  so  brave  a  subject  could  not  be  finally  neglected,  and  he  was 
at  length  about  to  engage  in  honourable  service,  when  his  gallant  career  was 
terminated  by  a  sudden  death. 


CHAPTER  II. 


GILBERT'S   EXPEDITION  TO  NEWFOUNDLAND. — DISCOVERY   OF  VIRGINIA,   AND  FIRST  ATTEMPTS 
AT  ITS   COLONIZATION. — GOSNOLD'S  VOYAGES. 


The  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  is  the  period  fixed  upon  by  all  writers  as   cha p 


that  wherein  the  spirit  of  English  enterprise,  which  had  been  steadily  gaining 
ground,  though  repressed  and  interrupted  by  various  discouragements,  attained 
a  sudden  development  and  became  permanently  rooted  in  the  national  mind. 
"  The  queen's  attentive  economy,"  observes  Robertson,  "  which  exempted 
her  subjects  from  the  burden  of  taxes  oppressive  to  trade,  the  popularity  of 
her  administration,  were  all  favourable  to  commercial  enterprise,  and  called 
it  forth  into  vigorous  exertion.  Perceiving  that  the  security  of  a  kingdom 
environed  by  the  sea  depended  ^n  its  naval  force,  she  began  her  government 
with  adding  to  the  number  and  strength  of  the  royal  navy;  she  filled  her 
arsenals  with  stores,  built  several  ships  of  great  force,  by  all  which  means  the 
skill  of  English  artificers  was  improved,  the  number  of  sailors  increased,  and 
the  attention  of  the  public  turned  to  the  navy,  as  the  most  important  national 
object."  This  was  further  increased  by  the  successful  efforts  to  contend  with 
the  power  of  Philip  II.,  bent  upon  the  destruction  of  Protestantism ;  and  the 
courage  which  had  foiled  the  Armada  was  employed  in  emulating  the  exploits 
of  the  Spanish  adventurers,  and  in  intercepting  rich  galleons  laden  with 
the  new-found  wealth  of  America.  Commerce  rapidly  extended  her  bound- 
aries, the  trade  with  Russia  opened  by  Chancelour's  voyage  was  followed 
up,  and  the  merchant  adventurers  penetrated  into  Persia  and  the  East.  But 
the  discovery  of  the  North-west  passage  still  continued  to  be  the  great  object 
by  which  the  more  hardy  and  ambitious  mariners  sought  to  attain  fame,  and 
open  a  shorter  path  to  the  riches  of  the  Indies.  Nor  had  the  search  after 
gold,  fatal  to  so  many  adventurers,  as  yet  begun  to  give  place  to  wise  plans 


11. 


A.  D.  1558. 


24  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  of  colonization.     The  idea  of  a  North-east  passage,  which  at  the  suggestion  of 

' —  Cabot  had  been  vainly  attempted  by  Willoughby,  was  renounced,  and  Martin 

to  1580.  Frobisher,  an  officer  of  reputation,  determined  on  another  attempt  to  pene- 
trate by  the  North-west.  An  argument  in  favour  of  its  practicability,  visionary 
indeed,  but  full  of  ingenious  acuteness  and  maritime  experience,  had  been 
written  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert.  Frobisher  was  poor ;  but  at  length, 
through  the  patronage  of  Dudley,  Earl  of  Warwick,  he  was  enabled  to  equip 
two  small  barks  and  a  pinnace.  As  his  little  armament  dropped  down  the 
Thames,  Elizabeth,  from  the  palace  at  Greenwich,  waved  her  hand  and 
vouchsafed  a  message  of  encouragement.  In  his  first  voyage  he  penetrated 
as  far  as  the  extremity  of  Hudson's  Bay,  and  believed  that  the  long-wished- 
for  passage  was  at  length  to  be  attained.  Some  earth  that  he  brought  home 
with  him  appeared  to  contain  gold ;  avarice  supplied  what  was  refused  to  the 
love  of  discovery ;  and  a  fleet,  among  which  the  queen  sent  a  ship  of  her 
own,  speedily  departed  to  seek  for  the  wealth  of  Peru  among  the  rigours 
of  the  Polar  seas.  It  returned  bootless,  but  the  illusion  was  not  so  easily  dis- 
sipated. A  larger  armament  was  now  equipped;  adventurers  of  all  ranks 
hastened  to  join  in  so  promising  a  plan  of  colonization.  Amidst  all  the  terrors 
of  the  Northern  Ocean — its  fogs,  currents,  and  enormous  icebergs,  among 
which  their  vessels  were  entangled,  the  vain  research  was  continued ;  and  though 
no  colony  was  established,  the  ships  freighted  with  the  earth  containing  the 
visionary  wealth,  returned  in  the  confident  belief  that  the  North-west  pas- 
sage might  yet  be  attained.  Meanwhile,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  in  the  course 
of  his  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  made  another  attempt  to  penetrate 
the  opposite  side  of  the  continent  with  no  better  success.  It  was  on  this 
occasion  that  he  touched  at  and  left  those  golden  descriptions  of  California, 
which  have  been  of  late  so  marvellously  verified. 

To  these  abortive  enterprises  succeeded  plans  of  colonization,  which, 
though  far  more  wisely  framed,  were  destined  to  prove  no  less  unfortunate 
in  the  issue.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  has  already  been  mentioned  as  the 
author  of  a  discourse  concerning  the  practicability  of  the  North-west  passage. 
He  was  distinguished  as  a  soldier  and  a  patriot,  no  less  than  as  a  lover  of 
geographical  science.  His  motives  in  the  plantation  of  a  colony  were  those 
of  a  "  virtuous  and  heroical  mind."  He  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  patent 
from  Elizabeth,  framed  rather,  it  must  be  confessed^  in  accordance  with  the 
high  notions  of  authority  prevalent  in  England  during  the  sixteenth  century, 
than  with  more  recent  ideas  of  the  rights  of  freemen  : — an  exclusive  right  of 
property  in  the  lands  he  might  discover,  subject  to  the  payment  to  the  crown 
of  one  fifth  of  any  treasure  that  might  be  found ;  the  sole  jurisdiction,  both 
criminal  as  well  as  civil,  though  with  the  limitation,  that  whoever  settled  there 
should  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  free  denizens  and  natives  of  England,  were 
its  principal  conditions.  He  invested  a  large  portion  of  his  property  in  the 
enterprise,  which,  owing  to  dissensions  among  the  volunteer  adventurers, 
was  a  failure  from  its  very  commencement ;  and  when  Gilbert  at  length  sailed 
with  a  weakened  armament,  he  encountered  a  storm,  in  which  one  of  his  ships 


A.D.I  579. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  25 

was  lost,  and,  it  is  also  supposed,  a  Spanish  squadron  of  superior  force  ;  dis-  chap. 
asters  which  compelled  him  to  return  home  disappointed  but  not  disheartened. 
We  are  now,  for  the  first  time,  introduced  to  one  of  the  most  illustrious  names 
of  England  in  connexion  with  the  work  of  American  colonization.  "  As  a 
statesman,  a  navigator,  and  a  writer  of  original  and  varied  genius,"  observes 
Tytler,  "  Sir  "Walter  Raleigh  is  connected  with  all  that  is  interesting  in  per- 
haps the  most  interesting  period  of  English  history — the  reign  of  Elizabeth ; 
and  so  much  was  he  the  child  of  enterprise  and  the  sport  of  vicissitude,  that 
he  who  sits  down  to  write  his  life,  finds  himself,  without  departing  from  the 
severe  simplicity  of  truth,  surrounded  with  lights  almost  as  glowing  as  those 
of  romance."  The  younger  son  of  an  ancient  but  not  wealthy  family,  seated 
on  the  coast  of  Devonshire,  he  had  early  imbibed  a  love  of  the  sea,  and  his 
natural  thirst  for  adventure  was  excited  by  his  boyish  perusal  of  the  glowing 
accounts  of  Spanish  enterprise  in  America.  Distinguished  at  college  for  his 
wit  and  genius,  he  yet  preferred  to  the  pursuits  of  learning  the  more  exciting 
scenes  of  war.  The  Protestants  of  France,  under  the  Prince  de  Conde  and 
Admiral  Coligny,  were  struggling  in  defence  of  their  religious  liberties. 
Such  a  cause  awakened  the  sympathy  of  Elizabeth,  who  authorized  a  kinsman 
of  Raleigh  to  raise  a  troop  of  volunteers,  in  which  the  young  adventurer  en- 
rolled himself.  Having  shared  in  the  struggle,  he  returned  to  England, 
when  the  peace  of  1576  secured  to  the  French  Protestants  the  free  exercise 
of  their  religion.  He  next  joined  the  force  sent  by  Elizabeth  to  assist  the 
Protestants  of  the  Netherlands  in  their  endeavour  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
Spain.  In  the  midst  of  these  stirring  occupations,  Raleigh  had  found  leisure 
to  study  still  further  the  subjects  which  had  engaged  his  earliest  atten- 
tion ;  he  had  probably  fallen  in  with  various  adventurers  who  had  returned 
from  the  New  World,  and,  it  is  supposed,  had  seen  the  chart  and  letters  of 
Verezzani.  Thus  predisposed  to  embrace  the  first  opportunity  that  offered 
of  trying  his  fortune  in  schemes  of  discovery,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  was 
induced  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  his  step-brother,  to  abandon  his  military 
pursuits  for  a  more  dazzling  scene  of  enterprise. 

He  is  supposed  to  have  accompanied  Gilbert  on  his  first  voyage,  in  1579, 
but  a  career  of  courtly  favour  having  opened  to  him,  he  was  unable  to  leave 
its  pursuit  to  engage  personally  in  the  second,  to  which,  however,  he  lent  the 
utmost  assistance  in  his  power,  building,  at  his  own  expense,  and  under  his 
own  eye,  the  largest  ship  in  the  squadron,  of  200  tons,  which  bore  his  name. 
His  growing  influence  with  Elizabeth  enabled  him  to  interest  her  deeply  in 
the  voyage ;  she  commissioned  him  to  send  a  token  to  Sir  Humphrey — an 
image  of  "  an  anchor  guided  by  a  lady,"  wishing  him  as  much  success  and 
safety  as  if  she  were  there  in  person,  and  desiring  him  to  leave  his  portrait 
for  her  with  Raleigh.  This  flattering  intelligence  the  favourite  conveys  in 
a  letter  from  court  to  his  step-brother,  now  about  to  embark,  "  committing 
him  to  the  will  of  God,  who  sends  us  such  life  or  death  as  he  shall  please  or 
hath  appointed." — They  were  never  to  meet  again. 

How  little  can  courage  or  conduct  insure  the  result  of  any  enterprise ! 

E 


26  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

"With,  a  fleet  of  five  ships  and  barks,  the  Delight,  Raleigh,  Golden  Hind 
ii.  '  Swallow,  and  Squirrel,  in  which  a  large  body  of  men  were  embarked,  Gilbert 
a.d.  1583.  set  sail  in  June,  1583,  on  his  second  expedition.  On  reaching  Newfoundland, 
he  took  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  Elizabeth ;  a  pillar  with  the  arms  of  Eng- 
land was  raised,  and,  after  the  feudal  custom,  the  royal  charter  was  read,  and 
a  sod  and  turf  of  the  soil  delivered  to  the  admiral.  The  mutinous  and  dis- 
orderly conduct  of  many  of  his  sailors  had  already  been  a  trying  obstacle.  As 
they  steered  towards  the  south,  to  "  bring  the  whole  land  within  compass  of 
the  patent,"  the  principal  ship,  owing  to  their  carelessness,  struck  upon  a 
shoal  and  was  totally  lost ;  nearly  a  hundred  men  perishing  with  her,  among 
whom  were  the  Hungarian,  Parmenius,  (called  Budseus,  from  his  native  city,) 
who  was  to  have  been  the  chronicler  of  the  expedition,  as  well  as  "  their 
Saxon  refiner  and  discoverer  of  inestimable  riches,"  and  the  valuable  papers 
of  the  admiral.  They  now  decided  on  returning  home ;  the  autumnal  gales 
were  already  beginning  to  render  the  navigation  perilous  for  such  small  ves- 
sels ;  yet  Sir  Humphrey,  who  had  sailed  in  the  Squirrel,  their  "  frigate  of  ten 
tons,"  contrary  to  all  remonstrance,  persisted  in  remaining  with  his  brave 
shipmates,  rather  than  go  on  board  the  larger  vessel.  The  two  ships  sailed  in 
company,  Gilbert  from  time  to  time  repairing  on  board  the  Hind,  and  en- 
couraging his  companions  with  prospects  of  future  success.  The  weather  now 
became  frightful ;  and  the  oldest  sailors  never  remembered  more  mountainous 
and  terrific  surges.  On  Monday,  the  9th  of  September,  in  the  afternoon, 
the  Squirrel,  which  was  overcharged  with  artillery  and  deck-hamper,  was 
nearly  ingulfed  by  a  heavy  sea,  from  which  she  escaped  as  by  miracle.  As  she 
emerged  from  the  watery  abyss,  a  shout  of  surprise  and  thanksgiving  burst 
from  her  decks ;  and  Gilbert,  seated  on  the  stern  with  a  book  in  his  hand, 
calmly  exclaimed,  when  the  roll  of  the  waves  brought  them  within  hearing 
of  those  on  board  the  other  vessel,  "  We  are  as  near  to  heaven  by  sea  as  by 
land," — the  last  words  he  was  ever  heard  to  utter.  At  midnight,  the  Squirrel 
being  somewhat  ahead,  those  on  the  watch,  on  board  the  Hind,  observing 
her  lights  to  disappear  in  an  instant  amidst  the  blackness  of  the  swell,  cried 
out  that  the  general  was  lost — the  miniature  frigate  had  suddenly  foundered. 
The  Hind,  after  narrowly  escaping  the  tempestuous  weather,  at  length, 
reached  Falmouth  in  safety,  bearing  the  disastrous  tidings. 

The  melancholy  fate  of  his  step-brother  did  not  withhold  Raleigh  from 
following  out  his  scheme  of  discovery  and  colonization,  for  partly  from  his 
intercourse  with  Spanish  sailors,  and  perhaps  from  having  seen  when  in 
France  the  letter  and  maps  of  Verezzani,  he  was  induced  to  turn  his  atten- 
tion to  a  milder  clime,  attained  too  by  a  less  perilous  course  of  navigation. 
Concluding  from  different  indications  that  Florida  formed  but  part  of  an 
extensive  continent,  he  obtained,  in  1584,  an  ample  patent  from  the  queen, 
granting  him  the  possession  of  all  the  countries  he  should  succeed  in  discover- 
ing, accompanied  with  unlimited  and  despotic  powers  of  jurisdiction,  on  con- 
dition of  reserving  to  the  crown  a  fifth  part  of  the  gold  or  silver  ore  which 
might  be  found.     The  expedition  consisted  of  two  ships,  commanded  by  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  27 

Captains   Philip   Amadis  and  Arthur    Barlow,  who,   according   to   the  in-  chap. 

structions  given  them  by  Raleigh,  kept  to  the  south-east,  and  by  the  cir- . — 

cuitous  route  of  the  Canaries  and  West  Indies,  at  length  approached  the  ex- 
pected continent,  at  a  season  when  the  blue  expanse  of  ocean  lay  calm  and 
slumbering,  and  the  gay  shores,  redolent  of  delicious  odours  brought  off  by 
the  gentle  breezes,  inspired  an  intoxicating  luxury  of  sensation. 

"  The  second  of  July,"  says  one  of  the  discoverers,  "  we  found  shoal  water, 
where  we  smelt  so  sweet  and  strong  a  smell,  as  if  we  had  been  in  the  midst  of 
some  delicate  garden  abounding  with  all  kinds  of  odoriferous  flowers,  by  which 
we  were  assured  that  the  land  could  not  be  far  distant."  Keeping  good 
watch,  and  slackening  sail,  they  ran  along  the  coast  for  a  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  in  quest  of  a  haven,  and  entering  the  first,  after  "  thankes  given  to 
God  for  their  safe  arrival,"  manned  their  boats,  and  went  ashore  to  view  the 
countfy,  and  take  possession  of  it  in  the  queen's  name,  and  for  the  use  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  "according  to  her  Majesty's  letters  patent."  They  were  first 
struck,  like  Verezzani,  with  the  luxuriance  of  the  wild  grapes,  so  that  the 
very  beating  and  surge  of  the  sea  overflowed  them,  and  on  the  green  soil  on 
the  hills  and  plains,  on  every  little  shrub,  and  climbing  towards  the  tops  of 
high  cedars,  they  were  equally  abundant,  "  myself,"  says  the  narrator,  "  hav- 
ing seen  those  parts  of  Europe  that  most  abound,  find  such  difference  as  were 
incredible  to  be  written." 

On  ascending  the  hills,  they  found  that  they  had  landed  on  an  island,  being 
that  of  Wocoken.  Its  valleys  were  filled  with  the  noblest  cedars,  and  having 
discharged  their  harquebuss,  such  a  flock  of  cranes  arose  under  them, 
"  with  a  sound  as  if  an  armie  of  men  had  shouted  all  together."  The  woods 
abounded  with  incredible  numbers  of  deer,  conies,  hares,  and  fowl.  They 
remained  two  days  before  they  saw  any  of  the  natives,  when  a  small  canoe 
with  three  Indians  approached ;  one  of  the  natives,  fearlessly  accosting  them, 
was  persuaded  to  go  on  board,  "  never  making  any  shew  of  fear  or  doubt." 
After  receiving  some  trifling  gifts,  he  went  fishing  in  his  bark,  and  returning 
to  the  ships,  presented  them  with  his  load. 

The  next  day,  the  king's  brother,  Granganimeo,  visited  them  with  his 
retinue.  Causing  mats  to  be  placed  on  the  shore,  he  seated  himself  to  await 
the  arrival  of  the  English.  "  When  we  came  on  shore  with  our  weapons," 
says  the  narrator,  "  he  never  moved,  nor  mistrusted  any  harm  to  be  offered,  but 
sitting  still,  beckoned  us  to  come  and  sit  by  him ;  and  being  set,  he  made  all 
signs  of  joy  and  welcome,  striking  on  his  head  and  breast,  and  afterwards  on 
ours,  to  shew  that  we  were  all  one,  smiling  and  making  shew,  the  best  he  could, 
of  all  love  and  familiarity.  After  he  had  made  a  long  speech  to  us,  we  made 
him  some  presents,  which  he  received  very  thankfully.  None  of  the  others 
durst  speak  all  this  time,  only  the  four  at  the  other  end  spake  in  one  another's 
ear  very  softly."  Such  was  the  first  interview  between  the  natives  and  their 
visitors,  presenting  a  striking  contrast  to  the  mutual  animosities  that  too  soon 
succeeded. 

After  a  day  or  two,  a  traffic  sprung  up,  and  Granganimeo  came  on  board, 

e  2 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


chap.  "  drank  wine  and  eat  of  our  bread,"  accompanied  by  his  wife,  daughter,  and 
two  or  three  children.     His  wife  was  very  handsome,  of  middle  stature,  and 


a.  d.  1584.  yery  bagful .  she  was  Messed  in  furred  skins,  and  her  forehead  was  banded 
with  white  coral,  with  ornaments  of  pearl  hanging  down  to  her  waist.  The 
intercourse  now  increased,  mutual  presents  were  made,  Granganimeo  sent 
them  every  day  "  a  brace  or  two  of  fat  bucks,  conies,  hares,  fish  the  best  in 
the  world,  and  fruits  in  abundance."  A  party  now  went  in  the  boats  to  ex- 
plore, the  Island  of  Roanoke  was  discovered,  upon  which  they  found  a 
village  of  nice  houses  built  of  cedars,  and  defended  with  an  enclosure  of 
sharp  trees.  Here,  says  the  narrator,  "  the  wife  of  Granganimeo  came  running 
out  to  meet  us,  very  cheerfully  and  friendly,  her  husband  being  absent  from 
the  village ;  some  of  her  people  she  commanded  to  draw  our  boat  ashore  for 
the  beating  of  the  billows,  and  others  to  carry  them  ashore  through  the  surf. 
After  having  their  wet  garments  dried,  and  receiving  in  the  outer  chanrber  the 
old  oriental  hospitality  of  "  washing  the  feet"  by  attendant  women,  they  were 
feasted  within  with  "  wheat  like  furmenty,  venison,  and  fish  both  broiled  and 
sodden,  and  boiled,  with  herbs  and  fruits  " — the  Indian  princess  "  taking 
great  pains  to  see  all  things  ordered  in  the  best  manner  she  could.  We 
found  the  people  most  gentle,  loving,  and  faithful,  void  of  all  guile,  and 
living  after  the  manner  of  the  golden  age.  While  we  were  at  meat,  there 
came  in  at  the  gates  two  or  three  men  with  their  bows  and  arrows  from  hunt- 
ing, whom  when  we  espied,  we  began  to  look  one  towards  another,  and 
offered  to  reach  our  weapons ;  but  as  soon  as  she  espied  our  mistrust,  she  was 
very  much  moved,  and  caused  some  of  her  menne  to  run  out,  and  take  away 
their  bows  and  arrows  and  break  them,  and  withal  beat  the  poor  fellows  out 
of  the  gate  again.  When  we  departed  in  the  evening  and  would  not  tarry 
all  night,  she  was  very  sorry,  and  gave  us  into  our  boat  our  supper  half- 
dressed,  pots  and  all,  and  brought  us  to  our  boat  side,  on  which  we  lay  all 
night,  removing  the  same  a  pretty  distance  from  the  shore.  She,  perceiving 
our  jealousy,  was  much  grieved,  and  sent  divers  men  and  thirty  women  to  sit 
all  night  on  the  bank-side  by  us,  and  sent  us  into  our  boats  fine  mats  to  cover 
us  from  the  rain,  using  very  many  words  to  entreat  us  to  rest  in  their  houses. 
But  because  we  were  few  men,  and  if  we  had  miscarried  the  voyage  had  been 
in  great  danger,  we  durst  not  adventure  anything,  although  there  was  no 
cause  of  doubt,  for  a  more  kind  and  loving  people  there  cannot  be  found  in 
the  world,  as  far  as  we  have  hitherto  had  trial."  Such  was  the  treatment  re- 
ceived by  the  English  visitors  at  the  hands  of  this  countrywoman  of  the 
generous  Pocahontas. 

Satisfied  with  their  discovery,  they  contented  themselves  with  a  very  limited 
exploration,  and  soon  after  returned  to  England,  carrying  with  them  "  two 
of  the  savages  being  lustie  men,  whose  names  were  Wanchese  and  Manteo," 
the  latter  of  whom  figures  honourably  in  the  future  history  of  the  colony. 

Thus  flattering  to  his  judgment  and  promising  to  his  hopes  was  the  first 
result  of  Raleigh's  expedition,  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  who,  no  less  delighted, 
shortly  after  bestowed  upon  him  the  then  rare  honour  of  knighthood,  desired 


A.  D. 15&4. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  29 

that  the  new-discovered  country  should,  in  allusion  to  her  state  of  life,  be  chap. 
called  Virginia ;  while  a  lucrative  monopoly  for  the  sale  of  wines,  shortly  after 
bestowed  upon  Sir  Walter,  enabled  him  to  carry  out  the  settlement  of  a  colony 
on  the  lands  conferred  on  him  by  his  patent.  He  now  proceeded  to  fit  out  a 
squadron  of  seven  vessels,  the  command  of  which  he  bestowed  upon  his 
relative,  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  who  had  been  present  at  the  decisive  battle 
of  Lepanto,  in  which  Cervantes  was  taken  prisoner,  and  who  afterwards 
closed  a  life  of  heroic  adventure  by  fighting  with  his  single  ship  a  squadron  of 
fifteen  Spanish  vessels,  for  as  many  hours,  till  he  died  covered  with  glorious 
wounds.  The  expense  of  this  expedition  was  shared  by  other  adventurers, 
among  whom  was  Thomas  Cavendish,  who  afterwards  circumnavigated  the 
globe.  It  numbered  a  hundred  and  eighty  men,  with  Ralph  Lane  for 
captain  and  Amadas  as  his  deputy,  and  was  accompanied  by  Heriot,  a  mathe- 
matician of  note,  who  on  his  return  wrote  an  admirable  account  of  the  country. 
By  way  of  Porto  Rico  and  Hispaniola,  (where,  owing,  as  they  imagined,  to 
their  imposing  force,  they  were  welcomed  and  entertained  by  the  Spanish 
governor,  at  the  same  time  that  they  were  capturing  the  vessels  of  that  nation 
at  sea,)  they  made,  on  the  20th  of  June,  the  mainland  of  Florida,  and  after  a 
narrow  escape  from  shipwreck  upon  Cape  Fear,  came,  on  the  26th,  to  an 
anchor  at  Wocoken.  Lane  was  a  gallant  man,  afterwards  knighted  by  Eliza- 
beth for  his  valour,  but  he  possessed  rather  the  qualities  of  the  ardent 
soldier  than  of  the  patient  and  wary  colonist.  Hasty  in  resolve,  and  "  sudden 
and  quick  in  quarrel,"  his  rash  and  hostile  conduct  towards  the  Indians  was 
the  source  of  incalculable  miseries,  to  this  and  other  succeeding  expedi- 
tions. But  the  first  deadly  offence  was  given  by  Grenville  himself.  A 
party  was  sent  on  shore,  accompanied  by  Manteo,  and  all  might  have  gone 
well,  but  for  an  act  of  hasty  revenge,  the  first  probably  which  tended  to  arouse 
uneasy  and  suspicious  thoughts  in  the  breasts  of  the  confiding  Indians.  A 
savage  had  been  tempted  to  steal  a  silver  cup,  its  promised  restoration  was 
delayed,  upon  which  the  English  "burnt  and  spoiled  their  corn  and  towne, 
all  the  people  being  fled."  Notwithstanding,  on  the  29th,  Granganimeo 
came  on  board  with  Manteo.  The  colonists  being  landed,  Grenville,  after  a 
short  stay,  and  the  collection  of  a  cargo  of  pearls  and  skins,  returned  to  Eng- 
land, capturing  on  the  way  a  Spanish  ship  richly  laden,  "  boarding  her  with  a 
boat  made  with  boards  of  chests,  which  fell  asunder  and  sank  at  the  ship's 
side,  as  soon  as  ever  he  and  his  men  were  out  of  it."  With  this  prize  he 
returned  to  Plymouth. 

After  this  first  experience  of  their  hasty  cruelty,  the  Indians,  anxious  to 
get  rid  of  the  settlers  whom  they  now  learned  both  to  hate  and  fear,  began 
to  form  secret  combinations  against  them.  Lane,  who  was  evidently  but 
little  qualified  for  his  post,  being  alternately  severe  and  credulous,  received 
such  information  from  one  of  the  chiefs,  "  whose  best  beloved  son"  he  observes, 
"  i"  had  prisoner  with  me"  as  induced  him  to  ascend  the  Roanoke,  partly  in 
quest  of  pearls,  mineral  treasures,  and  partly  to  explore  the  interior.  The  ad- 
venture was  disastrous ;  the  boats  made  slow  progress  against  the  rapidity  of  the 


SO  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  current;  the  banks  were  deserted,  and  no  provisions  to  be  obtained;  yet  all 

■ —  agreed  not  to  abandon  the  enterprise  while  a  half-pint  of  corn  remained  for 

'  each  man ;  moreover  they  determined  that  they  would  kill  their  "  two  mastives, 
upon  the  pottage  of  which,  with  sassafras  leaves,  (if  the  worst  fell  out,)  they 
would  make  shift  to  live  two  dayes." 

Having  been  treacherously  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and  having  consumed 
the  "  dogges  porridge  that  they  had  bespoken  for  themselves  "  and  returned 
to  the  river's  mouth,  and  their  boats  being  unable  to  cross  the  sound  on  ac- 
count of  a  storm  "  on  Easter  Eve,  which  was  fasted  very  truly,"  they  were 
reduced  to  the  sassafras  without  the  animal  seasoning,  "  the  like  whereof," 
observes  Lane,  "  was  never  before  used  for  a  meate  as  I  thinke."  The  next 
morning  they  arrived  at  Roanoke  famished  and  disheartened. 

The  natives  now  were  about  to  resort  to  the  expedient  of  leaving  the  lands 
uncultivated,  when  nothing  could  have  prevented  the  destruction  of  the 
English,  who  had  neither  weirs  for  taking  fish,  nor  a  grain  of  seed  corn. 
This  plan  was,  however,  overruled  by  one  of  the  chiefs  ; — a  supply  was  sown, 
which  put  the  settlers  "  in  marvellous  comfort ; "  for  if  they  could  pass  from 
April  to  July,  which  was  to  have  been  the  beginning  of  the  harvest,  then  a 
new  supply  from  England  or  their  own  store  would  be  ready  to  maintain 
them,  fearing  only  the  two  intervening  months,  when,  as  Lane  observed,  "  like 
the  starving  horse  in  the  stable,  with  the  growing  grass,  we  might  very  well 
starve  ourselves."  But  other  sources  of  suspicion  arose.  Lane  believed  that 
a  wide-spread  conspiracy  was  being  organized ;  a  large  body  were  to  assem- 
ble at  Roanoke  in  June,  and  crush  the  colonists,  whom  they  still  regarded 
with  mingled  awe  and  hatred.  Whether  right  or  wrong  in  this  belief,  Lane 
determined  to  be  beforehand  with  his  enemies,  and  suddenly  appeared  among 
them.  He  had  ordered  the  master  of  the  light  horsemen  to  intercept  their 
canoes  ;  one  of  these  was  surprised ;  the  Indians  took  the  alarm  and  flew  to 
their  bows ;  the  English  attacked  them  with  fire-arms,  and  the  chief  of  the 
dreaded  confederacy  was  killed. 

Scarcely  a  week  had  elapsed  before  Lane  received  a  notice  from  Captain 
Stafford,  stationed  at  the  Admiral's  Island,  that  he  had  discovered  a  great 
fleet  of  three-and-twenty  sails,  and  advising  him  to  stand  upon  his  guard. 
The  following  day,  Stafford  himself  appeared  with  a  letter  from  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  the  chief  of  the  squadron,  who,  returning  from  an  expedition  against 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  the  West  Indies,  with  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  ves- 
sels, determined  to  visit  the  colony  of  his  friend  Raleigh,  and  carry  home  to 
him  some  news  of  its  condition.  No  sight  could  have  been  so  welcome  to  the 
weary  colonists,  surrounded  by  Indians  of  whom  their  bad  policy  had  now 
made  deadly  enemies,  and  with  famine  staring  them  in  the  face,  unless  the 
succours  from  England,  now  delayed  long  past  the  time  appointed,  should 
immediately  arrive.  Drake  generously  supplied  all  the  more  pressing  of  their 
wants,  gave  them  pinnaces  and  boats  to  survey  the  coast,  with  two  officers  to 
assist  in  the  work,  and  even  a  vessel  of  sufficient  burden  to  convey  them  to 
England  in  case  of  extremity.     But  everything  combined  to  discourage  the 


II. 

A.  D. 155d. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  31 

emigrants,  already  disgusted  with  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  a  new  settle-  chap. 
ment.  Providence  itself  seemed  to  fight  against  them.  A  storm  of  four  days' 
duration,  from  which  the  whole  fleet,  exposed  on  a  harbourless  coast,  only 
escaped  by  standing  out  to  sea,  destroyed  the  bark  and  boats  appointed  for 
them.  Deprived  of  this  last  resource,  and  despairing  of  assistance  from  Eng- 
land, the  dejected  settlers  unanimously  besought  Drake  to  allow  them  to  em- 
bark in  his  fleet. 

Raleigh,  however,  had  neither  forgotten  nor  neglected  them,  although  the 
promised  succours  were  unavoidably  delayed,  for  scarcely  had  Lane  departed, 
before  a  vessel  arrived  bearing  ample  supplies  for  the  settlement ;  but  after 
long  and  vain  search,  finding  no  vestige  of  it,  returned  from  its  fruitless 
voyage.  Shortly  after,  Sir  Richard  Grenville  appeared  with  three  well- 
furnished-vessels,  principally  fitted  out  at  Raleigh's  expense,  and  sought  anew 
for  traces  of  the  vanished  colonists.  He  found  the  settlement  in  ruins,  yet 
in  the  face  of  this  discouraging  evidence  he  left  behind  a  little  band  of  fifteen 
men  with  provisions  for  two  years,  a  sort  of  forlorn  hope  to  maintain  the  claim 
of  England  and  of  Raleigh  to  this  "  paradise  of  the  world,"  which  had 
hitherto  been  the  source  of  little  but  expense  and  disappointment. 

One  thing,  indeed,  might  partly  seem  to  have  indemnified  Sir  Walter  for  his 
losses  and  vexation.  "  It  is  asserted  by  Camden,  that  tobacco  was  now  for  the  first 
time  brought  into  England  by  these  settlers ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
Lane  had  been  directed  to  import  it  by  his  master,  who  must  have  seen  it  used 
in  France  during  his  residence  there.  There  is  a  well-known  tradition,  that  Sir 
Walter  first  began  to  smoke  it  privately  in  his  study,  and  that  his  servant  coming 
in  with  his  tankard  of  ale  and  nutmeg,  as  he  was  intent  upon  his  book,  seeing 
the  smoke  issuing  from  his  mouth,  threw  all  the  liquor  in  his  face  by  way  of  ex- 
tinguishing the  fire,  and  running  down  stairs,  alarmed  the  family  with  piercing 
cries,  that  his  master,  before  they  could  get  up,  would  be  burned  to  ashes. 
And  this,"  continued  Oldys,  "  has  nothing  in  it  more  surprising  than  the 
mistake  of  those  Virginians  themselves,  who,  the  first  time  they  seized  upon 
a  quantity  of  gunpowder  which  belonged  to  the  English  colony,  sowed  it  for 
grain,  or  the  seed  of  some  strange  vegetable,  in  the  earth,  with  full  expecta- 
tion of  reaping  a  plentiful  crop  of  combustion  by  the  next  harvest  to  scatter 
their  enemies." 

On  another  occasion  it  is  said  that  Raleigh,  conversing  with  his  royal  mis- 
tress upon  the  singular  properties  of  this  new  and  extraordinary  herb,  "  as- 
sured her  Majesty  he  had  so  well  experienced  the  nature  of  it,  that  he  could 
tell  her  of  what  weight  even  the  smoke  would  be  in  any  quantity  proposed  to 
be  consumed.  Her  Majesty,  fixing  her  thoughts  upon  the  most  impracticable 
part  of  the  experiment,  that  of  bounding  the  smoke  in  a  balance,  suspected 
that  he  put  the  traveller  upon  her,  and  would  needs  lay  him  a  wager  he  could 
not  solve  the  doubt :  so  he  procured  a  quantity  agreed  upon  to  be  throughly 
smoked ;  then  went  to  weighing,  but  it  was  of  the  ashes  ;  and  in  the  conclu- 
sion, what  was  wanting  in  the  prime  weight  of  the  tobacco,  her  Majesty  did 
not  deny  to  have  been  evaporated  in  smoke ;  and  further  said,  that  (  many 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


chap,  labourers  in  the  fire  she  had  heard  of  who  had  turned  their  gold  into  smoke, 


ii 


but  Raleigh  was  the  €rst  who  had  turned  smoke  into  gold.' 


If  his  plans  of  colonization  had  proved  ruinously  expensive  to  Sir  "Walter, 
on  the  other  hand  he  had  derived  large  supplies  from  the  prizes  taken  by  his 
vessels,  and,  though  pressed  with  a  multitude  of  important  affairs  at  home, 
he  determined  upon  another  enterprise  to  Virginia.  The  accounts  given  of 
its  natural  beauty  by  Heriot,  had  outweighed  the  influence  of  the  disastrous 
issue  of  Lane's  expedition  ;  the  love  of  adventure  was  fast  increasing  in  Eng- 
land, and  a  body  of  150  settlers,  for  the  first  time  accompanied -by  women, 
was  soon  collected  together.  The  mania  for  gold-hunting  was  subsiding,  and 
the  fertility  and  beauty  of  the  soil  wisely  led  Raleigh,  himself  a  lover  of 
agriculture  and  gardening,  to  found  an  enduring  state.  A  city  named  after 
himself  was  to  be  built,  municipal  regulations  framed,  and  Mr.  John  White 
appointed  as  its  governor,  to  whom,  with  twelve  assistants,  he  gave  a  charter 
of  incorporation.  The  body  of  colonists  sailed  from  Portsmouth  on  the  26th 
April,  158T,  and  on  the  22nd  July  anchored  off  the  coast.  They  were  no 
sooner  arrived,  than  they  hastened  to  Roanoke  Island,  in  quest  of  the  fifteen 
settlers  left  behind  by  Grenville.  But  these  unfortunate  men  had  been 
doomed  to  expiate  the  mismanagement  of  those  who  preceded  them,  and  who 
had  sown  the  fatal  seed  of  hatred  and  suspicion  in  the  Indian  breast.  Their 
huts  were  dismantled,  wild  deer  were  feeding  on  the  melons  and  herbage 
which  had  overgrown  the  ruins — and  their  scattered  bones  were  whitening 
on  the  beach.  They  had  fallen  an  easy  and  a  helpless  prey  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  Indians. 

Such  a  sight  must  have  appalled  the  new  settlers,  and  might  well  have 
appeared  a  presage  of  the  doom  which  too  surely  awaited  themselves.  For 
widely  different  were  the  feelings  with  which  they  now  landed  in  Virginia, 
from  those  which  had  animated  its  discoverers.  Then  all  was  fair  and  pro- 
mising ;  the  beauty  of  the  country  was  only  equalled  by  the  unsuspecting 
confidence  and  kindness  of  the  natives.  That  confidence  had  been  converted 
into  the  deadliest  hate,  which  had  already  compelled  the  disastrous  retreat  of 
the  first  expedition,  and  proved  fatal  to  its  successor.  No  wonder  that  dis- 
sension ere  long  broke  out  among  the  new  colonists ;  that  the  sanguine  de- 
sired a  more  promising  scene  of  enterprise,  and  others  were  desirous  of  re- 
turning home.  Raleigh  had  designated  the  bay  of  Chesapeake  as  the  site  of 
his  new  city ;  but  the  governor  was  compelled  to  remain  at  Roanoke,  and 
repair  the  buildings  of  the  murdered  colonists.  Manteo,  the  faithful  ally  of 
the  English,  had  received  Christian  baptism,  and  the  investiture  of  "  Lord  of 
Roanoke:"  his  kindred  joyfully  welcomed  the  settlers.  But  a  disastrous 
accident  had  occurred.  An  English  sailor  who  had  gone  fishing  having  been 
murdered  by  a  band  of  hostile  savages,  White,  guided  by  Manteo,  with  a  body 
of  men  all  bent  on  vengeance,  stole  by  dark  upon  a  body  ot  Indians,  poured 
in  a  volley  among  them,  and  then  found,  to  their  horror,  that  they  had  at- 
tacked a  party  of  their  own  allies.  Little  progress  could  be  made  in  the  work 
of  colonization  under  so  many  discouraging  circumstances  ;  supplies  and  re- 


A.  D. 1500. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  Od 

inforcements  were  *oon  needed;  and  the  emigrants  besought  White  to  return  chap. 
to  England  and  obtain  them,  while  not  a  few  determined  to  go  back  in  his 
company.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  disasters  that  the  governor's  daughter, 
Mrs.  Eleanor  Dare,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  assistants,  gave  birth  to  a  daughter, 
the  first  child  born  of  English  parents  on  the  soil  of  North  America.  The 
ill-fated  infant  was  named  after  the  colony,  Virginia.  The  governor,  yielding 
with  reluctance  to  the  general  importunity,  leaving  behind  him  eighty-nine 
men,  seventeen  women,  and  eleven  children,  together  with  his  daughter  and 
grandchild,  whom  he  was  never  to  see  again,  at  length  set  sail  for  England. 

But  political  events,  as  well  as  miserable  casualties,  conspired  together 
to  prevent  his  returning  to  succour  his  forlorn  colony.  On  reaching  Eng- 
land, he  found  the  whole  nation  engrossed  in  its  defence  against  the 
Spanish  Armada,  in  which  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  bore  so  conspicuous  a  part. 
Amidst  danger  so  imminent,  and  during  a  contest  for  the  honour  of  the 
sovereign  and  the  independence  of  the  country,  it  was  difficult  to  attend  to 
a  less  important  and  more  remote  object.  Yet  Raleigh  actually  despatched  to 
their  assistance  two  vessels,  but  the  ships'  company  were  infected  with  the 
spirit  of  privateering,  the  issue  was  against  them,  their  ships  were  disabled, 
and  White  had  the  misery  of  returning  to  England  at  a  moment  when  he 
must  have  felt  that  any  delay  would  be  fatal.  And  so  indeed  it  proved,  for 
when,  in  1590,  he  was  at  length  enabled  to  go  again  in  search  of  his  colonists 
and  daughter,  it  was  only  to  mourn  over  their  irreparable  loss.  When  he  step- 
ped again  upon  the  fatal  shore  of  Roanoke,  nothing  remained,  beyond  their 
ruined  habitations,  and  a  cross  inscribed  with  the  word  "  Croatan,"  to  tell  the 
fate  of  those  whom  he  had  left  behind.  This  inscription  suggested  that  the 
lost  colonists  had  perhaps  taken  refuge  with  the  Indians,  of  which  a  tradition 
afterwards  existed,  but  though  research  was  more  than  once  made  by  suc- 
ceeding voyagers,  at  the  instigation  of  Raleigh,  no  trace  of  them  was  ever 
afterwards  discovered.  White  and  his  discouraged  companions  were  com- 
pelled to  abandon  the  idea  of  a  settlement. 

A  fatality  seemed  to  hang  over  Virginia,  the  colonization  of  which  had 
commenced  under  such  glowing  auspices.  Raleigh  had  now,  during  several 
years,  sent  out  various  expeditions,  at  a  fruitless  expense  of  forty  thousand 
pounds,  and  a  sad  sacrifice  of  human  life.  It  is  not  surprising  that,  with 
diminished  resources,  he  should  be  ready  to  assign  his  rights  of  property  and 
patent,  with  large  favourable  concessions,  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith  and  a  company 
of  merchants  in  London,  as  he  was  now  engaged  in  other  schemes,  especially 
that  of  penetrating  into  the  heart  of  Guiana,  where  he  fondly  dreamed  of 
repairing  his  shattered  fortunes  by  taking  possession  of  inexhaustible  wealth 
flowing  from  the  richest  mines  in  the  New  World.  His  schemes  were  abor- 
tive and  ruinous  to  his  own  interests,  posterity  was  to  reap  the  advantage,  and 
to  repay  him  for  his  sacrifices  with  an  inheritance  of  lasting  glory.  The  time 
was  not  yet  ripe  for  a  permanent  state  in  Virginia  which  should  embalm  the 
memory  of  its  founder  and  call  its  chief  city  after  his  name.  The  London 
company  attempted  no  settlement  of  importance,  but  confined  itself  to  a  secure 


CHAP. 


34  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

and  limited  traffic,  and   thus,  after  a  period  of  a   hundred  and  six  years 

'il  L '  from  the  time  that  Cabot  discovered  North  America,  and  twenty  from  the 

a.  d.  1602.  time  that  Raleigh  planted  the  first  colony,  there  was  not  a  single  Englishman 

settled  there  at  the  demise  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 

hundred  and  three. 

Yet,  in  1602,  the  last  year  of  that  reign,  the  voyage  made  by  Bartholomew 
Gosnold,  who  set  out  with  a  small  bark  to  make  a  more  direct  course  to  the 
settlements  in  Virginia  than  that  by  the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies, 
was  destined  to  have  an  important  influence  on  the  fate  of  that  unfor- 
tunate colony.  After  sailing  seven  weeks,  he  reached  the  coast  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  and  keeping  to  the  south  in  search  of  a  harbour,  landed  on 
the  promontory  of  Cape  Cod,  so  called  from  the  quantity  of  that  fish  taken 
there,  and  the  first,  spot  in  New  England  ever  trodden  by  English  foot. 
Rounding  the  coast,  and  doubling  "  Point  Care,"  or  Sandy  Point,  the  mariners 
reached  Nantucket,  and  passing  the  promontory  of  Gay  Head,  which  they 
called  Dover  Cliff,  they  entered  the  stately  sound  of  "  Buzzards  Bay,"  which 
they  called  Gosnold's  Hope.  On  the  westernmost  of  the  islands  that  studded  it 
they  determined  to  settle.  They  bestowed  on  it  the  name  of  Elizabeth ;  and 
finding  a  small  lake  of  fresh  water,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  rocky  islet, 
they  fixed  upon  it  as  the  site  of  a  fort  and  storehouse,  built  with  the  stones 
from  the  neighbouring  beach,  and  of  which  traces,  now  no  longer  discover- 
able, were  seen  by  Belknap,  in  1797.  They  were  delighted  with  the  noble 
vegetation,  the  luxuriance  of  the  scented  shrubs,  the  abundance  of  the  wild 
grapes  and  strawberries ;  and,  in  the  first  impulse  of  their  satisfaction,  deter- 
mined to  remain  there.  But  the  smallness  of  their  number,  surrounded  as 
they  were  with  the  Indians,  the  want  of  provisions,  and  the  recollection  of 
what  had  befallen  the  hapless  settlers  in  Virginia,  with  the  dissensions  that 
sprung  up,  induced  them,  shortly  after,  to  return  to  England.  They  arrived 
in  less  than  four  months  from  the  time  of  their  departure,  without  having 
suffered  from  any  sickness ;  and  spread  on  all  sides  most  favourable  reports 
of  the  soil  and  climate  of  the  new-discovered  lands,  while  the  new  course 
they  had  held  was  shorter  by  one  third  than  any  by  which  the  shores 
of  America  had  been  previously  attained. 

A  concurrence  of  circumstances  so  fortunate  was  not  slow  in  reviving  the 
dormant  spirit  of  emigration.  The  accession  of  James  I.  was  speedily  fol- 
lowed by  peace  between  England  and  Spain,  the  ardent  spirits  who  had  en- 
gaged in  the  struggle  thirsted  for  a  new  scene  of  enterprise,  and  desired  employ- 
ment for  their  hands  and  scope  for  their  vices,  while  "  sundry  people  within 
the  realme  distressed"  were  compelled  to  seek  in  the  plantations  of  the  New 
World  for  that  subsistence  denied  them  upon  their  native  soil.  Men  of  mer- 
cantile enterprise  and  geographical  science  became  interested  in  the  reports  of 
Gosnold,  and  the  merchants  of  Bristol  were  easily  induced  to  equip  two  ves- 
sels to  follow  up  the  discoveries  so  happily  commenced.  The  most  active 
and  efficacious  promoter  of  this  scheme  was  Richard  Hakluyt,  prebendary 
of  Westminster,  to  whom  England  is  more  indebted  for  its  American  posses- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  35 

sions  than  to  any  man  of  that  age,"  and  a  man,  as  Mr.  Bancroft  observes,    chap. 

"whose  fame  should  be  vindicated  and  asserted  in  the  land  he  helped  to '. — 

colonize."  Formed  under  a  kinsman  of  the  same  name,  eminent  for  his  naval 
and  commercial  knowledge,  he  imbibed  a  similar  taste,  and  applied  early  to 
the  study  of  geography  and  navigation.  In  order  to  excite  his  countrymen  to 
naval  enterprise,  he  published,  in  1589,  his  valuable  Collection  of  Voyages  and 
Travels  made  by  Englishmen,  and  translated  into  English  some  of  the  best 
accounts  of  the  progress  of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese.  Consulted  with 
respect  to  many  of  the  attempts  towards  discovery  or  colonization,  he  corre- 
sponded with  those  who  conducted  them,  directed  their  researches  to  proper 
objects,  and  published  the  history  of  their  exploits.  By  the  zealous  endeavours 
of  a  person  equally  respected  by  men  of  rank  and  men  of  business,  many  of 
both  orders  formed  an  association  to  establish  colonies  in  America,  and  peti- 
tioned the  king  for  the  sanction  of  his  authority  to  warrant  the  execution  of 
their  plans. 

The  "  Speedwell "  and  "  Discoverer,"  thus  sent  forth  to  authenticate  the 
reports  of  Gosnold,  confirmed  them  entirely,  and,  together  with  succeeding 
adventurers,  visited  the  coast  of  Maine.  Thus,  in  1606,  had  the  whole  line 
of  the  American  coast,  with  trifling  exceptions,  been  traced  from  the  shores  of 
Labrador  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  bold  and  hardy  pioneers  of  discovery 
had  done  their  noble  work,  the  first  explorers,  "  the  forlorn  hope "  of  civil- 
ization, had  made  their  graves  in  the  new-found  world,  and  the  time  was  at 
hand  when  a  new  impulse  was  to  be  given  to  the  spirit  of  colonization,  and 
states  were  to  be  built  up  that  should  take  a  lasting  possession  of  that  great 
continent,  the  refuge  of  the  persecuted  and  the  asylum  of  the  distressed,  the 
stronghold  of  liberty  for  all  succeeding  generations. 

The  English  monarch,  who  had  already  turned  his  attention  to  improving 
the  wilder  parts  of  Scotland  by  the  introduction  of  civilized  colonies,  listened 
readily  to  proposals  which  flattered  his  imaginary  skill  in  the  science  of 
government ;  he  granted  an  ample  charter  to  the  company,  and  set  himself  to 
the  congenial  work  of  framing  a  code  of  laws  for  their  especial  regulation. 
His  own  prerogative  was  of  course  paramount.  In  these  the  regulations  were 
cumbrous  and  unsuitable ;  the  superintendence  of  the  colonial  proceedings 
devolved  upon  a  council  in  England,  exclusively  nominated  by  the  monarch ; 
the  local  administration  was  confided  to  a  council  in  the  colony  itself,  whose 
appointment  and  continuance  in  office  equally  depended  on  the  royal  plea- 
sure. The  emigrants  themselves  possessed  not  a  shadow  of  self-government, 
and  with  the  general  reservation  of  their  rights  as  Englishmen,  were  placed 
under  a  system  equally  impolitic  and  arbitrary.  Individual  enterprise  was 
also  paralysed,  by  a  regulation  that  for  five  years  at  least  the  industry  and 
commerce  of  the  colony  were  to  be  conducted  in  a  joint  stock.  The  same 
conformity  in  religion  enforced  at  home  in  order  to  check  the  growing  spirit  of 
Puritanism  and  religious  liberty,  was  strictly  enjoined  in  the  colony.  Com- 
mercial regulations,  on  the  other  hand,  were  encouraging;  no  duty  was  to  be 
imposed  upon  imports  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  colonists  for  a  period 

r  2 


A.  D. 1606. 


36  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  of  seven  years,  they  were  free  to  trade  with  other  nations,  and  the  duties  levied 
on  foreign  commodities  were  to  be  employed  for  their  own  benefit  for  twenty- 
one  years,  after  which  period  they  reverted  to  the  king.  The  tenure  of  land 
was  also  of  the  most  favourable  character. 

The  extensive  territory  now  discovered  and  claimed  by  the  English  was 
granted  to  two  companies.  "  That  portion  of  North  America  which  stretches 
from  the  thirty-fourth  to  the  forty-fifth  degree  of  latitude,  was  divided  into 
two  districts  nearly  equal ;  the  one  called  the  first  or  South  colony  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  other  the  second  or  North  colony.  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  George 
Summers,  Richard  Hakluyt,  and  their  associates  in  London,  were  empowered 
to  settle  any  part  of  the  former,  with  a  right  of  property  for  fifty  miles  along 
the  coast  from  the  place  of  their  first  habitation,  and  reaching  a  hundred  miles 
into  the  interior.  The  latter  district  was  allotted  to  a  company  formed  of 
sundry  knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants  of  the  West  of  England. 

The  preparations  of  the  company  were  not  answerable  to  the  greatness  of 
the  territory  conceded.  A  single  vessel  of  a  hundred  tons,  and  two  barks 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Newport,  were  all  that  their  means  enabled 
them  to  fit  out ;  the  number  of  emigrants  was  but  one  hundred  and  five,  of 
whom  but  a  small  proportion  were  practical  mechanics ;  and  the  remainder, 
among  whom  were  a  son  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland  and  other  men  of 
family,  but  little  fitted  for  the  foundation  of  a  colony.  Many  were  "  of  tender 
education  and  no  experience  of  martial  accidents,  expecting  feather-beds  and 
down  pillows,  taverns  and  alehouses,  gold  and  silver  and  dissolute  liberty, 
persons  inflated  with  the  importance  of  official  situations  multiplied  in  ridi- 
culous disproportion  to  an  infant  colony,  projecting,  verbal,  and  idle  con- 
templators,"  as  they  are  called  by  Smith,  who,  from  his  practical  sense  and 
the  natural  ascendency  given  by  genius  and  experience,  soon  became  the 
object  of  jealousy  and  proscription  to  the  rest.  The  voyage  was  a  scene  of 
contention,  which  there  was  no  authority  to  subdue,  since  the  king,  with  that 
refinement  of  sagacity  that  he  so  loved  to  affect,  had  ordered  that  the  box  con- 
taining the  names  and  instructions  of  the  council  should  not  be  opened  till 
after  their  arrival  in  Virginia.  Four  months  were  consumed  by  Newport's 
choice  of  the  passage  by  way  of  the  Canaries.  On  reaching  the  dangerous  coast 
of  Virginia,  a  fortunate  gale,  before  which  they  were  obliged  to  scud  under 
bare  poles,  drove  them  to  the  northward  of  the  old  settlement,  into  the  mouth 
of  the  spacious  and  magnificent  bay  of  the  Chesapeake :  its  southern  and 
northern  headlands  were  respectively  called  Cape  Henry  and  Cape  Charles, 
after  the  sons  of  the  king,  and  Point  Comfort  was  so  called  from  the  sheltered 
anchorage  it  afforded  for  their  ships.  This  noble  inlet,  with  its  safe  roadsteads 
and  expanding  shores,  excited  their  admiration,  and  sailing  up  and  exploring 
James  River  for  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  they  determined  that  here,  and  not 
at  Roanoke,  it  behoved  them  to  lay  the  foundation  of  their  infant  settlement, 
to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  James  Town — the  oldest  town  founded  by  the 
English  in  the  New  "World,  as  were  Annapolis  and  St.  Augustine,  by  the 
French  and  Spaniards. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  37 

When  the  members  of  the  council  were  ascertained,  they  proceeded  to  chip. 

choose  Wingfield  president,  and  displayed  at  once  their  incapacity  and  jea- '. — 

lousy  by  meanly  excluding  Smith,  who  was  one  of  those  named,  upon  the 
pretext  of  sedition.  His  eminent  qualities  and  practical  activity  had  galled 
the  envious  and  disturbed  the  slothful.  No  man  possessed  in  a  more  re- 
markable degree  the  energy  required  in  the  founder  of  a  colony,  or  had 
become  more  inured  to  a  life  of  peril  and  adventure. 

From  his  very  childhood  he  had  a  roving  and  romantic  fancy,  and,  at  thir- 
teen, sold  satchel  and  books,  and  all  that  he  had,  to  raise  money  to  go  to  sea. 
At  this  juncture  his  father  died,  and  he  was  left  to  the  care  of  guardians 
more  intent  on  improving  his  estate  than  him.  By  them  he  was  bound  to  a 
merchant  at  Lynn,  but  not  being  sent,  as  he  desired,  to  sea,  he  found  means 
to  go  to  France  in  the  train  of  a  son  of  Lord  Willoughby.  Hence,  after  be- 
coming initiated  into  warlike  exercises,  he  repaired  to  Scotland  in  the  hope 
of  advancement,  but  returned  disappointed  to  his  native  village  of  Willoughby. 
Here,  finding  no  one  of  the  same  wild  humour  as  himself,  he  retired,  with 
Quixotic  eccentricity,  into  a  solitary  glade  surrounded  with  thick  woods,  built 
himself  a  pavilion  of  boughs,  and  occupied  himself  with  a  Marcus  Aurelius, 
and  Machiavel  on  the  Art  of  War,  and  with  the  exercises  of  his  horse  and  lance. 
Withdrawn  from  this  solitude,  his  restless  genius  hurried  him  on  the  conti- 
nent. After  a  strange  variety  of  adventures,  he  embarked  at  Marseilles  for 
Italy,  a  storm  arose,  the  trembling  pilgrims  cursed  him  for  a  Huguenot,  and 
threw  him  overboard,  like  Jonah,  to  allay  the  tempest.  He  swam  to  a  wild 
island,  whence  he  was  taken  off  by  a  French  rover,  who  treated  him  with 
kindred  gallantry  of  spirit :  they  fell  in  with  and  captured  a  rich  Venetian 
ship,  and  Smith,  set  on  shore  with  his  share  of  the  prize,  found  himself  in  a 
position  to  indulge  his  wandering  humour.  After  visiting  Italy,  he  went  to 
Vienna,  and  entered  himself  as  a  volunteer  against  the  Turks.  His  skill  and 
bravery  soon  led  to  his  promotion.  At  the  siege  of  a  strong  town,  a  Turkish 
officer  issued  a  challenge  to  single  combat,  and  Smith  was  the  fortunate  cham- 
pion to  whom  it  fell  by  lot  to  vindicate  the  honour  of  the  Christian  chivalry. 
He  slew  his  opponent,  as  well  as  two  others  who  desired  to  avenge  his  death, 
the  Duke  of  Transylvania  settled  on  him  a  pension,  and  gave  him  letters  of 
nobility,  with  a  shield  bearing  three  Turks'  heads  for  his  arms,  which  were 
confirmed  afterwards  in  the  Herald's  College  in  England. 

At  the  fatal  battle  of  Rottenton,  he  was  left  for  dead,  and  only  recovered 
to  be  sold  as  a  slave.  A  certain  pasha  bought  him  as  a  present  to  a  favourite 
mistress  of  Tartar  origin — young  and  handsome,  he  excited  the  interest  and 
attachment  of  his  possessor,  who  sent  him  to  her  brother  to  be  treated  kindly,  till 
"  time  should  make  her  mistress  of  herself."  The  brother  misused  him  with 
such  cruelty  that  Smith,  in  a  fit  of  passion,  beat  out  his  brains.  He  fled  into 
Russia,  and  after  a  variety  of  adventures,  found  again  at  Leipsic  his  former 
patron,  the  Duke  of  Transylvania,  who  treated  him  with  much  honour  and 
made  him  a  considerable  present. 

Though  anxious  to  return  home,  the  ruling  passion  led  him  into  fresh  ad- 


II 

A.  D.  1G07 


38  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  ventures.  After  visiting  Germany,  France,  and  Spain,  he  passed  over  into 
Africa,  where  he  had  hoped  to  be  engaged  in  service,  visited  the  court  of 
Morocco,  and  on  his  return  by  way  of  France  to  England,  in  a  French  galley, 
shared  in  the  perils  of  a  most  desperate  engagement  with  two  Spanish  men  of 
war.  Finding  his  native  country  in  a  state  of  tranquillity,  and  opening  no 
prospect  for  his  adventurous  and  erratic  genius,  he  willingly  embarked  with 
Gosnold  in  the  scheme  for  settling  colonies  in  Virginia. 

A  soldier  of  fortune  in  an  age  of  licence,  Smith  was  singularly  free  from 
the  vices  with  which  that  profession  was  stained.  He  was  neither  actuated 
by  sordid  avarice  nor  disgraced  by  selfish  debauchery.  "  He  hated  baseness, 
sloth,  pride,  and  indignity  more  than  any  danger.  He  would  suffer  want 
rather  than  borrow,  and  starve  sooner  than  not  pay.  He  loved  action  more  than 
words,  and  hated  falsehood  and  covetousness  more  than  death.  Distinguished 
for  his  courage,  he  chose  rather  to  lead,  than  send  his  soldiers  into  danger,  and 
upon  all  hazardous  and  fatiguing  expeditions  always  shared  everything 
with  his  companions,  and  never  desired  them  to  do  or  undergo  anything  that 
he  was  not  ready  to  do  or  undergo  himself."  Unlike  most  of  the  adven- 
turers of  that  age,  his  courage  never  degenerated  into  cruelty  towards  the 
Indians ;  it  was  rather  by  dauntless  bearing,  clever  and  often  humorous  ex- 
pedient, and  moral  influence,  that  he  overawed  or  beguiled  them  into  sub- 
mission. While  his  love  of  discovery  found  scope  in  exploring  the  unknown 
boundaries  of  the  Chesapeake,  his  management  of  the  domestic  interests  of 
the  colony  was  full  of  practical  good  sense.  His  energy  gave  to  it  life  and 
subsistency,  and  his  loss  was  its  ruin  and  destruction.  "  In  short,"  says  his 
biographer,  "  he  was  a  soldier  of  the  true  old  English  stamp,  who  fought  not 
for  gain  and  empty  praise,  but  for  his  country's  honour  and  the  public  good; 
and,  with  the  most  stern  and  invincible  resolution,  there  was  seldom  seen  a 
milder  or  more  tender  heart." 

The  absurdity  of  the  plea  for  ruining  Smith  was  too  transparent,  and  at  the 
instance  of  Hunt,  the  excellent  chaplain  to  the  expedition,  he  was  soon  restored 
to  his  office,  and  proceeded  in  the  midst  of  every  discouragement  to  labour 
for  the  good  of  the  colony.  Foremost  in  enterprise,  in  company  with  New- 
port, he  ascended  James  River,  visited  Powhatan,  the  chief  of  the  country, 
who  received  them  with  a  display  of  barbaric  pomp.  The  savages  from  the 
first  regarded  the  settlers  with  suspicion  and  dislike,  and  watched  their  op- 
portunity to  attack  them.  After  the  return  of  Newport  with  the  ships,  the 
situation  of  the  colonists  became  every  day  more  perilous,  and  their  sufferings 
more  severe.  The  long  voyage  had  made  serious  inroads  on  their  stock  of 
provisions,  and  they  were  soon  reduced  to  extremity.  "  Had  we  been,"  says 
Smith,  with  the  humorous  buoyancy  that  never  abandoned  him  in  the  midst 
of  difficulties,  "  as  free  from  all  sins  as  from  gluttony  and  drunkenness,  we 
might  have  been  canonized  for  saints.  But  our  president  never  would  have 
been  admitted,  for  engrossing  to  his  private  use  oatmeal,  sack,  oil,  aquavitce, 
beef,  eggs,  or  what  not,  but  the  kettle — that  indeed  he  allowed  equally  to  be 
distributed,  and  that  was  half  a  pint  of  wheat  and  as  much  barley,  boiled  with 


u 


Of   THE 


UNIVE 


I. 

A.D.  160?. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  39 

water,  for  a  man  a  day,  and  this,  having  fried  twenty-six  weeks  in  the  ship's  chap. 
hold,  contained  as  many  worms  as  grains  ; — our  drink  was  water  ;  our  lodgings, 
castles  in  the  ayre."  Even  these  illusions  were  soon  bitterly  dispelled.  The 
major  part,  unaccustomed  to  labour,  and  compelled  to  work  under  the  burning 
heat  in  cutting  and  planting  palisades  for  the  fort,  soon  sunk  under  their  toils 
and  privations, — the  hostile  Indians  hung  like  a  cloud  over  their  spirits,  dis- 
content and  dissension  added  to  the  cup  of  their  sufferings,  and  fever,  bred  from 
the  rankness  of  the  soil  and  heat  of  the  climate,  fatally  assisted  by  mental 
depression,  made  such  ravages,  that  before  the  autumn  one  half  of  the  colony 
had  perished.  The  selfish  Wingfield,  who  had  attempted  to  escape  to  the 
West  Indies,  had  been  deposed;  his  successor,  Ratcliffe,  was  incompetent  to 
rally  the  sinking  colony,  and  those  qualities  of  Smith  that  had  formerly  ren- 
dered him  the  object  of  general  envy,  now  marked  him  out  for  the  post  of  re- 
sponsibility and  peril.  He  nobly  answered  to  the  summons,  and  after  com- 
pleting the  fortifications  of  James  Town,  marched  in  quest  of  the  treacherous 
and  hostile  Indians.  Some  tribes  he  gained  by  caresses  and  presents,  others 
he  openly  attacked,  and,  by  persuasion  or  force,  compelled  them  at  once  to  de- 
sist from  hostilities  and  also  to  furnish  a  supply  of  provisions.  Enabled  thus  to 
leave  the  settlers  in  James  Town  in  a  state  of  comparative  security  and 
plenty,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  exploration  of  the  Chickahominy,  in 
pursuance  of  an  order  from  the  council  to  seek  a  communication  with  the 
Southern  sea.  On  this  expedition  he  was  surprised  by  the  savages,  his  men 
killed,  and  in  endeavouring  to  pass  a  swamp,  he  sunk  to  the  neck  and  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender.  In  this  extremity,  his  presence  of  mind  did  not  desert 
him;  he  astonished  the  Indians  with  a  pocket  compass,  and  so  dazzled  them 
with  accounts  of  its  mysterious  powers,  that  he  was  conducted  by  them  with 
mingled  triumph  and  fear  from  tribe  to  tribe,  as  a  remarkable  being  whose 
character  and  designs  they  were  unable  to  penetrate,  in  spite  of  all  the  incant- 
ations of  their  seers.  At  length  he  was  conducted  to  Powhatan.  The  politic 
chief,  seated  in  the  midst  of  his  women,  received  him  with  a  display  of  bar- 
baric ceremony ;  the  queen  brought  him  water  to  wash  his  hands,  and  another 
person  a  bunch  of  feathers  to  dry  them,  and  whilst  he  was  feasted  they 
proceeded  to  deliberate  upon  his  fate.  Their  fears  dictated  the  policy  of  his 
destruction,  he  was  suddenly  dragged  forward,  his  head  placed  upon  a  large 
stone,  and  the  club  already  uplifted  to  dash  out  his  brains,  when  Pocahontas, 
"  the  king's  most  deare  and  well-beloved  daughter,  a  child  of  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  age,"  after  unavailing  and  passionate  entreaties  for  the  life  of  the 
white  man,  so  noble  a  being  to  her  youthful  imagination,  ran  forward  and 
clung  to  him  with  her  arms,  and  laying  her  head  upon  his  own,  disarmed  the 
savage  fury  of  his  executioners.  The  life  of  the  wondrous  stranger  was  pre- 
served, his  open  and  generous  character  won  not  only  the  heart  of  the  young 
Pocahontas,  but  that  of  her  brother  Nantaquaus,  "  the  manliest,  comeliest, 
boldest  spirit  ever  seen  in  a  savage."  By  the  promise  of  "  life,  liberty,  land, 
and  women,"  they  now  sought  to  engage  Smith  in  an  attack  upon  the  co- 
lonists, but  his  address  and  influence  turned  them  from  the  project,  and  he  was 


IT. 


A.  D. 1607. 


40  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.      J 

chap,  at  length  dismissed  with  promises  of  support  and  amity.  Like  a  tutelary  genius, 
the  loving  Indian  girl,  after  saving  the  life  of  their  chief,  "  revived  the  dead 
spirits  "  of  the  colonists  by  her  attention  to  their  wants,  bringing  every  day 
with  her  attendants  baskets  of  provisions,  so  that,  the  enmity  of  the  savages 
disarmed,  and  a  supply  of  food  obtained,  "  all  men's  fear  was  now  abandoned." 

For  Smith,  on  his  return  from  the  captivity  which  brought  with  it  such 
beneficial  results,  had  found  the  colony  reduced  to  the  brink  of  destruction, 
and  about  to  be  abandoned  by  the  miserable  handful  of  forty  men  who  remained 
out  of  those  who  had  landed.  This  desperate  expedient  was  prevented  by  his 
energetic  remonstrance,  and  at  length  Newport  made  his  appearance  with  a 
supply  of  necessaries,  and  another  company  of  adventurers.  Its  composition 
was  as  unfortunate  as  that  of  the  preceding — to  the  dissolute  and  helpless  crew 
that  formed  the  majority,  was  added  a  leaven  of  the  old  disease,  the  plague  of 
"  guilded  refiners  with  their  golden  promises ;  no  talk,  no  hope,  no  work,  but 
dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine  gold,  load  gold,  such  a  bruit  of  gold  that  one  mad 
fellow  desired  to  be  buried  in  the  sands,  lest  they  should  make  gold  of  his 
bones."  All  this  arose  from  the  accidental  discovery  of  some  shining  mineral 
substance,  which  credulous  imagination  converted  into  auriferous  sand ;  and 
while  the  cultivation  of  the  land  was  neglected,  Newport  returned  to  England 
with  a  cargo  of  the  visionary  treasure. 

Smith  now  undertook,  in  an  open  barge  of  three  tons'  burden,  the  explor- 
ation of  the  immense  Bay  of  the  Chesapeake,  the  dim  receding  shores  of 
which  seemed  to  open  a  tempting  and  noble  field  of  discovery.  The  event 
was  more  answerable  to  his  anticipations,  than  to  the  very  limited  means  at 
his  command.  During  three  months  he  visited  all  the  countries  on  the  eastern 
and  western  shores,  ascended  many  of  the  great  tributaries  that  swell  that  mag- 
nificent basin,  trading  with  friendly  tribes,  fighting  with  those  hostile,  observ- 
ing the  nature  and  productions  of  their  territories,  and  leaving  behind  him 
by  the  exercise  of  ready  tact  and  of  dauntless  intrepidity,  unstained  by  a 
single  act  of  cruelty,  a  high  impression  of  the  valour  and  nobleness  of  the 
English  character.  After  sailing  in  two  successive  cruises  above  three 
thousand  miles,  in  contending  with  hardship  and  peril  and  the  discourage- 
ment of  his  companions,  whose  complaints  he  humorously  silenced  by  a 
reference  to  the  expedition  of  Lane,  and  the  "  dogges  porridge  "  to  which  he 
had  been  reduced,  he  succeeded  in  bringing  back  to  James  Town  an  account 
of  the  provinces  bordering  on  the  Chesapeake,  with  a  map  that  long  served  as 
the  basis  of  subsequent  delineations. 

On  his  return  from  this  important  expedition,  in  the  autumn  of  1608,  Smith 
was  elected  president  of  the  council ;  and  by  his  provident  activity,  although 
but  thirty  acres  of  ground  were  cleared  and  cultivated,  no  distress  was  felt. 
Meanwhile,  Newport  returned  with  seventy  new  settlers,  but  of  the  same  un- 
suitable character.  It  was  no  easy  task  for  the  new  president  to  enforce 
among  so  mixed  a  company  the  steady  industry  necessary  to  the  very  existence 
of  their  struggling  colony ;  although  foremost  in  every  labour,  his  example 
inspired  emulation,  and  his  firmness  overawed  the  dissolute  and  contentious. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  41 

At  this  juncture  a  change  took  place  in  the  constitution  of  the  company.     At  chap. 

the  solicitation  of  Cecil  and  other  parties  in  power,  the  king  made  over  to  the ■ — 

council  the  powers  he  had  formerly  exercised,  while  the  jurisdiction  of  that 
in  Virginia  was  abolished.  Empowered  thus  to  establish  what  laws  they 
judged  best  for  the  state  of  the  colony,  and  to  nominate  a  governor  to  carry 
them  into  execution,  the  council  in  London  obtained  the  absolute  control  of 
the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  colonists.  The  grant  of  such  extensive  and 
direct  powers  attracted  many  personages  of  eminence,  and  eventually  intro- 
duced a  firmer  administration.  The  first  deed  of  the  new  council  was  to 
appoint  Lord  Delaware,  whose  virtues  adorned  his  rank,  as  Governor  and 
Captain-general  of  the  colony.  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  Sir  George  Summers 
were  authorized  to  administer  its  affairs  until  his  arrival.  Under  such  aus- 
pices, an- expedition  of  unusual  magnitude  might  have  been  expected ;  nine 
vessels,  under  the  command  of  Newport,  containing  more  than  five  hundred 
emigrants,  were  soon  on  their  way  out.  The  prosperity  of  Virginia  seemed 
placed  at  length  beyond  the  reach  of  danger.  An  unforeseen  accident  inter- 
rupted their  sanguine  expectations ;  a  violent  storm  arose  ;  the  vessel  on  board 
of  which  were  Gates,  Summers,  and  Newport,  was  separated  from  the  rest, 
and  after  a  narrow  escape  from  foundering,  was  stranded  on  the  coast  of  the 
Bermudas,  where,  however,  all  were  preserved.  The  rest  of  the  ships,  with 
one  exception,  succeeded  in  reaching  James  Town  in  safety. 

While  these  events  were  proceeding,  Smith  had  been  engaged  in  main- 
taining order  and  security  among  the  little  band  of  colonists.  The  sudden 
arrival  of  so  considerable  a  reinforcement  disconcerted  all  his  arrangements. 
The  new  immigrants  were  "  unruly  gallants,  packed  off  to  escape  ill  destinies 
at  home,"  men  of  broken  fortunes  and  unsteady  habits ;  the  actual  govern- 
ment was  void,  the  fate  of  the  new  governor  uncertain,  the  provisional 
authority  of  Smith  doubtful  and  contested,  and  everything  tended  to  the 
speedy  dissolution  of  their  little  society.  Union  alone  could  insure  their  de- 
fence, against  the  Indians,  whose  jealousy  of  their  encroachments  was  steadily 
gaining  ground,  but  every  day  their  dissensions  increased.  Powhatan,  checked 
at  times  by  the  ascendency  of  Smith,  at  others  formed  plans  for  cutting  them 
all  off.  In  these  distresses  and  perils  Pocahontas  still  proved  herself  the 
guardian  angel  of  the  unruly  colonists  ;  and,  "  under  God,"  as  Smith  declared 
in  a  letter  to  the  queen  of  James  L, "  the  instrument  for  preserving  them  from 
death,  famine,  and  utter  confusion.  When  her  father,"  he  observes,  "  with 
policy  sought  to  surprise  me,  having  but  eighteen  men  with  me,  the  dark 
night  could  not  affright  her  from  coming  through  the  irksome  woods,  and 
with  watery  eyes  gave  me  intelligence,  with  her  best  advice,  to  escape  his 
fury,  which,  had  he  known,  he  had  surely  slain  her."  While  disunion  thus 
exposed  the  settlers  to  Indian  treachery,  the  want  of  concerted  industry, 
and  the  rapid  consumption  of  their  stores,  soon  threatened  them  with  all  the 
horrors  of  famine.  Although  his  authority  had  been  superseded,  Smith  still 
continued,  from  a  feeling  of  public  spirit,  to  wrestle  with  the  factious  colonists, 
and  to  hold  the  helm  until  the  arrival  of  his  successor.     But  at  this  critical 


4»  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  period,  when  all  so  rapidly  tended  to  the  wildest  anarchy,  an  accidental  ex- 
1L       plosion  of  gunpowder,  which  inflicted  a  dangerous  and  tormenting  wound, 

a.  d.  leu.  coinpenecL  him  t0  return  to  England,  to  seek  for  that  surgical  aid  which  Vir- 
ginia was  unable  to  afford.  It  is  difficult  to  picture  the  sufferings  that  ensued 
after  his  departure  ;  so  rapid  was  the  catastrophe,  that  in  less  than  six  months 
of  inconceivable  misery,  remembered  long  after  as  the  "  starving  time,"  of 
five  hundred  persons  whom  he  had  left  in  Virginia,  all  but  sixty  were  cut 
off  by  vice,  disease,  and  famine.  In  a  few  days  longer  the  whole  of  them 
must  have  perished,  had  not  an  unexpected  succour  arrived  in  their  utter- 
most extremity. 

This  was  the  unlooked-for  appearance  of  Gates  and  Summers  from  the 
Bermudas.  They  had  not  lost  a  single  person  on  their  shipwreck;  they 
had  happily  succeeded  in  saving  their  provisions  and  stores ;  and  while  the 
colonists  of  Virginia  had  suffered  the  pinchings  of  want,  the  spontaneous 
bounties  of  nature  had  richly  supported  them  for  many  months.  Anxious  to 
rejoin  their  companions,  they  constructed  two  crazy  vessels,  and  were  for- 
tunate enough  to  reach  Virginia  in  safety.  They  were  horror-struck  at  the 
appearance  of  the  few  surviving  colonists,  who,  finding  that  their  stores  would 
last  but  for  sixteen  days  longer,  resolved  to  abandon  the  hated  shore  which 
had  witnessed  their  prolonged  miseries,  and  even  to  consume  the  town  on 
their  departure ;  an  act  of  insane  folly  which  was  happily  prevented  by  Gates. 
On  the  7th  of  June,  at  noon,  they  embarked  in  foui  pinnaces,  and  fell  down 
the  river  with  the  tide.  Next  morning,  before  they  had  reached  the  sea, 
they  were  startled  with  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  long  boat  of  Lord 
Delaware,  who  had  just  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  with  ships  and  re- 
inforcements. By  persuasion  and  authority  he  prevailed  upon  the  melancholy 
band  to  return,  half  reluctanctly,  to  the  scene  of  their  sufferings,  in  the  hope 
of  better  times. 

Twice  was  Virginia  thus  saved  from  destruction  by  the  energy  and  pru- 
dence of  a  single  individual.  The  first  act  of  Lord  Delaware  was  to  pub- 
lish his  commission,  and  to  consecrate  his  functions  by  the  solemnities  of  re- 
ligion. It  was  an  affecting  scene — that  assemblage  in  the  rude  log-built  chapel. 
The  hearts  of  the  colonists  were  full,  the  arrival  of  the  governor  seemed  to 
them  like  a  special  deliverance  of  Divine  Providence.  They  took  courage  to 
grapple  with  the  difficulties  of  their  situation,  and  soon  found  them  to  give  way 
before  their  determined  energy.  The  mingled  firmness  and  gentleness  of  the 
new  governor  imposed  upon  the  factious,  and  won  over  the  dissolute  and 
refractory.  A  regular  system  was  established,  and  every  one  cheerfully  sub- 
mitted to  his  appointed  share  in  the  labours  of  the  day,  which  were  regularly 
preceded  by  public  worship.  The  colony  now  began  to  put  forth  some  pro- 
mise of  permanent  establishment ;  but  scarcely  had  Lord  Delaware  brought 
about  this  gratifying  result,  than  a  complication  of  disorders  compelled  him 
to  return  to  England,  leaving  Lord  Percy  as  his  deputy.  During  his  short 
stay,  he  had  not  only  reduced  the  colonists  to  some  degree  of  order,  but 
had  repressed  the  encroachments  of  the  Indians,  by  the  erection  of  new  forts, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  43 

and  by  attacking  some  of  their  villages.     Sir  George  Somers  was  sent  for    chap. 

provisions  to  the  fertile  Bermudas,  where  he  died.     Captain  Argall,  who  ac- '. — 

companied  him  in  another  vessel,  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  supply  of  corn  on 
the  shores  of  the  Potomac. 

The  discouragement  among  the  colonists  occasioned  by  the  departure  of 
Lord  Delaware,  was  happily  relieved  by  the  speedy  arrival  of  Sir  Thomas 
Dale  with  three  ships,  some  cattle,  and  three  hundred  settlers.  For  the  dis- 
orders arising  from  discontent  and  mutiny  which  had  brought  the  colony  to 
the  brink  of  ruin,  a  stringent  remedy  had  been  provided  in  a  code  of  martial 
law,  founded  on  that  of  the  armies  in  the  Low  Countries,  by  which  Dale  was 
empowered  to  execute  summary  justice  upon  any  disturbers  of  the  public 
peace,  or  contentious  opponents  of  his  measures.  This  was,  however,  ad- 
ministered so  wisely  by  him  as  to  fortify  without  exasperating  the  spirits  of 
the  infant  colony,  which  certainly  required  a  stern  and  watchful  nurse. 

Lord  Delaware,  meanwhile,  had  not  forgotten  Virginia ;  and  his  influence 
was  used  in  seconding  the  urgent  request  of  Dale  for  seasonable  reinforce- 
ments. The  next,  accordingly,  sent  out  turned  the  trembling  scale  and  estab- 
lished the  nascent  prosperity  of  the  colony.  Sir  Thomas  Gates  soon  arrived 
with  six  ships  and  three  hundred  emigrants,  thus  swelling  the  number  of  the 
settlers  to  a  band  of  seven  hundred  men.  He  brought  also  a  quantity  of 
cattle,  and  a  stock  of  military  stores.  The  unlooked-for  arrival  of  this  as- 
sistance was  welcomed  with  transports  of  affectionate  gratitude  to  the  mother 
country. 

The  colony  now  began  to  extend  its  boundaries,  and  the  Indians  were  effect- 
ually overawed.  A  new  settlement,  defended  by  a  palisade,  called,  after  the 
king's  son,  Henrico,  was  built  at  some  distance  up  James  River  ;  and  another 
at  a  spot  taken  (on  account  of  their  aggressions  upon  the  colonists)  from  the 
Appomatocks  Indians,  at  the  junction  of  the  river  of  that  name  with  the  James. 
A  circumstance  shortly  afterwards  occurred,  which  greatly  tended,  for  a  while, 
to  allay  the  mutual  animosities  of  the  aborigines  and  settlers.  During  a  voyage 
up  the  Potomac,  Captain  Argall  had  artfully  brought  off  Pocahontas,  and  re- 
fused to  give  her  up  unless  in  exchange  for  some  runaways,  who  had  taken 
refuge  with  her  father,  Powhatan.  While  the  latter  was  preparing  for  hos- 
tilities, one  of  the  settlers,  a  young  man  named  John  Rolph,  struck  with  the 
beauty  and  gentleness  of  the  Indian  maiden,  resolved  to  demand  her  of  her 
father  in  marriage.  Such  an  union  was  as  contrary  to  the  prejudices  of  his 
countrymen,  as  it  was  desired  by  the  Indians  themselves,  as  being  the  surest 
method  of  cementing  a  lasting  and  equal  alliance  with  the  new-comers.  The 
governor,  however,  encouraged  it  from  motives  of  policy, — Powhatan  was 
rejoiced, — the  maiden  herself  was  soon  successfully  wooed  and  won  over  to 
the  faith  of  her  husband,  and  the  baptism  of  the  gentle  Pocahontas  was  shortly 
followed  by  her  nuptials.  This  auspicious  example,  it  was  hoped  by  the 
Indians,  would  have  been  more  generally  imitated  than  it  proved  to  be  by 
the  English,  who  have  ever  shown  themselves  slower  than  other  nations  in 
allying  themselves  with  the  natives  of  their  colonies.     The  Indians  could  not 

G   2 


A.  D.  1617. 


44  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  but  perceive  that  their  alliance  was  rejected,  that  they  were  despised  as  an 
inferior  race,  and  doomed  to  be  ultimately  expelled,  by  force  or  fraud,  from 
the  hunting-grounds  of  their  ancestors.  Nor  was  it  long  before  they  formed  a 
deep-laid  scheme  to  cut  off  the  unwelcome  intruders.  For  a  while,  how- 
ever, all  appeared  fair  and  promising,  and  the  powerful  tribe  of  the  Chicka- 
hominies  sought  the  alliance  of  the  English. 

The  fate  of  the  simple  Indian  maiden,  "  the  first  Christian  ever  of  that  nation, 
the  first  Virginian  that  ever  spake  English,"  and  from  whom  have  sprung 
some  influential  families,  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference.  Shortly  after  her 
marriage  she  accompanied  her  husband  to  England,  where  she  was  much 
caressed  for  her  gentle,  modest  nature,  and  her  great  services  to  the  colony. 
Here  she  fell  in  again  with  the  gallant  Smith,  whom  from  report  she  sup- 
posed to  have  been  long  dead,  and  who  has  left  us  an  interesting  account  of 
his  interview  with  her,  and  of  the  circumstances  of  her  untimely  death. — 
"  Hearing  shee  was  at  Brenford,  with  divers  of  my  friends  I  went  to  see  her. 
After  a  modest  salutation,  without  any  word,  she  turned  about,  obscured  her 
face,  as  not  seeming  well  contented ;  and  in  that  humour  her  husband  with 
divers  others,  we  all  left  her  two  or  three  houres,  repenting  myselfe  to  have 
writ  she  could  speake  English ;  but  not  long  after,  she  began  to  talke,  and 
remembered  mee  well  what  courtesies  she  had  done,  saying,  '  You  did  pro- 
mise Powhatan  what  was  yours  should  bee  his,  and  he  the  like  to  you;  you 
called  him  father,  being  in  his  land  a  stranger,  and  by  the  same  reason  so  must 
I  doe  you;'  which  though  I  would  have  excused,  I  durst  not  allow  of  that 
title  because  she  was  a  king's  daughter ;  with  a  well-set  countenance  she  said, 
c  Were  you  not  afraid  to  come  into  my  father's  countrie  and  cause  feare  in 
him  and  all  his  people  (but  mee),  and  feare  you  here  that  I  should  call  you 
father  ?  I  tell  you  then  I  will,  and  you  shall  call  mee  child,  and  so  I  will  bee 
for  ever  and  ever  your  countrieman.  They  did  tell  us  alwais  you  were  dead, 
and  I  knew  no  other  till  I  came  to  Plimoth,  yet  Powhatan  did  command 
Vitamatomakkin  to  seeke  you  and  know  the  truth,  because  your  countriemen 
will  lie  much.' 

"  The  treasurer,  councell,  and  companie  having  well  furnished  Captaine 
Samuel  Argall,  the  Lady  Pocahontas,  alias  Rebecca,  with  her  husband  and 
others,  in  the  good  ship  called  the  George,  it  pleased  God,  at  Gravesend,  to 
take  this  young  lady  to  his  mercie,  where  shee  made  not  more  sorrow  for  her 
unexpected  death,  than  joy  to  the  beholders  to  hear  and  see  her  make  so  re- 
ligious and  godly  an  end." 

Among  the  changes  that  had  recently  taken  place  in  the  condition  of  the 
colony,  two  circumstances  require  especial  notice,  for  their  important  influence 
upon  its  growth  and  improvement.  The  first  was  the  establishment  of  a  right 
of  private  property  in  the  settlers,  who  by  this  stimulus  soon  came  to  take  a 
greater  interest  in  the  improvement  of  their  own  lands,  thus  carrying  on  at 
the  same  time  the  general  prosperity  of  the  colony.  The  second  was  the 
sending  over  from  England  of  a  considerable  number  of  respectable  young 
females,  who  were  eagerly  welcomed  by  the  settlers,  and  thus  arrested  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  45 

degeneracy  of  every  community  from  which  women  are  banished,  and  added  chap. 
the  sanctities  and  blessings  of  home  to  the  recently  acquired  rights  of  indi- 1 — 

•  ■%       -i  ,  A.  D.  1617. 

vidua!  property. 

The  visionary  research  for  gold  had  by  this  time  quite  died  out,  and  in- 
dustry was  now  turned  into  that  profitable  channel  from  which  it  has  never 
since  deviated.  The  discovery  of  tobacco  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  settlers  has 
been  already  noticed.  Since  that  time  the  taste  for  it,  in  spite  of  the  odium 
and  ridicule  it  encountered,  having  greatly  increased  in  England,  there  arose 
a  corresponding  demand,  and  as  it  was  found  to  yield  an  immediate  and 
handsome  return,  it  formed  the  almost  exclusive  object  of  cultivation,  and 
greatly  enriched  the  colony.  The  enclosures  around  the  wood  dwellings  of 
the  settlers,  and  even  the  open  streets  of  James  Town,  were  sown  with  it,  until 
the  cultivation  of  the  necessaries  of  life  was  neglected,  and  the  settlers  were 
compelled  to  rely  almost  entirely  upon  the  Indians  for  their  supply.  Many 
edicts  were  issued  both  at  home  and  abroad  against  the  prevailing  mania 
for  the  narcotic  weed,  but  its  insidiously  grateful  properties  effected  a  per- 
manent victory  over  all  the  anathemas  and  "  counterblasts  "  launched  forth 
against  it. 

In  tracing  the  political  history  of  the  United  States,  we  shall  find  two 
agencies,  which,  though  often  combined  and  acting  one  upon  the  other,  are 
still  in  their  own  nature  distinctly  independent.  The  first  is,  the  natural  tend- 
ency of  men  cut  off  from  their  parent  stock,  and  planted  in  a  new  country 
settled  by  their  labours,  to  assert  the  natural  right  of  self-government,  and  to 
frame,  with  an  independence  of  all  foreign  control,  such  laws  and  institutions 
as  are  suggested  by  local  circumstances.  The  other  is,  the  modifying  influ- 
ence exercised  over  them  by  their  connexion  with  the  country  from  which  they 
spring,  whose  laws,  whose  manners  and  prejudices,  whose  internal  state,  or 
foreign  policy,  must  affect  directly  or  indirectly  the  condition  of  her  depend- 
ent colonies.  We  shall  find,  as  we  advance  towards  the  memorable  period  of 
American  independence,  that  the  first  of  these  agencies,  even  when  apparently 
depressed,  has  been  steadily  gaining  ground,  until,  no  longer  in  need  of  the 
fostering  assistance  of  the  parent  state,  nor  able  longer  to  endure  the  restric- 
tions imposed  by  her  upon  their  giant  growth,  the  colonies  at  length  throw 
off  the  yoke,  and  assume  the  dignity  of  independent  nations. 

It  is  interesting,  then,  to  mark  the  first  germ  of  self-government  implanted 
in  Virginia.  The  disorders  of  the  colonists  had  led  to  the  establishment  of 
martial  law,  so  wisely  administered  by  Dale  as  to  occasion  no  complaint,  but 
the  abuses  to  which  such  a  system  was  liable  were  not  long  in  developing 
themselves.  Dale  had  returned  to  England,  leaving  George  Yeardley  as 
deputy  governor,  but  before  long,  through  the  influence  of  Lord  Rich,  one  of 
the  principal  stockholders,  Captain  Argall  was  appointed  in  the  room  of 
Yeardley.  Argall  was  active,  enterprising,  and  unscrupulous.  In  an  expe- 
dition to  the  Penobscot  he  had  destroyed  the  French  settlement  of  St.  Sauveur 
and  Port  Royal,  on  the  ground  of  the  claim  of  England  to  the  whole 
territory. 


46  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       His  tyranny  and  rapacity,  armed  by  the  possession  of  absolute  power,  soon 

—  became  so  intolerable  to  the  colonists  that  they  loudly  demanded  his  recall, 

and  the  company  answered  promptly  to  the  appeal  by  reappointing  Yeardley, 
who,  in  order  to  meet  the  growing  desire  among  the  colonists  for  the  pos- 
session of  political  rights,  which  was  beginning  to  be  felt  at  home,  was  in- 
structed for  the  first  time  to  appoint  a  local  assembly,  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  different  plantations.  This  moreover  was  distinctly  confirmed 
by  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  who  was  sent  out  to  supersede  Yeardley.  In  order, 
says  Robertson,  to  render  the  rights  of  the  planters  more  certain,  the  com- 
pany issued  a  Charter,  or  Ordinance,  which  gave  a  legal  and  permanent  form 
to  the  government  of  the  colony. 

The  effects  of  this  measure  were  soon  felt  in  the  reformation  of  numerous 
abuses,  and  in  increased  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  colonists.  The  post  of 
treasurer  had  been  conferred  on  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  whose  integrity  and 
energy  were  of  the  highest  value.  Though  the  colony  still  held  it*  ground, 
it  was  far  from  being  in  a  flourishing  state,  and  was  far  from  profitable  to  the 
company.  Sandys  soon  sent  out  twelve  hundred  additional  emigrants, 
together  with  ninety  young  women.  The  planters  rapidly  extended  their 
boundaries ;  besides  tobacco,  various  other  staples  of  industry,  among  which 
cotton  deserves  especial  mention,  were  introduced,  though  with  little  eventual 
success.  An  impulse  was  given  to  production  by  the  arrival,  for  the  first 
time,  of  a  cargo  of  negroes  brought  by  ?.  Dutch  vessel  for  sale — the  fatal 
germ  of  that  system  of  slavery,  which  has  become  so  incorporated  with  the 
very  existence  of  the  country,  that  its  abolition,  however  desirable,  is  attended 
with  infinite  difficulty.  One  of  the  first  results  of  the  discovery  of  the  African 
coasts  by  the  Portuguese,  was  thy  establishment  by  them  of  this  trade,  and 
their  example  was  imitated  by  che  Spanish,  whose  cities  abounded  in  negro 
slaves.  Sir  John  Hawkins  Lao  been  already  alluded  to  as  having  first  in- 
volved England  in  the  disgrace  of  this  inhuman  traffic.  On  one  of  his  semi- 
piratical  expeditions  hy  had  burnt  an  Indian  town  and  carried  off  a  large 
number  of  the  inhabitants  as  slaves.  The  practice  was  found  to  be  so  pro- 
fitable that  the  mcial  sense  of  the  community,  then  every  where  but  feebly 
developed,  was  easily  reconciled  to  its  adoption,  and,  spite  of  the  occasional 
remonstrances  jf  che  Catholic  clergy,  the  system  continued  to  gain  ground. 

While  industry  thus  extended  its  triumphs,  a  provision  for  religion 
and  education  was  not  forgotten.  The  Episcopal  Church  of  England  was 
firmly  re  jted  in  the  land,  which  was  divided  into  parishes,  each  served  by  a 
clergyman,  to  whom  a  glebe  and  salary  were  appointed.  Stringent  enactments 
were  levelled  against  the  growing  spirit  of  Puritanism.  A  considerable  estate 
w?u  also  set  apart  for  the  endowment  of  a  college  for  the  education  of  colonists 
Lnd  Indians. 

But  a  short  time  before,  and  the  abortive  efforts  to  plant  Virginia  had 
become  a  theme  for  satire  on  the  English  stage — its  success  wa's  now  the 
subject  of  general  enthusiasm.  The  colony  had  at  length  fairly  taken  root, 
and  in  the  possession  of  political  rights  and  comfortable  homes,  with  a  bound- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  47 

less  field  of  enterprise  before  them,  the  colonists  at  length  began  to  rest  from   chap. 

their  troubles,  and  little  anticipated  the  fearful  visitation  impending  over  them. ' — 

The  deep  dissatisfaction  of  the  Indians  at  the  growing  encroachments  which 
they  were  powerless  to  resist  by  open  force,  and  in  which  they  instinctively 
saw  the  first  steps  of  that  onward  march  of  civilization,  before  which  their 
race  was  to  melt  away,  suggested  the  policy  of  an  insidious  conspiracy.  Pow- 
hatan, the  ally  of  the  English,  was  dead,  and  was  succeeded  by  Opechancanough, 
who  matured,  in  impenetrable  darkness,  a  scheme  for  cutting  off  every  white 
man  from  the  colony,  which  he  veiled  by  the  profession  of  zealous  amity. 
The  English,  despising  the  Indians,  and  lulled  into  security  by  a  long  interval 
of  peace  with  them,  were  taken  entirely  by  surprise.  On  the  22nd  of  March, 
the  Indians,  loaded  with  the  sports  of  the  chace  and  other  provisions  for  their 
allies,  entered  their  dwellings,  and  were  received  without  suspicion ; — at  a 
given  signal,  the  wild  yell  of  the  savage  burst  forth ;  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  involved  in  a  common  massacre,  and  their  bodies  mangled  with 
ferocious  satisfaction.  Two  hundred  and  forty-seven  souls  were  thus  suddenly 
murdered;  and  the  whole  colony  might  have  been  cut  off,  but  for  a  con- 
verted Indian,  residing  in  the  house  of  his  English  master,  "who,"  it  is 
added, "  used  him  as  a  son."  Being  solicited  by  the  agent  of  Opechancanough 
to  murder  his  benefactor,  he  instantly  informed  him  of  the  treacherous  pro- 
posal ;  the  alarm  was  carried  to  James  Town,  which,  thus  forewarned,  was 
enabled  to  provide  against  the  treacherous  attack  of  the  Indians,  who  timidly 
fled  before  the  aspect  of  determined  resistance. 

Their  scheme  had  failed — the  greater  part  of  the  colonists  still  survived. 
But  the  effect  of  the  panic  was  most  disastrous.  The  scattered  settlements 
were  abandoned,  as  exposed,  without  adequate  defence,  to  the  sudden  attack 
of  a  ruthless  and  invisible  enemy,  who  eluded  pursuit  by  plunging  into  the 
depths  of  the  forest.  To  fear  succeeded  the  thirst  for  revenge;  and  a 
warfare  of  extermination  was  long  regarded  by  the  settlers  as  a  sacred 
duty,  and  even  enforced  by  successive  enactments.  The  misfortunes  of  the 
colonists  excited  a  general  sympathy  in  England,  and  prompt  supplies  were 
immediately  sent  out  for  their  relief.  The  harassing  warfare  that  ensued 
was  attended  with  much  misery  and  interruption  of  industrious  pursuits ; 
and  by  the  confusion  it  occasioned,  tended  still  further  to  inflame  the  disputes 
among  the  proprietaries.  The  affairs  of  the  company  had  been  unsuccessful, 
and  the  progress  of  the  colony  proportionably  slow.  The  colonists,  by  the 
terms  of  the  charter,  were  little  better  than  indented  servants  to  the  company, 
who,  notwithstanding  the  concessions  which  had  been  extorted  from  them, 
still  retained  the  supreme  direction  of  affairs.  Their  policy  was  narrow,  timid, 
and  fluctuating ;  and  its  unfortunate  result  led  to  dissensions,  in  which  poli- 
tical, even  more  than  commercial,  questions  soon  became  the  subject  of  eager 
dispute.  In  England  the  ministerial  faction  eagerly  endeavoured  to  fortify 
itself  by  gaining  adherents  among  the  Virginia  company,  but  the  great 
majority  were  determined  to  assert  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject  at 
home,  as  well  as  of  the  colonists  abroad.    A  freedom  of  discussion  on  political 


II 

A.  D. IC2 


48  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  matters  in  general  was  thus  generated,  which  was  regarded  by  the  lovers  of 
arbitrary  power  as  being  of  highly  dangerous  tendency.  The  king,  who  had 
taken  the  alarm,  was  appealed  to  as  arbiter  by  the  minority,  and,  furnished 
with  a  pretext  in  the  ill  success  and  presumed  mismanagement  of  the  com- 
pany's affairs,  determined  upon  a  summary  and  arbitrary  method  of  reforming 
them  after  his  own  standard.  Without  legal  right,  by  the  exercise  of  his  pre- 
rogative alone,  he  ordered  the  records  of  the  company  in  London  to  be  taken 
possession  of,  and  appointed  a  commission  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  its  pro- 
ceedings, while  another  body  was  sent  to  Virginia  to  inquire  into  the  condi- 
tion and  management  of  the  colony.  The  first  inquiry  brought,  it  was 
confessed,  much  mismanagement  to  light,  upon  which  the  king,  by  an  order 
in  council,  declared  his  own  intention  to  assume  in  future  the  appointment  of 
the  officers  of  the  colony,  and  the  supreme  direction  of  its  affairs.  The  di- 
rectors were  invited  to  accede  to  this  arrangement,  on  pain  of  the  forfeiture  of 
their  charter.  Paralysed  by  the  suddenness  of  this  attack  upon  their  privi- 
leges, they  begged  that  they  might  be  allowed  some  time  for  consideration. 
An  answer  in  three  days'  time  was  peremptorily  insisted  on.  Thus  menaced, 
they  determined  to  stand  upon  their  rights,  and  to  surrender  them  only  to 
force.  Upon  their  decided  refusal,  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  was  issued  by 
James  against  the  company,  in  order  that  the  validity  of  its  charter  might  be 
tried  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench.  The  parliament  having  assembled,  the 
court  made  a  last  appeal,  but  obtained  from  that  body  but  little  sympathy  for 
their  exclusive  privileges.  At  length  the  commissioners  returned  from  Vir- 
ginia with  accumulated  evidences  of  misgovernment,  and  an  earnest  recom- 
mendation to  the  monarch  to  recur  to  the  original  constitution  of  1606,  and 
to  abrogate  the  democratic  element  which  had  occasioned  so  much  dissension 
and  misrule.  This  afforded  additional  ground  for  a  decision,  which,  as  usual 
in  that  age,  says  Robertson,  was  "  perfectly  consonant  to  the  wishes  of  the 
monarch.  The  charter  was  forfeited,  the  company  was  dissolved,  and  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  conferred  on  it  returned  to  the  king,  from  whom  they 
flowed." 

The  colonists,  upon  learning  the  intentions  of  the  king,  sent  over  a  petition 
that  no  change  might  take  place  in  their  acquired  franchises,  whatever  form 
of  government  might  be  substituted  for  that  of  the  late  company.  Their  agent 
died  on  the  passage,  but  James,  satisfied  at  the  moment  with  the  victory  he 
had  obtained,  and  meditating  the  eventual  establishment  of  a  code  of  laws  of 
his  own  especial  devising,  made  for  the  present  little  or  no  change  in  the 
established  form  of  government.  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  was  continued  in  office, 
with  the  order  to  conform  to  the  precedent  of  the  last  five  years,  thus  tacitly 
recognising  the  authority  of  the  representative  assemblies  which  had  been 
convened  for  that  period.  The  monarch  died  before  he  could  fulfil  his  de- 
clared intentions  of  remodelling  the  state  of  Virginia  after  the  fashion  of  that 
pedantic  kingcraft  in  which  he  so  greatly  prided  himself. 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA.  49 


CHAPTER  III. 


III. 


A.  D. 1508. 


SETTLEMENT  OP  NEW  FRANCE. — THE  JESUITS   AT  MOUNT  DESERT  ISLAND.— DISCOVERIES   OP 
CHAMPLA1N. — FOUNDATION   OF  QUEBEC. — DESTRUCTION   OP  PORT  ROYAL. 


A.T  length,  France,  after  fifty  years  of  intestine  troubles,  having  through  the  chap. 
valour,  activity,  and  clemency  of  Henry  IV.  recovered  her  tranquillity,  and, 
under  this  most  able  of  her  monarchs,  being  in  a  condition  to  undertake  any 
enterprise,  the  taste  for  colonial  adventure  revived,  and  a  Breton  gentleman, 
the  Marquis  de  la  Roche,  obtained  the  same  commission  and  privileges  as  had 
been  conferred  on  Roberval.  But  his  expedition  was  a  total  failure.  On 
reaching  Isle  Sable,  one  of  the  dreariest  and  most  barren  of  the  Atlantic 
islands,  he  put  on  shore  a  band  of  forty  criminals,  whom  he  had  obtained  as 
sailors,  by  licence,  from  the  prisons  of  France,  and  who  soon  found  them- 
selves less  at  their  ease  than  in  the  dungeons  from  which  they  had  been  de- 
livered, and  were  finally  permitted  to  return  home.  The  growing  importance 
of  the  fur  trade,  next  led  the  Sieur  de  Pontgrave,  one  of  the  principal  merchants 
of  St.  Malo,  in  concert  with  M.  Chauvin,  to  obtain  a  patent,  and  set  on  foot  some 
more  successful  voyages.  In  1613,  De  Chatte,  governor  of  Dieppe,  formed 
a  company,  composed  not  only  of  Rouen  merchants,  but  of  many  persons  of 
condition,  and  his  preparations  were  advancing,  when  Samuel  de  Champlain, 
of  Saintonge,  an  officer  in  the  navy,  brave,  skilful,  and  experienced,  returned 
from  the  East  Indies,  where  he  had  spent  more  than  two  years.  He  was  so- 
licited to  direct  the  expedition,  to  which  with  the  king's  permission  he  con- 
sented. But  in  the  mean  time  De  Monts  had  obtained,  in  concert  with  a  con- 
federacy of  the  most  eminent  and  wealthy  merchants  of  France,  an  exclusive 
monopoly  of  the  fur  trade,  and  the  sovereignty  of  Acadia  and  its  dependencies, 
from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-sixth  degree  of  latitude.  This  unfortunate  ad- 
venturer, according  to  Charlevoix,  was  a  man  of  great  judgment,  integrity, 
and  patriotism,  zealous  for  his  country,  and  of  capacity  to  conduct  any 
enterprise  by  which  its  interests  might  be  advanced ;  but  his  views  were  never 
well  carried  out,  and  his  exclusive  privileges  awakened  the  envy  of  many, 
whose  persevering  hostility  brought  him  to  the  brink  of  ruin.  Another  and 
a  more  fatal  source  of  discord  was  not  wanting.  De  Monts  was  himself  a 
Calvinist,  at  a  time  when  the  cruel  and  sanguinary  struggles  between  Catholic 
and  Protestant  had  hardly  ceased,  yet  he  engaged  to  establish  the  Catholic 
religion  among  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  and  settlers.  Even  with  the  most 
upright  intentions  on  his  part,  such  a  condition  was  certain  to  involve  re- 
ligious disputes,  and  thus  to  disunite  and  weaken  an  infant  community. 


A.  D.  160C. 


50  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  De  Monts  first  landed  on  the  Isle  of  St.  Croix,  but  the  severity  of  the 
winter  drove  him  to  explore  the  coast  in  search  of  a  more  favourable  settle- 
ment. He  went  to  the  Kennebec,  and  as  far  south  as  Cape  Cod,  but  finding 
obstacles,  returned  to  Isle  St.  Croix,  where  being  joined  by  Pontgrave,  they 
repaired  to  Port  Royal. 

Nature  has  formed  few  scenes  more  beautiful  than  this  land-locked  harbour, 
where  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  expedition,  Poutrincourt,  charmed  with  the 
site,  sought  permission  of  De  Monts  to  establish  himself  with  his  family.  This 
settlement  is  the  oldest  in  North  America.  "  Here,"  says  Mr.  Bancroft,  "  the 
first  French  settlement  on  the  American  continent  had  been  made  two  years 
before  James  River  was  discovered,  and  three  years  before  a  cabin  had  been 
raised  in  Canada."  The  stone  on  which  the  colonists  rudely  engraved  the 
date  of  their  settlement  was  discovered  in  1827 ;  on  the  upper  part  are  en- 
graved the  square  and  compass  of  the  free-mason,  and  in  the  centre,  in  large 
and  deeply  cut  Arabic  characters,  the  date  1606. 

On  his  return  to  France,  De  Monts  found  his  privileges  assailed  by  the 
fishermen,  who  were  successful  in  their  appeal  against  him.  Determined  not 
to  abandon  his  colony,  he  made  a  new  treaty  with  Poutrincourt,  who,  leaving 
his  settlement  at  Port  Royal,  had  followed  him  into  France,  and  they  sailed 
again  from  Rochelle  in  May,  1606. 

Their  voyage  was  protracted,  and  in  the  mean  while  the  handful  of  colonists 
left  behind  at  Port  Royal  were  reduced  to  despair,  and  after  long  endurance, 
Pontgrave  reluctantly  embarked  for  France  in  search  of  succour,  leaving  but 
two  men  at  the  mercy  of  the  savages  to  watch  over  the  infant  settlement. 
Scarcely,  however,  had  they  set  out  on  their  return,  when  they  fell  in  with  a 
bark,  which  gave  them  the  welcome  news  that  Poutrincourt  had  arrived  at 
Canceaux.  Thither  they  repaired,  and  here  Pontgrave  set. himself  to  the 
work  of  fortification.  Wise,  experienced,  and  personally  indefatigable,  he 
had  the  secret  of  preventing  discontent,  by  keeping  his  people  always  well 
employed.  He  was  ably  seconded  by  Lescarbot,  an  advocate  from  Paris,  the 
author  of  a  work  on  French  Florida,  and  a  man  as  capable  of  founding  a  colony 
as  he  was  of  writing  a  history.  He  animated  the  weaker  settlers,  spurred 
on  the  active,  and  sparing  himself  in  nothing,  made  himself  beloved  by  all. 

But  De  Monts  was  still  unfortunate — the  remonstrances  of  the  merchants 
had  deprived  him  of  his  exclusive  patent.  In  1608,  another  expedition  was 
made  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  It  was  on  the  third  of  July,  that  Champlain,  who 
had  command  of  the  expedition,  and  whose  views,  unlike  those  of  the  mer- 
chant adventurers,  which  had  regard  only  to  profitable  traffic,  embraced  the 
ultimate  establishment  and  defence  of  a  noble  colony,  first  erected  on  Cape 
Diamond,  the  scattered  huts  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  future  city  of 
Quebec,  the  crown  and  defence  of  Canada  under  both  its  French  and  English 
masters. 

The  Jesuits  had  already  followed  in  the  wake  of  th'e  new  discoverers,  and 
explored  the  rivers  and  coasts  of  Maine.  Another  colony  was  attempted 
under  the  auspices  of  Mary  de  Medici.     De  Soussaye  was  invested  with  the 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  51 

command  of  this  expedition.     Sailing  from  Honfleur,  he  touched  at  Port   chap. 

Royal,  but  the  Jesuits,  eager  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  were  desirous — 

of  a  sphere  on  which  they  could  labour  in  uncontrolled  independence,  and 
thus  they  proceeded  to  explore  the  rocky  coast  of  Maine.  Here,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Penobscot,  on  the  wild  shores  of  Mount  Desert  Isle,  they  de- 
termined to  establish  themselves.  Landing  on  the  northern  bank,  De 
Soussaye  hastily  threw  up  intrenchments  around  his  settlements,  to  which 
they  gave  the  name  of  Saint  Sauveur.  Soon,  by  the  labour  of  his  little 
band  of  five  and  twenty,  assisted  by  the  ship's  crew,  all  working  with  com- 
bined energy,  some  rude  habitations  were  erected ;  a  cross  was  reared  in  their 
midst,  and  the  matin  and  evening  chants  arose  in  this  dreary  sea-beat  solitude. 
The  missionaries  now  ardently  engaged  in  the  work  of  imparting  the  consola- 
tions of  religion  to  the  natives,  and  the  marvels  of  healing  seemed  wrought 
by  their  faith.  The  Pere  Biart  being  indefatigable  in  this  labour  of  love,  his 
earnest,  disinterested  piety  won  upon  the  rude  but  impressible  savages.  The 
sway  of  France,  as  well  as  her  religion,  were  about  to  be  permanently  estab- 
lished upon  the  coasts  of  Maine. 

But  these  results  were  prevented  by  an  unforeseen  adventure,  disastrous  to 
the  new  colonists,  and  destructive  of  all  their  pious  anticipations.  Scarcely 
had  they  reposed  from  the  fatigues  of  the  long  voyage,  and  entered  upon 
the  course  in  which  they  were  engaged  with  their  whole  souls,  than  there  ap- 
peared in  the  offing  a  fleet  of  English  fishing  boats  from  Virginia,  under  the 
convoy  of  a  ship  of  war.  Samuel  Argall,  its  commander,  a  man  of  coarse 
character,  animated  by  national  jealousy,  perhaps  by  religious  hate,  and, 
though  the  nations  were  at  peace,  founding  his  proceedings  upon  the  asser- 
tions of  the  exclusive  right  of  the  English  to  the  soil,  at  once  determined  to 
destroy  the  infant  settlement.  When  this  ill-omened  fleet  hove  in  sight,  De 
Soussaye,  seeing  that  it  bore  the  English  flag,  prepared  to  defend  the  place, 
as  did  La  Motte  de  Vilin  the  ship  under  his  command.  But  they  were  both 
destitute  of  artillery,  while  Argall  had  fourteen  guns ;  and  the  English  Cap- 
tain, after  cannonading  the  feeble  ramparts,  poured  in  a  destructive  fire  of 
musquetry,  which  compelled  De  Soussaye  to  yield.  The  cross,  which  had 
been  placed  to  call  together  the  worshippers  till  a  chapel  could  be  built,  was 
hastily  hurled  down,  and  under  the  plea  that  all  things  are  lawful  in  war  with 
an  enemy,  Argall  privately  possessed  himself  of  the  commission  of  De  Soussaye. 
The  next  day  he  demanded  it  from  him ;  De  Soussaye,  ignorant  of  the  theft, 
replied,  that  it  was  in  his  trunk ;  and  when  it  was  not  found,  Argall,  affecting 
to  regard  him  as  a  pirate,  treated  him  with  indignity,  and  gave  up  the  ship 
and  settlement  to  pillage. 

Argall  now  offered  to  transport  his  prisoners  to  Virginia,  and  to  allow  them 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion.  La  Motte  de  Vilin,  who  was  treated  kindly 
by  the  English  captain,  with  Pere  Biart,  prepared  to  go  thither.  A  vessel  had 
indeed  been  offered  to  convey  them  back  to  France,  but  it  was  found  to  be 
too  small — the  commandant,  with  some  of  the  others,  determined,  however, 
to  sail  in  it  for  Port  Royal.     They  started  on  this  forlorn  cruise,  and  while 

h2 


52  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  coasting  the  island,  had  the  joy  of  seeing  on  the  shore  their  pilot,  Lametz, 

—  who,  upon  the  attack  by  Argall,  had  made  his  escape  into  the  woods.     They 

'  had  not  long  taken  him  on  board  before  they  fell  in  with  a  French  ship, 
bound  for  St.  Malo,  in  which  they  returned  home  from  their  disastrous  ex- 
pedition. 

When  Argall  reached  Virginia  with  his  captives,  the  governor  sentenced 
them  to  death,  refusing  to  ratify  the  promises  made  to  them,  on  the  ground  of 
their  being  unfurnished  with  a  commission.  Argall,  rather  than  witness  their 
execution,  was  compelled  to  reveal  his  perfidy.  The  prisoners  were  spared, 
but  the  governor,  resenting  the  encroachments  of  the  French,  now  despatched 
Argall  to  destroy  all  their  settlements,  to  the  latitude  of  forty-five  degrees, 
within  which  limits  the  English  asserted  their  exclusive  right  of  colonization. 
The  destructive  edict  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter,  the  fortifications  of  Isle  St. 
Croix  and  the  settlements  at  Port  Royal  were  demolished,  and  thus  in  a  few 
hours  was  consumed  all  that  the  French  possessed  in  a  colony  where  they  had 
invested  a  hundred  thousand  crowns,  without  taking  precaution  against  a 
surprise  by  their  enemies.  Poutrincourt,  who  had  lost  more  than  any,  re- 
turned from  the  scene  of  his  misfortunes  to  France,  distinguished  himself  in 
the  service  of  his  country,  and  died  on  the  field  of  honour. 

On  their  return  to  Quebec  in  1609,  Champlain  and  Pontgrave  found  that 
their  settlement  had  advanced  almost  better  than  they  had  dared  to  hope. 
Content  reigned  among  the  colonists,  they  had  planted  Indian  corn  and 
reaped  an  abundant  harvest,  but  Champlain's  attempt  to  naturalize  the  vine 
had  totally  failed. 

Champlain  was  among  the  first  to  follow  the  fatal  and  cruel  policy  of  taking 
part  in  quarrels  between  the  Indian  tribes,  and  of  engaging  them  in  those  of 
Europeans.  The  Algonquins  had  solicited  his  assistance  against  the  Iroquois. 
Sailing  up  the  St.  Lawrence  in  his  shallop,  accompanied  by  his  allies,  the 
French  commander  was  the  first  to  penetrate  into  the  unbroken  solitude  of  the 
river  Sorel.  After  advancing  fifteen  leagues,  the  rapids  of  Chambly,  at  the  point 
where  now  the  fort  is  situated,  opposed  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  pro- 
gress of  his  vessel.  Of  this  the  Indians  had  not  forewarned  him,  yet,  neither 
repelled  by  their  deceit,  nor  by  the  perils  of  advancing  into  a  hostile  territory, 
he  sent  back  the  shallop  to  Quebec,  and  proceeded.  At  night  they  encamped 
on  the  margin  of  the  stream,  their  canoes  were  ranged  close  along  the  shore, 
and  they  were  protected  from  surprise  on  the  land  side  by  a  fortification  of 
fallen  trees.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Frenchman,  emerging  from  the  river, 
burst  into  that  magnificent  lake,  of  which  he  was  the  first  discoverer,  and  which 
has  ever  since  borne  his  name.  He  admired  its  wide  expanse,  its  beautiful 
and  varied  shores,  and  the  snow-covered  mountains  far  to  the  west,  among 
which  are  the  head-waters  of  the  noble  Hudson.  Reaching  the  extremity  of 
Lake  Champlain,  he  descended  the  rapids  below  its  outlet,  penetrating  across 
that  narrow  intervening  neck  of  land  which  separates  it  from  the  smaller  but 
more  romantic  Lake  George,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Saint  Sacrament. 
One  envies  the  feelings  with  which  Champlain  must  have  first  explored  scenes 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  53 

of  such  exquisite  beauty,  but  scenes  destined  to  become  ere  long  the  theatre  of  chap. 

many  a  sanguinary  struggle  between  the  French  and  English,  of  many  an  act ! — 

of  cruelty  by  their  Indian  allies.  These  he  was  now  for  the  first  time 
to  witness,  for  very  shortly  after  the  Iroquois  and  Algonquins  had  met,  and 
his  fire-arms  had  decided  the  battle,  the  Indians  began  to  torture  their  prison- 
ers with  their  accustomed  cruelty,  and  Champlain,  unable  to  bear  the  sight  of 
the  torn  and  palpitating  captives,  was  compelled  to  beg  that  he  might  shorten 
their  sufferings  with  his  musket. 

This  remarkable  man  afterwards  carried  his  explorations  far  into  the  in- 
terior, ascended  the  Ottawa  river,  mingled  in  the  internal  wars  of  the  Indians, 
obtained  a  great  ascendency  over  them,  and  opened  the  path  for  the  Jesuit 
missionaries,  who  pushed  their  operations  into  the  remotest  West.  Under 
his  auspices  the  infant  foundation  of  Quebec,  threatened  by  religious  dissen- 
sions and  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  was  preserved  from  dissolution,  and 
the*  extensive  territory  of  New  France  acquired  for  his  native  country.  He 
left  his  bones  in  the  land  which  he  thus  colonized  and  explored. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


VOYAGES   AND   DISCOVERY   OP  HENRY   HUDSON.      SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW  NETHERLANDS. 


"While  the  English  and  French  subjects  were  extending  their  possessions  in  chap. 
the  New  World,  another  settlement  was  about  to  be  effected  there  by  the  Iv" 
citizens  of  Holland.  The  natives  of  that  extraordinary  country,  of  which  the  A-D-1609- 
(t  new  catched  miles,"  as  Andrew  Marvel  calls  them,  are  only  protected  from 
the  inroads  of  the  sea  and  the  overflow  of  the  Rhine  by  stupendous  embank- 
ments, whose  cities  were  built  upon  millions  of  piles  sunk  into  the  morasses, 
were,  by  the  very  nature  of  their  position,  as  much  in  the  ocean  as  on  terra 
firma,  nursed  into  maritime  hardihood,  and  driven  for  subsistence  into  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  enterprise.  Rising  more  elastic  from  their  me- 
morable struggle  for  their  religion  and  liberties  with  the  power  of  Spain,  their 
commerce  had  taken  an  immense  development,  their  ships  covered  the 
seas,  and  their  settlements  were  extended  far  as  the  limits  of  human  dis- 
covery. The  progress  of  the  English  in  North  America  had  already  excited 
their  emulation,  and  an  enterprise  had  been  projected,  but  abandoned  lest  it 
should  involve  them  in  fresh  hostilities  with  the  Spaniards.  It  was  in  1609 
that  Henry  Hudson,  after  two  daring  but  unsuccessful  attempts,  at  the  expense 
of  a  body  of  London  merchants,  to  seek  for  the  North-west  passage  to  India, 


54  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  crossed  over  to  Holland  and  offered  his  experience  to  the  newly-created  Dutch 
East  India  Company.     His  services  were  accepted,  and  on  the  4th  of  April, 


" low*  in  a  small  vessel,  the  Halve  Mane,  or  Crescent,  he  departed  for  the  third  time 
on  his  perilous  enterprise.  Having  reached  the  Northern  Sea,  and  finding 
his  progress  impeded  by  masses  of  ice,  he  turned  to  the  westward,  coasted  the 
shores  of  Acadie,  entered  the  mouth  of  the  river  Penobscot,  ran  down  as  far  as 
the  Chesapeake,  already  colonized  by  the  English,  and  finally  came  to  an 
anchor  within  Sandy  Hook  at  the  entrance  of  New  York  Bay,  which  had 
never,  so  far  as  is  known,  been  visited  by  Europeans  since  the  time  of 
Verezzam. 

As  he  approached  the  shores  he  was  delighted  with  the  delicious  fragrance 
and  verdure.  Groups  of  the  Indians,  clothed  in  deer-skins,  poured  down  and 
eagerly  welcomed  the  new  comers,  and  brought  forth  to  propitiate  them  great 
store  of  Indian  corn  and  tobacco.  On  the  Long  Island  shores  the  natives 
were,  however,  more  hostile,  and  attacked  the  boats,  killing  one  of  the  crew 
with  an  arrow,  and  wounding  two  others.  Hudson  now  advanced  with  greater 
precaution  through  the  Narrows,  explored  the  shores  of  the  bay,  and  trafficked 
Avith  the  natives  on  Staten  Island.  Manhattan  Island,  now  entirely  overspread 
with  the  magnificent  commercial  capital  of  America,  was  then  "  wild  and 
rough  ;  "  a  thick  forest  covered  those  parts  where  vegetation  could  take  root ; 
the  beach  was  broken  and  rugged,  and  the  interior  full  of  desolate  sandy 
hillocks  and  swampy  ponds.  Hudson  now  entered  the  noble  river  which 
bears  his  name,  carefully  sounding  as  he  advanced.  Never  had  such  a  scene 
before  saluted  his  eyes ;  and  he  described  the  land  as  being  "  the  most  beau- 
tiful in  the  world."  We  may,  indeed,  figure  his  astonishment  and  delight, 
as  from  the  deck  of  his  little  vessel  he  traced  the  magnificent  course  of  the 
river  through  the  rocky  "  Palisades,"  and  the  broad  expanse  of  the  "  Tappan 
Sea,"  till  he  reached  the  majestic  solitudes  of  "  the  Highlands."  The  lofty 
mountains,  dropping  their  feet  into  the  still  waters  of  the  river,  were  clothed 
from  base  to  summit  with  a  gorgeous  mantle  of  unbroken  foliage,  through  which 
the  denizens  of  the  forest  roamed  at  will;  the  deer  might  have  been  seen 
glancing  timidly  from  his  covert  at  the  passing  apparition  of  a  white  sail ;  the 
plaintive  and  fitful  cry  of  the  water-fowl,  or  the  melancholy  note  of  the 
whip-poor-will,  were  the  only  sounds  that  disturbed  the  otherwise  unbroken 
and  almost  oppressive  stillness.  Traces  of  the  presence  of  man  were  none 
save  the  lonely  wigwam  and  the  bark  canoe.  Gliding  past  promontory  after 
promontory,  and  reach  after  reach,  Hudson  emerged  into  the  more  open  part 
of  the  river,  and  came  to  an  anchor  off  the  spot  where  now  stands  the  city 
which  commemorates  his  name  and  voyage,  and  where  he  was  most  hospitably 
received  by  the  natives.  He  went  on  shore  and  visited  their  comfortable  bark 
wigwams,  and  was  abundantly  supplied  with  Indian  corn  and  the  spoils  of  the 
chace,  a  fat  dog  skinned  with  shells  was  a  special  delicacy  prepared  on  the 
occasion,  and  seeing  him  about  to  return  to  his  ships,  and  fearing  lest  mistrust 
of  them  might  be  the  cause,  they  broke  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  threw 
them  before  his  eyes  into  the  fire.     "With  child-like  confidence  they  came  off 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  55 

to  the  vessel,  and  examined  every  article  with  curiosity  and  delight  altoge-  chap. 

ther  as  childish.     Hudson  did  not  advance  above  this  spot  with  his  ship,  but ■ — 

ascended  as  far  as  Albany  in  his  shallop ;  and,  after  being  delayed  for  four  io  1020. ' 
days  by  adverse  winds,  descended  the  river,  and,  sailing  direct  homewards,  had 
a  fortunate  passage  back  to  Dartmouth,  whence  he  forwarded  an  account  of 
his  discovery  to  his  Dutch  employers.  They  refused,  however,  to  prosecute  the 
abortive  search  for  the  North-west  passage  any  further,  and  Hudson  was  de- 
spatched by  a  London  company  on  his  last  and  fatal  voyage.  Again  reaching 
the  Northern  Sea,  he  sailed  through  the  straits  to  which  he  has  left  his  name, 
and  found  himself  embayed  in  a  vast  gulf,  through  which  he  vainly  sought 
for  the  long-desired  outlet.  After  a  winter  of  horrible  privation  he  set  out 
with  a  mutinous  crew  on  his  return ;  they  put  him  with  his  only  son  and  a 
few  sailors  into  an  open  boat,  which  they  cut  adrift,  and  left  them  to  perish 
of  cold  and  famine,  or  to  be  helplessly  crushed  by  masses  of  floating  ice. 
Hudson  was  never  heard  of  more.  So  miserable  was  the  fate  of  one  of  the 
most  intrepid  and  persevering  explorers  of  America. 

The  Dutch  East  India  Company  claimed  a  right  to  the  new  lands  disco- 
vered by  their  agent ;  and  vessels  were  immediately  despatched  to  open  a 
trade  with  the  natives.  A  few  fortified  huts  were  erected  for  this  purpose  on 
the  Island  of  Manhattan,  the  nucleus  of  the  future  city  of  New  York.  Argall, 
returning  to  Virginia  from  his  attack  of  the  French  settlements,  looked  in 
upon  the  little  group  of  traders,  and  claimed  the  right  of  possession  for  England. 
Too  weak  to  dispute  his  claim,  they  affected  submission,  but  only  till  his  ves- 
sels were  out  of  sight.  The  States-general  had  meanwhile  granted  a  four 
years'  monopoly  to  any  other  enterprising  traders,  and  an  Amsterdam  com- 
pany sent  out  five  ships.  One  of  these  adventurers,  Adrian  Blok,  extended 
the  sphere  of  discovery  by  way  of  the  East  River,  ran  through  the  formidable 
"  Hellegat,"  or  Hell  Gate,  traced  the  shores  of  Long  Island  and  the  coasts  of 
Connecticut  as  far  as  Cape  Cod.  A  fort  was  erected  on  Manhattan  Island, 
and  another  at  Albany,  merely,  however,  as  centres  of  traffic  with  the  In- 
dians, and  not  with  the  view  of  permanent  colonization.  After  a  further 
duration  of  three  years,  during  which  they  opened  friendly  relations  with 
different  tribes  of  Indians,  the  trading  monopoly  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Dutch  "West  India  Company,  who  were  endowed  with  the  exclusive  pri- 
vilege of  trafficking  and  colonizing  on  the  coasts  of  Africa  and  America.  This 
corporation  was  divided  into  different  chambers,  established  in  different  cities 
— that  at  Amsterdam  being  invested  with  the  charge  of  the  colony  now  called 
New  Netherlands,  the  boundaries  of  which  extended  somewhat  vaguely  from 
the  Connecticut  River  to  the  Delaware.  The  Island  of  Manhattan  was  now 
purchased  of  the  Indians,  and  the  fort,  with  its  little  group  of  surrounding 
cottages,  was  named  after  the  parent  city,  New  Amsterdam.  The  traders  ex- 
tended their  explorations,  and  carried  on  a  profitable  traffic  with  the  Indians. 
They  opened  friendly  relations  with  the  Protestant  pilgrims  in  New  England, 
who,  not  unforgetful  of  the  succour  afforded  them  in  Holland,  as  yet  cor- 
dially welcomed  the  new  comers. 


56 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


chap.       To  encourage  a  permanent  occupation  of  the  country,  was  granted  in  1629, 

to  every  one  who  should  plant  a  colony  of  fifty  souls,  the  separate  privilege 

to  1*648.  to  possess,  under  the  title  of  "  Patroon,"  absolute  property,  accompanied 
with  almost  feudal  privileges,  in  the  lands  thus  occupied.  Adventurers  were 
not  slow  in  availing  themselves  of  so  tempting  an  offer,  and  large  portions  of 
territory  were  soon  appropriated.  The  banks  of  the  Delaware  were  thus  settled 
by  De  Vries ;  and  his  infant  establishment,  soon  destroyed  by  the  Indians, 
was  shortly  after  re-established,  protected  by  Fort  Nassau.  The  fort  of  Good 
Hope  was  erected  on  the  shore  of  Connecticut,  the  river  of  which  name  was 
first  discovered  and  its  neighbourhood  occupied  by  a  body  of  Dutch  emigrants. 
The  claims  and  privileges  of  the  "  Patroons  "  were  soon  found  to  clash 
with  those  of  the  Company,  and  disputes  arose  seriously  retarding  the  pro- 
gress of  the  colony,  which  was  threatened  besides  with  more  serious  cause  for 
apprehension.  A  new  scheme  for  colonization  was  formed  by  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,  and  a  band  of  emigrants  appeared  in  the  Delaware, 
elbowing  their  unwilling  neighbours.  The  governor  protested,  but  in  vain, 
and  the  Swedish  colony  continued  to  increase.  The  old  claim  of  the  English 
was  also  revived,  and  a  body  of  settlers  from  Plymouth  summarily  established 
themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Connecticut.  To  protestations  the  governor, 
Van  Twiller,  this  time  added  force,  but  the  English  were  too  strong  for  the 
body  sent  to  dislodge  them,  and  continued  to  maintain  their  ground.  Mean- 
while, here  as  every  where  else,  serious  dissensions  had  arisen  with  the  Indian 
tribes.  Kieft,  the  successor  of  Van  Twiller,  upon  a  trifling  provocation, 
had  fallen  upon  the  Algonquins  and  massacred  a  considerable  number.  A 
bloody  and  exterminating  war  broke  out,  the  detached  settlers  were  cut  off, 
the  villages  burnt,  and  all  the  ferocity  of  Indian  warfare  was  let  loose  upon  the 
unhappy  colonists.  Wearied  out,  at  length,  both  parties  entered  into  a 
solemn  treaty  of  peace.  Kieft,  the  object  of  general  execration,  met  with  a 
retributive  fate,  being  wrecked  soon  after  on  returning  to  his  native  country. 
Such  were  the  troubles,  jealousies,  and  dissensions,  among  which  the  infant 
colony  of  New  Netherlands  gradually  continued  to  gain  ground  and  prosper. 
It  is  interesting  to  look  back  to  this  early  period,  of  which  so  many  picturesque 
traces  remain  in  local  usages  and  nomenclature.  The  names  of  the  first 
"  Patroons  "  are  those  of  the  old  aristocracy  of  the  merchant  city.  In  New 
Jersey  any  one  coming  from  Holland  would  be  struck  with  curious  resem- 
blances to  the  waggons  and  signs  of  that  country.  The  "  Bowery  "  of  New 
York  still  recalls  the  name  of  the  original  Dutch  farming  grounds,  and  the 
direction  of  the  streets  indicate,  it  is  believed,  the  old  cattle  paths  through  this 
half  rural,  half  commercial,  settlement,  which  gradually  encroached  on  the 
forest,  and  began  to  assume  a  respectable  appearance,  with  its  church  and 
houses  built  after  the  quaint  fashion  of  those  of  the  mother  country ;  and  of 
which  the  traces  are  so  rapidly  disappearing  in  the  march  of  modern  improve- 
ment. The  little  "  schuyts,"  or  skiffs,  similar  to  those  now  seen  on  the  canals 
of  Holland,  might  then  have  been  seen  gliding  up  and  down  the  Hudson,  to 
the  different  landings,  of  which  so  many  still  retain  their  original  appellations ; 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  57 


and  those  scattered  and  snug  farm-houses,  with  their  rural  riches  and  profound  chap. 

quietude,  nestling  under  the  wild  covert  of  the  half-cleared  forest,  of  which '■ — 

the  pen  of  Washington  Irving,  in  his  "  Sketch  Book,"  has  left  us  so  delicious    '  s ' 
a  picture. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS. — ROBINSON  AND  HIS  CHURCH  IN  ENGLAND  AND  AT  LEYDEN. — NEGOCIA- 
TIOXS. — VOYAGE  OF  THE  MAYFLOWER.  —  HARDSHIPS  AND  MORTALITY.  —  SETTLEMENT  AT 
PLYMOUTH. 

The  doctrine  of  a  Providence,  watching  over  the  destinies  and  mysteriously  chap 


directing  the  movements  of  the  human  race,  was  never  more  strikingly  exem- 
plified than  in  the  colonization  of  New  England.  In  following  its  eventful 
history,  we  are  forcibly  struck  with  the  ripeness  of  the  times  and  seasons,  and 
with  the  wonderful  concurrence  of  circumstances :  and  of  all  the  chapters  of 
Ameiican  history,  this  is  incomparably  the  most  interesting  and  momentous, 
as  being  intimately  connected  with  principles  and  feelings  the  loftiest  that  can 
actuate  the  human  soul. 

That  mighty  impulse  given  by  the  Reformation  to  the  enfranchisement  of 
the  mind,  so  long  bowed  down  under  the  paralysing  influence  of  the  Roman 
Church,  was  quickly  felt  throughout  Europe,  but  not  by  any  means  in  equal 
measure.  In  some  instances  the  reaction  against  her  was  complete  and  the 
separation  from  her  communion  total.  In  the  little  republic  of  Geneva,  for 
example,  John  Calvin — the  Bible  his  sole  guide,  established  a  form  of  faith 
and  a  system  of  church  government  of  the  simplest  and  austerest  kind,  which 
soon  became  the  model  for  imitation  to  the  Protestants  of  Holland,  France, 
and  Scotland.  In  England,  on  the  contrary,  various  causes  contributed  to 
prevent  so  sudden  and  extreme  a  change.  The  mass  of  the  people  were  still 
attached  to  the  old  system.  Henry  VIII.  repudiated  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pope  only  to  establish  his  own ;  and  as  he  was  at  heart  a  believer  in  the  Ca- 
tholic dogmas,  the  form  taken  by  the  English  Church  was  but  a  modification 
of  that,  to  whose  revenues  and  authority  it  had  succeeded, — a  compromise  be- 
tween Rome  and  Geneva.  Any  avowed  deviation  from  his  standard  was 
punished  by  this  brutal  and  arbitrary  monarch  with  the  torture  and  the  fag- 
got. This  severity  might  for  a  time  suppress,  though  it  could  not  destroy, 
that  growing  desire  for  a  more  sweeping  reformation,  which  in  the  reign  of  his 
successor,  Edward  VI.,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  Lord  Protector,  openly 
displayed  itself  under  the  name  of  Puritanism.  During  this  reign  there  was 
a   constant   struggle   between   the   hierarchy  and  the  Puritans;    but  their 


A.  D. 1600. 


A.  D. 1603, 


58  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  dissensions  were  interrupted  by  the  succession  of  Mary,  and  the  temporary 
triumph  of  Catholicism,  which  involved  them  in  one  common  persecution. 
On  this  occasion  many  of  the  Puritans  took  refuge  on  the  continent,  where  they 
became  still  more  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Calvinistic  institutes. 
The  same  spirit  of  free  inquiry  that  had  enfranchised  them  from  ecclesiasti- 
cal bigotry,  naturally  prompted  a  growing  spirit  of  resistance  to  civil  tyranny, 
which,  however,  the  necessity  of  uniting  against  the  Spanish  power  tended,  for 
awhile,  to  keep  in  abeyance.  When  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  re-established 
the  ascendency  of  Protestantism  they  returned  to  England,  where  their  doc- 
trines continued  to  gain  ground,  although  the  queen  herself,  who  disliked 
their  spirit  and  tendency,  opposed  them  with  the  whole  weight  of  her 
authority ;  and  Archbishop  Whitgift,  determined  to  enforce  a  strict  compli- 
ance with  the  standard  of  the  Church,  commenced  a  cruel  persecution  against 
the  Nonconformist  party.  The  pretensions  and  severity  of  the  Episcopalians, 
who  now  contended  for  the  doctrines,  unknown  to  the  early  Reformers,  of 
apostolical  succession  and  the  right  divine  of  kings,  increased  with  the  acces- 
sion of  James  I.,  who,  although  bred  up  in  the  Presbyterian  faith,  was  no 
sooner  seated  on  the  throne  of  England,  than  he  found  the  established  form 
of  church  government  suit  better  with  his  love  of  arbitrary  power  than  the 
restless  spirit  of  Puritanism.  This  he  regarded  with  dislike,  and  not  without 
reason,  as  calculated  to  undermine  the  fabric  of  arbitrary  power,  especially  as 
the  parliament,  now  struggling  against  the  exercise  of  kingly  prerogative, 
favoured  the  cause  of  the  Puritans,  as  much  as  the  Episcopal  hierarchy, 
subservient  to  the  pleasure  of  the  monarch,  endeavoured  to  crush  them  by 
fines,  deprivations,  and  imprisonment. 

The  party  thus  proscribed  and  persecuted  was  itself  divided.  The  more 
moderate  desired  rather  to  infuse  their  own  spirit  of  rigid  reformation  and 
austerity  of  manners  into  the  Established  Church,  than  to  deny  her  au- 
thority or  renounce  her  communion.  But  there  were  many  who,  repudiating 
alike  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  government,  contended  for  the  absolute 
independence  of  every  separate  congregation  of  believers,  and  their  right 
to  frame  for  themselves,  unrestricted  by  human  authority,  such  a  form  of 
church  government  and  discipline  as  they  could  derive  from  the  study  of 
Scripture.  This  section  of  the  party  who  called  themselves  Independents,  but 
had  obtained  the  appellation,  at  once  distinctive  and  contemptuous,  of  Brown- 
ists,  from  the  name  of  one  of  their  leaders,  a  man  whose  intemperate  zeal  was 
speedily  succeeded  by  his  ignominious  recantation,  still  continued  to  exist, 
in  the  North  of  England,  the  object  of  a  watchful  and  incessant  persecution. 
Many  of  them  had  fled  for  refuge  to  the  States  of  Holland,  and  established 
a  Congregational  church  in  the  city  of  Amsterdam. 

Of  these  separatists,  another  body  had  been  gradually  formed  on  the  joining 
borders  of  Nottinghamshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  Yorkshire,  principally  by  the 
influence  of  certain  Puritan  ministers  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  especially  of 
William  Brewster,  who,  from  the  position  which  he  occupied  in  the  little 
church  which  he  had  organized,  was  distinguished  by  the  title  of  "Elder 


A.  D. 1607. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  59 

Brewster."  He  was  a  man  of  respectable  family  and  considerable  attainments,  c  ha  p. 
and  had  been  one  of  the  under  secretaries  of  state,  in  the  office  of  Secretary  Da- 
vison, whom  he  accompanied  on  a  mission  into  Holland,  and  upon  whose  fall 
from  power,  in  1587,  he  retired  from  public  life,  as  it  is  now  believed,  to 
Scrooby,  a  small  village  about  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  south  of  Bawtry,  in 
Yorkshire.  Here  he,  as  sub-tenant,  occupied  a  large  mansion-house,  "  a 
manor  of  the  Bishop  of  York's,"  which  had  afforded  a  refuge  for  several 
weeks  to  the  broken-hearted  and  penitent  Wolsey,  after  his  disgrace,  and 
where  he  had  distinguished  himself  by  many  works  of  piety  and  mercy.  In 
this  old  mansion,  now  razed  to  the  ground,  the  members  of  the  church,  for 
the  most  part  agriculturists  from  the  surrounding  districts,  with  a  few  per- 
sonages of  the  rank  of  gentry,  were  hospitably  entertained  by  Brewster,  and 
met  for  the  celebration  of  their  simple,  but  solemn,  services.  Among  them  was 
William  Bradford,  from  a  family  of  the  yeomanry,  long  settled  at  Austerfield, 
a  village  in  the  same  neighbourhood — a  man  without  the  education  of  Brewster, 
but  of  good  natural  talents,  who  was  afterwards  chosen  governor  of  the  infant 
State  of  New  Plymouth,  and  whose  Diary  of  its  settlement,  Biography  of 
Brewster,  and  other  writings,  form  the  most  interesting  as  well  as  authentic 
materials  for  its  history.  The  pastor  chosen  to  preside  over  the  church  was 
John  Robinson,  a  Puritan  divine,  who  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge,  where 
he  is  supposed  to  have  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Brewster.  He  had  held 
a  benefice  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Norwich,  but  his  views  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  a  separation  from  the  Church  becoming  more  decided,  he  endea- 
voured to  obtain  adherents  in  that  city,  which,  however,  he  afterwards  left  upon 
an  invitation  to  preside  over  the  church  of  Scrooby.  Robinson  was  a  man  of 
high  and  beautiful  character,  imbued  with  an  indwelling  spirit  of  Christian 
charity.  Baillie,  an  opponent,  calls  him  the  "  most  learned,  polished,  and 
modest  spirit  that  ever  his  sect  enjoyed."  "  'Tis  true,"  says  Winslow,  "  he 
was  more  rigid  in  his  course  and  way  at  first  than  toward  his  latter  end  :  for 
his  study  was  peace  and  union,  so  far  as  it  might  agree  with  faith  and  a  good 
conscience,  and  for  schisms  and  divisions,  there  was  nothing  in  the  world  more 
hateful  to  him."  His  liberality  was  seen  in  his  willingness  to  receive  to  com- 
munion the  members  of  churches  differing  from  his  own,  if,  as  he  believed,  true 
followers  of  Christ ;  a  concession  repudiated  by  the  stricter  followers  of  his 
sect.  He  was  a  true  father  to  his  people,  he  loved  them  as  his  own  soul, 
in  their  temporal,  as  well  as  spiritual,  affairs  he  took  the  deepest  interest, 
and  he  was  regarded  by  them  with  a  feeling  of  veneration  that  gathered 
strength  with  years. 

Harassed  at  home  by  every  species  of  malicious  annoyance,  the  members 
of  the  church  thus  formed  by  Brewster,  and  presided  over  by  Robinson, 
resolved  to  follow  the  example  of  the  other  refugees  of  their  persuasion, 
and  to  emigrate  to  Holland.  "  It  must  not  be  understood,"  says  Hunter, 
to  whose  recent  researches  we  are  indebted  for  the  above  details,  "  that  all  the 
persons  who  afterwards  sailed  in  the  Mayflower  had  been  members  of  the  church 
while  it  was  in  England ;  many  of  them  must  have  joined  it  during  its  resi- 

i  2 


D.  1607, 
1608. 


60  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  dence  at  Amsterdam  and  Leyden,  as  we  know  authentically  that  Winslow  did, 
and  also  Captain  Miles  Standish,  afterwards  so  conspicuous  in  the  history  of 
the  colony.  There  was  indeed,  during  the  whole  of  the  twelve  years  that 
the  church  was  in  Holland,  a  constant  stream  of  disaffected  persons  from 
England  setting  towards  that  country,  where  the  principle  of  toleration  was 
recognised,  and  religious  peculiarities  of  opinion  and  practice  might  be  in- 
dulged in  peace." 

"  It  must  have  been  in  the  autumn  or  early  winter  of  1607,"  continues  Hunt- 
er, "that  the  church  at  Scrooby  began  to  put  into  execution  the  intention, 
which  must  have  been  forming  months  before,  of  leaving  their  native  country, 
and  settling  in  a  land  of  which  they  knew  little  more  than  that  there  they  should 
find  the  toleration  denied  them  at  home.  Bradford  says  much  in  his  general  way 
of  writing,  of  the  oppression  to  which  they  were  subjected,  both  ministers  and 
people  ;  and  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  attempts  would  be  made  to  put  down 
the  church,  and  those  attempts,  whatever  they  were,  would  be  construed  into 
acts  of  ecclesiastical  oppression  by  those  who  deemed  the  maintenance  of  such 
a  church  an  act  of  religious  duty.  And  controversy,  as  it  was  in  those  days  con- 
ducted, was  likely  to  set  neighbour  against  neighbour,  and  to  roughen  the  whole 
surface  of  society.  Much  of  what  Bradford  speaks  may  have  been  but  this  kind 
of  collision,  or  *at  most  acts  of  the  neighbouring  justices  of  the  peace  in  en- 
forcing what  was  then  the  law.  Bradford  speaks  of  the  excitement  of  the 
neighbourhood  when  they  saw  so  many  persons  of  all  ranks  and  conditions 
parting  with  their  possessions,  and  going  simultaneously  to  another  country, 
of  whose  very  language  they  were  ignorant.  Some  carried  with  them  por- 
tions of  their  household  goods ;  and  it  is  mentioned  that  some  of  them  carried 
with  them  looms  which  they  had  used  at  home.  They  were  not,  however, 
allowed  to  go  without  some  opposition.  The  principal  party  of  them,  in  which 
were  Brewster  and  Bradford,  intended  to  embark  at  Boston,  and  they  made 
a  secret  bargain  with  a  Dutch  captain  of  a  vessel,  to  receive  them  on  board  in 
that  port  as  privately  as  might  be.  The  captain  acted  perfidiously.  He  gave 
secret  information  to  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  and  when  they  were  embarked, 
and,  as  they  thought,  just  upon  the  point  of  sailing,  they  were  surprised  by 
finding  officers  of  the  port  come  on  board,  who  removed  them  from  the  vessel 
and  carried  them  to  prison  in  the  town,  not  without  circumstances  of  con- 
tumely. Some  were  sent  back  to  their  homes ;  others,  among  whom  appears 
to  have  been  Brewster,  were  kept  for  many  months  in  confinement  at  Boston. 
Not  consecutively  upon  this,  but  correlatively  as  it  seems,  is  another  fact, 
showing  the  difficulties  which  they  met  with  in  their  emigration.  The  party 
to  whom  this  story  belongs  had  agreed  with  the  master  of  another  Dutch 
vessel,  then  lying  in  the  port  of  Hull,  to  take  them  on  board  at  an  unfre- 
quented place  on  the  northern  coast  of  Lincolnshire.  This  man  deceived  them  ; 
for  having  taken  about  half  of  them  on  board,  on  some  real  or  pretended 
alarm,  he  sailed  away,  leaving  the  rest,  who  were  chiefly  women  and  chil- 
dren, on  the  shore  in  the  deepest  affliction.-  Let  it  be  added,  to  the  honour 
of  England,  that  the   colonists  cannot   lay  the   evil  conduct  of  these  two 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  61 

mariners  at  our  doors.     It  would,  of  course,  with  impediments  such  as  these,   c  ha  p. 

be  some  time  before  the  emigration  could  be  fully  effected.     Some,  it  seems, ■ — 

were  disheartened,  and  remained  in  England ;  but  the  greater  part  persevered 
in  the  design,  and  met  together  at  Amsterdam,  where  they  remained  in  great 
peace  and  unity  among  themselves  for  about  a  twelvemonth." 

At  length  the  disputes  and  controversies  that  arose  among  the  English 
Nonconformists  in  Amsterdam  induced  Hobinson,  who  was  a  lover  of  peace, 
after  a  year's  stay  at  Amsterdam,  to  remove  with  his  congregation  to  Leyden. 
Here  the  little  church  over  which  he  presided  remained  for  several  years,  in 
such  a  state  of  perfect  harmony  among  themselves,  and  charity  to  those  around 
them,  as  to  call  forth  the  public  eulogium  of  the  magistrates  of  the  city. 
Brewster,  who  had  expended  his  fortune  in  assisting  his  brethren,  maintained 
himself  by  teaching  languages,  and  by  setting  up  a  press,  while  Bradford, 
with  some  others,  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  silk. 

Enjoying  thus  a  safe  asylum,  and  respected  by  the  citizens  of  the  country 
they  had  chosen  as  a  refuge,  the  little  band  of  exiles  for  conscience'  sake 
were,  notwithstanding,  ill  at  ease.  Their  first  impulse  had  been  merely  to 
escape  from  persecution,  but  as  time  rolled  on,  they  began  to  long  for  some 
lasting  abiding  place  in  the  new-found  world,  of  which  such  interesting  ac- 
counts were  continually  reaching  them,  where  they  could  carry  out  their 
cherished  idea  of  a  Christian  commonwealth,  and,  to  use  the  language  of  Brad- 
ford, "  lay  a  foundation  for  the  gospel  of  Christ  in  these  remote  parts — even 
but  as  stepping-stones  to  others  for  the  performance  of  so  great  a  work."  This 
desire  was  strengthened  by  various  inconveniences  they  felt  or  dreaded.  They 
feared,  with  English  patriotism,  lest  their  successors  should  be  absorbed  among 
a  people  whose  language  and  usages  were  strange,  and  lest  their  youth  should 
be  led  from  the  strict  profession  of  their  tenets,  or  be  corrupted  by  the  licence 
of  manners  prevailing  around  them.  Faith — the  great  principle  of  their  lives 
— led  them  to  go  forth  under  Divine  guidance  with  the  full  confidence  of  a 
successful  issue.  "  We  verily  believe,"  said  Robinson  and  Brewster,  in  a 
letter  to  Sir  Edward  Sandys,  "  that  the  Lord  is  with  us,  to  whom  and  whose 
service  we  have  given  ourselves  in  many  trials;  and  that  he  will  graciously 
prosper  our  endeavours,  according  to  the  simplicity  of  our  hearts.  Second, 
we  are  well  weaned  from  the  delicate  milk  of  our  mother  country,  and  inured 
to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange  land.  Third,  the  people  are,  for  the  body  of 
them,  industrious  and  frugal,  we  think  we  may  safely  say,  as  any  company  of 
people  in  the  world.  Fourth,  we  are  knit  together  as  a  body  in  the  most 
strict  and  sacred  bond  and  covenant  of  the  Lord ;  of  the  violation  whereof  we 
make  great  conscience,  and  by  virtue  whereof  we  hold  ourselves  straitly 
tied  to  all  care  of  each  other's  good,  and  of  the  whole.  Fifth,  and  lastly,  it 
is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men,  whom  small  things  can  discourage,  or  small 
discontentments  cause  to  wish  ourselves  at  home  again.  We  know  our  enter- 
tainment in  England  and  Holland.  We  shall  much  prejudice  both  our  acts 
and  means  by  removal;  where  if  we  should  be  driven  to  return,  we  should 
not  hope  to  recover  our  present  helps  and  comforts,  neither  indeed  look  ever 


A.  D. 1620. 


62  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  to  attain  the  like  in  any  other  place  during  our  lives,  which  are  now  drawing 
towards  their  period." 

Their  resolution  solemnly  taken,  the  scene  of  their  emigration  was  next  to 
be  determined.  It  is  in  proof  of  the  great  esteem  they  had  acquired  that  the 
Dutch,  in  learning  their  intention,  "  desired  that  they  would  go  with  them, 
and  made  them  large  offers."  This,  however,  love  to  the  country  which  had 
cast  them  forth  from  her  bosom  forbade.  Debating  for  some  time  between 
Guiana  and  Virginia,  they  at  length  decided  on  the  latter  colony.  As  it  had, 
however,  been  settled  by  Episcopalians,  and  the  public  profession  of  adher- 
ence to  the  Church  of  England  was  required  and  enforced  by  penalties,  they 
sent  over  agents  to  England,  to  endeavour  to  make  terms  with  the  Virginia 
Company,  and  to  insure  for  themselves  liberty  of  conscience  in  case  of 
their  removal  to  their  colony.  The  Company,  desirous  of  attaching  to  the 
soil  so  valuable  a  body  of  emigrants,  whose  steadiness  and  character  they  ap- 
preciated, endeavoured  to  obtain,  through  their  influence  with  the  heads  of 
Church  and  State,  an  assurance  of  toleration.  But  the  spirit  of  bigotry  was 
more  rampant  than  ever  at  home  ;  and  fresh  edicts  were  launched  against  the 
Puritans  even  while  the  negociation  was  pending.  Influence  so  far  prevailed 
as  to  extort  from  the  king  a  promise  that  he  would  connive  at  and  not  molest 
them,  if  they  remained  in  studious  obscurity,  but  to  grant  them  toleration  by 
his  public  authority  under  his  seal  he  positively  refused.  The  agents  were 
obliged  to  return  unsuccessful  to  Leyden ;  and  with  Brewster  now  proceeded 
to  England,  to  obtain  as  favourable  a  patent  as  they  could,  though  unaccom- 
panied by  liberty  of  conscience.  This  was  readily  granted  by  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, although  the  patent  taken  out  was  never  of  any  practical  use.  The 
next  difficulty  was  to  procure  means,  which  could  only  be  done  by  entering 
into  an  arrangement  with  a  company  of  London  merchants,  whose  terms  were 
exceedingly  unfavourable  to  the  emigrants.  The  whole  property  acquired  in 
the  colony  was  to  belong  to  a  joint-stock  for  seven  years ;  and  the  services  of 
each  emigrant  were  only  to  be  held  equivalent  to  every  ten  pounds  furnished 
by  the  capitalists.  Upon  these  hard  terms  they  now  prepared  to  set  out  on 
their  long-desired  pilgrimage. 

It  was  decided,  upon  the  general  request,  that  Robinson  should  remain  with 
such  of  the  congregation  as  were  deemed  unfit  for  pioneers,  or  were  unable  to 
find  room  in  the  vessels.  A  small  ship,  the  Speedwell,  had  been  purchased  in 
Holland,  and  was  now  ready  to  convey  the  emigrants  to  Southampton.  Those 
appointed  to  go  accordingly  left  Leyden,  accompanied  by  their  brethren  to 
Delft  Haven,  where  they  were  joined  by  members  of  the  church  at  Amster- 
dam. The  night  was  spent  in  mutual  encouragement  and  Christian  converse  ; 
and  next  day,  July  22,  the  wind  being  fair,  they  got  ready  to  go  on  board. 
Since  Paul  took  his  final  leave  of  the  elders  of  the  church  upon  the  sacred 
strand  of  Miletus,  when  they  wept  "  lest  they  should  see  his  face  no  more," 
scarcely  had  a  more  solemn  or  affecting  scene  taken  place  than  thiy  parting  of 
the  apostolic  Robinson  with  his  flock.  He  fell  upon  his  knees  with  them,  and 
while  the  tears  poured  down  his  cheeks,  commended  them,  with  fervent  prayer, 


A.  D.  1620. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  63 

to  God.  The  choking  sensations  which  accompany  the  parting  of  lover  and  chap. 
friend,  of  child  and  parent,  were  tranquillized  by  the  soothing  and  exalting 
efficacy  of  faith;  and  thus  they  arose  comforted  and  went  on  board, — the 
sails  were  loosened  to  the  wind,  and  among  the  hoarse  cries  of  the  sailors,  and 
the  rough  heaving  of  the  vessel,  the  parting  exiles  strained  their  eyes  to  catch 
the  last  glimpse  of  those  whom  but  few  of  them  were  destined  to  see  again 
on  earth. 

A  fair  breeze  soon  carried  them  to  Southampton,  where  they  remained  a 
few  days,  and  were  joined  by  the  larger  vessel,  the  Mayflower.  Here  they 
received  a  letter  from  Robinson,  which  was  read  to  the  assembled  company. 
Its  tone  and  tenor  were  admirably  calculated  to  suggest  and  enforce  that 
brotherly  concord  which  was  the  only  guarantee  of  their  success. — "  Loving 
and  Christian  friends, — I  do  heartily,  and  in  the  Lord,  salute  you  all  as  being 
they  with  whom  I  am  present  in  my  best  affection,  and  most  earnest  longings 
after  you,  though  I  be  constrained  for  a  while  to  be  bodily  absent  from  you ; 
I  say  constrained,  God  knowing  how  willingly  and  much  rather  than  other- 
wise I  would  have  borne  my  part  with  you  in  this  first  brunt,  were  I  not  by 
strong  necessity  held  back  for  the  present.  Make  account  of  me  in  the  mean 
while  as  of  a  man  divided  in  myself*  with  great  pain,  and  (natural  bonds  set 
aside)  having  my  better  part  with  you.  *  *  *  * 

*  *  *  *  a  ^g^  fij-g^  y0U  are  many  of  you  strangers,  as  to  the  persons,  so  to 
the  infirmities  one  of  another,  and  so  stand  in  need  of  more  watchfulness  this 
way,  lest  when  such  things  fall  out  in  men  and  women  as  you  suspected  not, 
you  be  inordinately  affected  with  them ;  which  doth  require  at  your  hands 
much  wisdom  and  charity  for  the  covering  and  preventing  of  incident  of- 
fences that  way.  And  lastly,  your  intended  course  of  civil  community  will 
minister  continual  occasion  of  offence,  and  will  be  as  a  fuel  for  that  fire,  except 
you  diligently  quench  it  with  brotherly  forbearance.  *  *  *  * 

"  Let  every  man  repress  in  himself,  and  the  whole  body  in  each  person,  as 
so  many  rebels  against  the  public  good,  all  private  respects  of  men's  selves, 
not  sorting  with  the  general  conveniency.  And  as  men  are  careful  not  to 
have  a  new  house  shaken  with  any  violence  before  it  be  well  settled  and  the 
parts  firmly  knit,  so  be  you,  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  much  more  careful  that 
the  house  of  God,  which  you  are  and  are  to  be,  be  not  shaken  with  unneces- 
sary novelties  or  other  oppositions  at  the  first  settling  thereof." 

After  distributing  their  company  into  the  two  ships,  they  set  sail  from  South- 
ampton, but  had  scarcely  got  out  into  the  open  channel  before  the  smaller  ves- 
sels became  so  leaky  that  the  master  refused  to  advance  ; — a  few  hours  more 
would  have  sunk  her.  They  put  into  Dartmouth,  where  a  week's  delay 
took  place,  and  when  they  had  proceeded  about  a  hundred  leagues  from  the 
Land's  End,  it  was  feared  that  the  crazy  Speedwell  was  unseaworthy,  and 
must  return  home  with  such  of  the  emigrants  as  were  willing.  Crowding 
the  larger  bark  with  the  remainder,  after  "  a  second  sad  leave-taking,"  the 
ships  parted  company,  and  the  Mayflower  proceeded  on  her  solitary 
voyage,  to  encounter  the  full  fury  of  the  equinoctial  gales.     For  days  to- 


64  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  gether  they  were  forced  to  scud  before  the  wind  without  a  rag  of  sail,  in 
—  danger  of  foundering,  the  heavy  seas  straining  her  upper  works,  and  so  loosen- 

A.D.1G20.  .         &      ,  .  *i  •'    "U  •  i    i   •  ?i      ^    r     Z.   n        ({  '. 

mg  and  warping  the  mam  beam  amidships,  that  but  ior  "  a  great  iron  screw 
that  one  of  the  passengers  had  brought  from  Holland,"  by  means  of  which 
they  contrived  to  fix  and  strengthen  it,  the  captain  and  officers  had  serious 
thoughts  of  putting  about  and  returning.  Struggling  with  these  tempestuous 
seas,  after  a  long  passage  of  two  months  from  Southampton,  at  day-break,  on 
the  ninth  of  November,  they  came  in  sight  of  the  coast  of  New  England,  off 
the  far  famed  headland  of  Cape  Cod. 

The  object  of  the  pilgrims  had  been  to  settle  near  the  Hudson  River,  and 
they  now  ran  down  to  the  southward,  but  getting  among  dangerous  shoals, 
bore  up  again  for  Cape  Cod,  and  came  to  an  anchor  within  its  harbour.  After 
their  rude  tossing,  the  sight  of  the  wooded  land  and  the  sweet  breezes  that 
Came  off  the  shore  were  reviving,  while  the  vast  store  of  fish  and  fowl,  with 
the  number  oT  whales  playing  round  the  ship,  proved  that  they  had  lighted 
upon  a  spot  fertile  in  resources.  Eager  to  land,  they  resolved  nevertheless,  in 
consequence  of  some  signs  of  dissension,  to  frame  themselves  into  a  body,  and 
to  appoint  a  governor.  John  Carver,  Bradford,  also  Elder  Brewster,  and 
Captain  Miles  Standish,  were  the  leading  personages  among  the  company  : 
the  choice  unanimously  fell  upon  the  first.  The  document  signed  by  them  is 
worthy  of  citation  as  the  first  voluntary  compact  of  popular  liberty  and 
equal  rights. 

"  In  the  name  of  God.  Amen.  "We,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  the 
loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign  lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  King,  defender  of  the  faith,  etc. 

"  Having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  the  honour  of  our  king  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant 
the  first  colony  in  the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do,  by  these  presents, 
solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  of  another,  covenant 
and  combine  ourselves  together  into  a  civil  body-politic,  for  our  better  order 
and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid;  and  by  virtue  hereof 
to  enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts, 
constitutions,  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and 
convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colony ;  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience.  In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunder  sub- 
scribed our  names.  Cape  Cod,  11th  November,  in  the  reign  of  our  sovereign 
lord,  King  James,  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  18,  and  of  Scotland,  54. 
Anno  Domini  1620." 

This  agreement  was  signed  by  all  the  men,  who  with  their  wives  and 
families  made  up  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  one. 

Thus,  by  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  toleration  in  Virginia,  and  by  losing 
their  way  to  the  Hudson,  circumstances  apparently  accidental,  but  really 
providential,  the  emigrants  were  led  to  the  New  England  shores.  Arrived  at 
the  desired  term  of  their  long  voyage,  the  pilgrims  found  that  their  sufferings 
were  but  about  to  commence.     They  had  reached  a  wild,  inhospitable  coast, 


A.  D.  1620. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA,  65 

with  its  severe  frosts  and  cutting  winds,  as  the  winter  was  beginning  to  set  in,  chap. 
and  of  the  very  first  of  those  who  went  on  shore,  many,  having  to  wade  through 
the  freezing  water,  "  caught  the  original  of  their  deaths."  The  shallop  was 
unshipped  'and  found  to  require  repairs,  and  the  progress  was  so  slow  that  it 
was  determined  to  send  out  an  exploring  party  of  sixteen  men,  armed  with 
musket,  sword,  and  corslet,  under  the  conduct  of  Standish,  who,  after  a  vain 
research,  came  home  weary  and  exhausted.  The  shallop  at  length  finished,  the 
party  again  set  out.  Suffering  severely  from  the  advancing  season,  and 
wading  hill&  and  valleys  covered  with  snow,  they  returned  without  making  any 
discovery  beyond  deserted  wigwams,  a  little  buried  corn,  and  some  graves. 
The  winter  was  now  arrived,  and  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  fix  upon  some 
spot  for  a  settlement.  Again  the  shallop  was  sent  off  with  Carver,  Bradford, 
Standish,  und  seven  others,  the  hardiest  that  could  be  found,  and  for  five  weeks 
the  party  buffeted  with  the  severity  of  the  season, — the  spray  of  the  sea  freez- 
ing on  them,  and  making  their  coats  like  cast-iron,  while  to  all  these  priva- 
tions and  sufferings  were  added  the  jealous  hostility  of  the  ambushed  Indians. 
"  About  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,"  says  their  Journal,  "  we  began  to  be 
6tirring.  After  prayer,  we  prepared  ourselves  for  breakfast,  and  for  a  jour- 
ney, it  being  now  the  twilight  in  the  morning."  The  savage  war-whoop  of 
ihtir  enemies,  that  day  for  the  first  time  heard,  yelled  around  them,  and  their 
arrows  flew  through  the  {dr.  Standish  and  his  followers  stood  to  their  arms, 
ihs  others  defended  the  shallop,  and  discharged  their  fire-arms,  which  put 
Jhe  savages  to  flight.  "  By  the  special  providence  of  God,"  says  the  journal, 
m  a  vivid  account  of  their  battle,  "  none  of  us  were  hit  or  hurt.  So,  after 
we  had  given  God  thanks  for  our  deliverance,  we  took  our  shallop,  and  went 
on  our  journey,  and  called  this  place  The  First  Encounter." 

In  hopes  of  reaching  a  harbour  known  to  one  of  their  number  who  had 
been  on  these  coasts  before,  they  sailed  on  with  a  fair  wind,  but  in  a  storm  of 
rain  and  snow,  the  gale  increased,  the  sea  rose  and  broke  the  hinges  of  the 
rudder,  and  two  men  were  obliged  to  Steer  the  shallop  with  a  couple  of  oars. 
The  waves,  now  wollen  by  the  gale,  threatened  every  moment  to  swamp  the 
boat,  their  pilot  cried  out  that  he  saw  the  harbour,  and  bade  them  be  of  good 
cheer.  Straining  Dn  with  all  their  canvass  to  get  in,  their  mast  split  into 
three  pieces,  and  the  boat  was  nearly  lost,  but  righting,  was  driven  by 
the  flood  tide  into  the  harbour.  Here,  however,  fresh  perils  assailed  them  ; 
the  pilot,  mistaking  the  place,  had  well  nigh  run  them  among  breakers,  but 
recovering  themselves  in  time,  as  the  night  set  in,  they  gained  the  lee  of 
a  sandy  island,  which  securely  sheltered  their  little  shallop,  and  upon  this 
desolate  spot  they  kept  their  watch  all  night  in  the  rain.  In  the  morning  of 
Saturday  they  explored  the  island,  which  they  found  to  be  uninhabited, 
and  here,  pressed  as  they  were  by  their  own  necessities,  and  those  of 
their  anxious  comrades  on  board  the  Mayflower,  "  on  the  sabbath  day  they 
rested." 

On  Monday,  the  band  of  pioneers  first  set  foot  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth, 
which  name  was   given  in  grateful  memory  of  their   Christian  friends  in 


66  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  the  same  town  in  England.  After  exploring  the  neighbourhood,  and  de- 
A  D  ■  ciding  upon  its  fitness  for  a  settlement,  they  returned  with  the  good  news 
i62i.  '  to  the  rest  of  their  people,  cooped  up  on  board  the  Mayflower, "  which  did 
much  comfort  their  hearts."  The  anchor  was  joyfully  weighed  ;  the  vessel  ar- 
rived on  Saturday,  and  the  next  day  was  the  last  of  their  sabbaths  spent  at  sea. 
Their  first  work  was  to  erect  habitations  to  shelter  them  from  the  weather.  A 
bold  hill  commanding  a  look-out  over  the  bay,  offered  a  vantage  ground  for  their 
fort,  which  was  garnished  with  a  few  small  pieces  of  ordnance  ;  at  its  foot  two 
rows  of  huts  were  laid  out  and  staked — the  habitations  of  nineteen  families. 
The  winter  had  now  set  in,  and  although  milder  than  usual,  their  labours  at 
felling  trees  and  constructing  their  rude  habitations  were  carried  on  in  the  midst 
of  constant  storms  of  rain  and  sleet ;  already  had  the  seeds  of  mortal  disease 
been  implanted ;  by  privations  and  exposure  to  the  rigour  of  the  season,  by 
wading  through  the  icy  water  from  the  ship  to  the  land,  the  strong  man  be- 
came weak. as  a  child,  and  the  delicate  frame  of  woman  sunk  under  the  double 
pressure  of  mental  anxiety  and  physical  exhaustion.  During  this  first  winter 
they  faded  gradually  away  ;  and  one  of  the  first  entries  was  the  following : — 
"  January  29,  dies  Rose,  the  wife  of  Captain  Standish."  Bradford's  wife  had 
perished  by  drowning.  But  not  to  follow  the  melancholy  chronicle  of  bereave- 
ments, suffice  it  to  say,  that  during  these  three  dreary  months  one  half  their 
number  were  cut  off.  That  winter  they  had  to  form  seven  times  more  graves 
for  the  dead  than  habitations  for  the  living.  They  were  buried  on  the  bank 
not  far  from  the  landing — a  spot  still  religiously  venerated;  and  lest  the  Indians 
should  take  courage  to  attack  the  survivors  from  their  weakened  state,  the 
soil  which  covered  the  graves  of  their  beloved  relatives  was  carefully  beaten 
down  and  planted  with  a  crop  of  corn. 

The  spot  upon  which  Providence  had  thus  cast  them,  contrary  to  their 
original  design,  proved  to  be  beyond  the  limits  of  the  patent  assigned  to  the 
company  of  whom  they  had  purchased  it.  It  is  singular,  not  only  that  former 
attempts  to  colonize  the  neighbourhood  should  have  failed,  but  also  that  a  de- 
structive malady  should,  not  long  before,  have  nearly  destroyed  all  its  abori- 
ginal Indian  inhabitants.  During  the  winter  they  were  not  free  from  alarm ; 
and  a  sort  of  military  defensive  organization  was  adopted,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Captain  Standish.  But  when  the  spring  came  round  with  its  soft 
airs,  and  hope,  tinged  with  melancholy,  began  to  animate  the  survivors,  and 
the  sickness  ceased  from  among  them,  an  Indian,  one  morning,  walked  boldly 
into  the  camp  and  saluted  them  in  their  own  tongue — "  Welcome  English- 
men." He  was  one  of  the  Sagamores  of  the  Wampanoags,  and  told  them 
of  the  great  plague,  and  that  the  land  was  free  for  them  to  occupy.  He  was  . 
received  by  them  with  kindness,  and  soon  returned,  bringing  with  him  an 
Indian  named  Squanto,  who  having  been  carried  off  to  England  in  a  pi- 
ratical expedition,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  merchant  of  Cornhill,  whose 
kindness  to  him  was  destined  to  be  repaid  with  grateful  interest  to  the 
Plymouth  settlers.  Brought  back  to  New  England  by  Mr.  Dormer,  he  was 
by  him  made  instrumental  in  healing  the  animosity  kindled  in  the  breasts 


A.  D. 1621. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  67 

of  the  Indians  by  these  slave-hunting  rovers,  and  he  now  acted  as  interpreter  chap. 
and  guide — showed  them  how  to  plant  their  corn,  and  caught  fish  for  them 
when  starving.  Having  accompanied  the  governor  to  Cape  Cod,  to  trade  with 
the  Indians  and  obtain  corn,  he  was  taken  ill  and  died,  bequeathing  his  trifling 
possessions  as  memorials  to  his  English  friends,  and  "  desiring  the  governor 
to  pray  that  he  might  go  to  the  Englishman's  God  in  heaven."  Through  the 
mediation  of  these  Indians  a  treaty  of  mutual  amity  and  succour  had  been 
entered  into  with  Massasoit,  Sachem  of  the  neighbouring  tribe  of  Wampa- 
noags ;  and  thus  one  source  of  uneasiness  was  happily  set  at  rest. 

On  the  approach  of  spring,  Carver  was  chosen  again  as  governor,  but  lived 
only  a  fortnight  after  his  re-election.  He  had  lost  his  son  soon  after  their 
arrival,  and  his  indefatigable  labours  during  the  sickly  winter  had  under- 
mined his  strength,  and  his  wife  died  shortly  afterwards.  Bradford  was  ap- 
pointed as  his  successor.  The  Mayflower  returned  to  England.  In  the 
summer  arose  their  Timber  Fort,  mounted  with  ordnance,  and  carefully 
guarded,  serving  also  as  the  first  rude  Meeting-House  of  New  England. 
"  This  place,"  says  Cheever,  "  called  at  first  Fort  Hill,  afterwards  changed 
its  name  to  that  of  the  Burying  Hill,  for  it  began  to  be  used  as  the  place  of 
burial  soon  after  the  first  year  of  the  Pilgrims'  settlement.  In  building  the 
fort,  they  so  constructed  it  as  to  make  it  serve  also  for  the  house  of  public 
worship,  where  they  could  calmly  praise  God,  without  fear  of  any  sudden 
incursion  from  the  savages.  The  foundations  of  the  fort  are  still  distinctly 
marked,  but  the  last  mention  of  it  in  the  town  records  is  in  1679,  at  the  close 
of  King  Philip's  war,  when  the  defences  were  no  longer  needed.  On  this 
hill  are  the  graves  of  several  of  the  Mayflower  Pilgrims,  Governor  Bradford's 
among  others,  and  that  of  John  Howland  and  his  wife  Elizabeth.  The  grave 
of  Thomas  Clarke,  the  mate  of  the  Mayflower,  is  here.  This  is  the  place  also 
of  the  grave  of  the  last  ruling  elder  of  the  first  church  in  Plymouth,  Mr. 
Thomas  Faunce.  He  died  not  till  the  year  1745,  in  the  99th  year  of  his  age, 
and,  of  course,  was  long  the  living  repository  of  the  authentic  unwritten  tra- 
ditions concerning  the  first  generation  of  the  Pilgrims.  The  great  age  to 
which  those  lived  who  survived  the  dreadful  trials  of  the  first  few  years,  is 
remarkable.  John  Alden,  who  came  in  the  Mayflower,  died  at  the  age  of 
89,  in  1687,  and  one  of  his  direct  descendants,  John  Alden  of  Middleborough, 
died  at  the  age  of  102,  in  the  year  1821.  The  wife  of  the  Governor  Bradford 
died  at  the  age  of  80.  Elder  Brewster,  John  Howland  and  his  wife  Eliza- 
beth, Elder  Cushman  and  his  wife  Mary,  were  all  from  80  to  90  years  of  age 
when  they  died.  Thomas  Clarke,  the  supposed  mate  of  the  Mayflower,  was 
98.  The  grave-stones  over  these  Pilgrims,  if  you  find  them  on  Burying  Hill, 
are  not  so  old  as  their  deaths ;  they  are  said  to  have  been  brought  over  from 
England,  and  in  some  cases  were  not  put  up  till  long  after  the  graves  of  the 
whole  generation  were  made." 

It  may  be  supposed  that  Robinson,  with  those  who  had  remained  in  Hol- 
land under  his  charge,  awaited  with  the  deepest  anxiety  intelligence  of  the 
fate  of  their  brethren.     The  news  of  their  sufferings,  and  the  grievous  mor- 

k  2 


V. 


A. D. 1621. 


68  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  tality  amongst  them,  at  length  arrived,  and  awakened  feelings  which  found 
their  expression  in  letters  such  as  the  following : — 

"  To  the  Church  of  God  at  Plymouth,  in  New  England.  Much  beloved 
brethren :  Neither  the  distance  of  place,  nor  distinction  of  body,  can  at  all 
either  dissolve  or  weaken  that  bond  of  true  Christian  affection,  in  which  the 
Lord  by  his  Spirit  hath  tied  us  together.  My  continual  prayers  are  to  the 
Lord  for  you  ;  my  most  earnest  desire  is  unto  you,  from  which  I  will  no  longer 
keep,  if  God  will,  than  means  can  be  procured  to  bring  with  me  the  wives  and 
children  of  divers  of  you,  and  the  rest  of  your  brethren,  whom  I  could  not 
leave  behind  me  without  great  injury  both  to  you  and  them,  and  offence  to 
God,  and  all  men.  The  death  of  so  many  of  our  dear  friends  and  brethren, 
oh  how  grievous  hath  it  been  to  you  to  bear,  and  to  us  to  take  knowledge  of ! 
which  if  it  could  be  mended  with  lamenting,  could  not  sufficiently  be  be- 
wailed :  but  we  must  go  unto  them,  and  they  shall  not  return  unto  us ;  and 
how  many,  even  of  us,  God  hath  taken  away  here,  and  in  England,  since 
your  departure,  you  may  elsewhere  take  knowledge.  But  the  same  God  has 
tempered  judgment  with  mercy,  as  otherwise,  so  in  sparing  the  rest,  espe- 
cially those  by  whose  godly  and  wise  government  you  may  be,  and  I  know 
are,  so  much  helped.  In  a  battle  it  is  not  looked  for  but  that  divers  should 
die ;  it  is  thought  well  for  a  side  if  it  get  the  victory,  though  with  the  loss 
of  divers,  if  not  too  many  or  too  great.  God,  I  hope,  hath  given  you  the 
victory,  after  many  difficulties,  for  yourselves  and  others  ;  though  I  doubt  not 
but  many  do  and  will  remain  for  you  and  us  all  to  strive  with.  Brethren,  I 
hope  I  need  not  exhort  you  to  obedience  unto  those  whom  God  hath  set  over 
you  in  church  and  commonwealth,  and  to  the  Lord  in  them.  It  is  a  Chris- 
tian's honour  to  give  honour  according  to  men's  places ;  and  his  liberty,  to 
serve  God  in  faith,  and  his  brethren  in  love,  orderly  and  with  a  willing  and 
free  heart.  God  forbid  I  should  need  exhort  you  to  peace  which  is  the  bond 
of  perfection,  and  by  which  all  good  is  tied  together,  and  without  which  it  is 
scattered.  Have  peace  with  God  first,  by  faith  in  his  promises,  good  conscience 
kept  in  all  things,  and  oft  renewed  by  repentance ;  and  so  one  with  another 
for  His  sake  which  is,  though  three,  one  ;  and  for  Christ's  sake,  who  is  one, 
and  as  you  are  called  by  one  Spirit  to  one  hope.  And  the  God  of  peace  and 
grace  and  all  good  men  be  with  you,  in  all  the  fruits  thereof  plenteously  upon 
your  heads,  now  and  for  ever.  All  your  brethren  here  remember  you  with 
great  love,  a  general  token  whereof  they  have  sent  you.  Yours  ever  in  the 
Lord,  John  Robinson.    Leyden,  Holland,  June  30th,  Anno  1621." 

Such  documents  as  these  are  in  the  highest  sense  historical,  since  they  dis- 
play, as  nothing  else  can,  the  spirit  and  the  motives  which  animated  the  Pil- 
grims. The  "  hope  deferred  "  of  joining  his  flock  was  very  grievous  to  Ro- 
binson, prevented  as  he  was  from  doing  so  by  misunderstandings  with  the 
London  merchants,  who  refused  to  send  him  over.  Meanwhile,  the  care  of 
the  little  church  at  Plymouth  devolved  on  Elder  Brewster,  who,  possessing 
a  good  education  as  well  as  profound  piety,  fulfilled  the  duties  of  a  Chi  is- 
tian  overseer  in  a  spirit  truly  apostolical,  although  he  could  never  be  per- 


A.  D.  1623. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  69 

suaded  to  assume  the  office  of  pastor,  and  would  never  receive  any  emolu-  c  ha  p. 
ment  for  his  services ;  but,  in  the  language  of  Governor  Bradford, "  was  willing 
to  take  his  part  and  bear  his  burden  with  the  rest,  living  many  times  without 
bread  or  corn  many  months  together,  having  many  times  nothing  but  fish,  and 
often  wanting  that  also ;  and  drank  nothing  but  water  for  many  years  together, 
yea,  until  within  five  or  six  years  of  his  death.  And  yet  he  lived,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  in  health  until  very  old  age  ;  and  besides  that,  would  labour 
with  his  hands  in  the  fields  as  long  as  he  was  able."  Of  such  a  stamp  were  the 
venerable  founders  of  New  England.  Robinson  himself,  the  patriarch  of  the 
Plymouth  church,  was  not  destined  to  enter  into  the  promised  land.  He  died 
in  Holland ;  and  it  was  some  years  before  his  family  and  the  rest  of  the  con- 
gregation found  means  to  join  the  "  forefathers  "  of  the  expedition. 

The  suffering  and  mortality  of  the  first  winter  being  over,  the  survivors  took 
heart  and  began  to  extend  the  sphere  of  their  discoveries.  A  party  explored 
the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the  peninsula  upon  which  the  city  of 
Boston  was  soon  afterwards  founded.  With  the  autumn  came  fresh  trials. 
Another  vessel,  the  Fortune,  was  sent  out  by  the  merchants,  having  on  board 
Cushman,  with  a  new  patent,  obtained  through  the  good  offices  of  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges.  The  ship  had  brought  over  new  mouths,  and  no  provisions  ; 
the  result  was  a  famine  of  several  months'  duration  ;  all  had  to  be  put  on  half 
allowance ;  the  corn  was  all  eaten,  and  the  colonists  were  reduced  to  the.  scan- 
tiest rations — chiefly  of  fish,  or  to  such  precarious  supplies  as  were  occasionally 
obtained  from  passing  vessels  at  an  exorbitant  cost.  No  cattle  had  been  yet 
imported;  their  agricultural  instruments  were  scanty  and  rude,  and  they 
were  almost  destitute  of  boats  and  tackle  to  enable  them  to  profit  by  the  shoals 
of  fish  which  abounded  on  the  coasts.  Mortality  and  distress  had  prevented 
them  from  subduing  the  soil — men,  toiling  at  the  rude  labours  of  a  first  set- 
tlement, "  often  staggered  for  want  of  food."  Hitherto  everything  had  been 
shared  in  common  among  them ;  but  here,  as  it  happened  in  Virginia,  the 
possession  of  private  property  was  found  to  be  a  necessary  stimulus  to  industry, 
for  even  in  the  best  organized  communities  are  to  be  found  the  idle  and  im- 
provident. In  the  second  year  of  their  settlement  an  agreement  was  accord- 
ingly entered  into,  that  each  family  should  labour  for  itself, — the  result  of 
which  proved  to  be,  that  instead  of  being  obliged  to  seek  for  supplies  of  corn 
from  the  Indians,  the  settlers  had  now  a  surplus  to  dispose  of. 

Apprehensions  of  attack  from  the  Indians  were  not  wanting,  but  the  deci- 
sion and  energy  of  the  governor  prevented  any  from  being  made.  The 
powerful  Narragansetts,  enemies  of  the  Wampanoags,  had  sent  to  Plymouth 
a  bundle  of  arrows  tied  up  with  the  skin  of  a  rattlesnake,  in  token  of  defiance 
— Bradford  returned  the  envelope  stuffed  with  powder  and  shot.  The  hint 
thus  given  repressed  hostility ;  but,  to  prevent  a  surprise,  the  settlement  was 
prudently  surrounded  with  a  palisade  of  timbers  having  three  gates. 

But  evils  which  their  own  peacefulness  of  demeanour  towards  the  abori- 
gines, or  decision  when  threatened  by  their  hostilities,  had  warded  off,  were 
brought  about  ere  long  through  the  criminal  recklessness  of  a  new  body  of 


A.  D.  1623. 


70  .  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  colonists  sent  out  by  Weston,  to  found  a  separate  plantation  for  his  own  advan- 
tage. These  were  men  of  dissolute  character,  who,  after  intruding  upon  the 
Plymouth  settlers,  and  eating  or  stealing  half  their  provisions,  had  attempted  a 
settlement  at  Wissagussett  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  Having  soon  exhausted  their 
own  stock,  they  began  to  plunder  the  Indians,  who  formed  a  conspiracy  to  cut 
them  off.  The  plot  was  revealed  by  the  dying  Sachem  Massasoit.  Here  the 
colonists  had  to  deplore  the  same  hasty  spirit  of  revenge  which  had,  in  almost 
every  instance,  sown  the  seeds  of  lasting  hatred  and  hostility  in  the  Indian 
breast.  Captain  Standish,  brave  but  inconsiderate,  surprised  Wituwamot,  the 
chief  of  this  conspiracy,  and  put  him  to  death  on  the  spot,  together  with  se- 
veral of  his  Indians.  When  Robinson  heard  of  this  deplorable  occurrence,  he 
wrote  back  to  the  church,  "  Oh  how  happy  a  thing  had  it  been,  had  you  con- 
verted some,  before  you  had  killed  any!"  This  ill  compacted  settlement 
shortly  afterwards  fell  to  pieces. 

Among  various  others  now  attempted  along  the  line  of  coast,  was  one 
which  merits  notice  as  a  curious  contrast  to  that  of  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims. 
This  was  founded  by  a  Captain  Wollaston,  and  named  after  himself.  It  fell 
soon  after  under  the  management  of  a  London  lawyer,  one  Morton,  who 
changed  its  name  from  Mount  Wollaston  to  Merry  Mount,  set  up  a  May- 
pole, as  if  to  satirize  the  strictness  of  the  Puritans,  broached  ale  and  wine, 
and  held  a  drunken  carousal,  sold  or  squandered  all  the  provisions  and 
stock,  and  wound  up  his  absurd  and  mischievous  proceedings  by  the  criminal 
folly,  if  not  malicious  wickedness,  of  selling  fire-arms  to  the  Indians.  This 
'  Devil's  holiday '  soon,  however,  came  to  an  end :  the  frightened  settlers  re- 
quested the  interference  of  the  brethren  at  Plymouth,  by  whom,  accordingly, 
mad  Morton  was  apprehended  and  held  in  durance,  until  they  could  meet 
with  an  opportunity  of  shipping  him  ofT  to  England. 

Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  in  concert  with  an  enterprising  partner  named 
Mason,  had  obtained  a  grant  of  territory  from  Naumkeag,  now  Salem,  to  the 
Kennebec,  and  thence  to  Canada.  Portsmouth  and  Dover  were  now  founded, 
but  long  remained  mere  fishing  stations.  His  son,  Robert  Gorges,  received 
also  a  grant  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  appointment  of  Lieutenant- 
General  of  New  England.  He  sailed  with  a  considerable  number  of  people 
to  take  possession,  and  attempted  a  settlement  at  Wissagussett.  The  settlers 
were  now  threatened  with  an  evil,  against  which  they  had  vainly  endeavoured 
to  provide.  With  Gorges,  came  out  an  Episcopal  minister,  named  Morrell, 
empowered  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  exercise  ecclesiastical  super- 
intendence— he  appears,  however,  to  have  attempted  no  interference  with 
the  established  system.  Soon  after  came  a  minister  who  had  received  Epis- 
copal ordination,  sent  out  by  the  company  to  supply  the  pastoral  office  vacant 
by  the  absence  of  Robinson;  but  his  office  was  unwelcome,  and  being  shortly 
expelled  for  practising  against  the  colony,  he,  together  with  his  adherents, 
formed  a  settlement  at  Nantasket.  The  colonists  were  thus  left  to  follow 
their  own  persuasions,  though  not  without  occasional  dissensions  among  them- 
selves.    Gorges  remained  little  more  than  a  year  in  New  England.     Thus 


A.  D.  1C21. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  71 

practically  the  form  of  self-government,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  adopt-  chap 
ed  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  remained  unchallenged  and  undisturbed.  The 
same  simple  principle  existed  in  both.  The  form  was  a  strict  democracy, 
a  little  body  of  settlers  forming  at  once  a  church  and  a  state,  electing  their 
own  officers  in  both,  and  exercising  a  share  in  the  government.  They  were 
accustomed  to  assemble  for  this  purpose  at  what  were  called  "  Town  Meetings," 
to  confer  with  the  governor  upon  matters  of  general  concern,  in  a  free, 
friendly,  and  confidential  manner. 

Bradford,  who  succeeded  to  Carver  in  the  office  of  governor,  deserves  the 
most  honourable  mention  among  the  fathers  of  the  infant  colony.  "  He  was  in 
an  eminent  degree,"  says  Cheever,  "  the  moving  and  guiding  genius  of  the 
enterprise.  His  conduct  towards  the  Indians  was  marked  with  such  wisdom, 
energy,  and  kindness,  that  he  soon  gained  a  powerful  influence  over  them. 
With  the  people  of  the  colony,  not  merely  his  first  fellow-pilgrims,  but  all  that 
came  successively  afterwards,  he  had  equal  authority  and  power;  without  the 
necessity  of  assuming  it.  The  most  heedless  among  them  seemed  to  fear  and 
respect  him.  He  set  them  all  at  work,  and  would  have  none  idle  in  the  com- 
munity, being  resolved  that  if  any  would  not  work  neither  should  they  eat. 

"  His  administration  of  affairs,  as  connected  with  the  merchant  adventurers, 
was  a  model  of  firmness,  patience,  forbearance,  energy,  and  enterprise.  With 
a  few  others,  as  we  have  seen,  he  took  the  whole  trade  of  the  colony  into  his 
hands,  with  the  assumed  responsibility  of  paying  off  all  their  debts,  and  the 
benevolent  determination  to  bring  over  the  rest  of  their  brethren  from  Leyden. 
His  activity  in  the  prosecution  of  this  great  work  was  indefatigable.  Mean- 
while, no  other  business,  either  of  the  piety  or  civil  policy  of  the  colony,  was 
neglected.  He  made  such  arrangements,  in  conjunction  with  his  brethren,  to 
redeem  their  labour  from  the  hopelessness  of  its  conditions  in  the  adventuring 
copartnership  under  which  they  were  bound  for  the  seven  years'  contract 
with  the  merchants,  as  inspired  them  all  speedily  with  new  life  and  courage. 
Under  the  pressure  of  the  famine,  his  example  was  as  a  star  of  hope,  for  he 
never  yielded  to  despondency;  and  while,  with  Brewster,  he  threw  them 
upon  God  for  support  and  provision,  he  set  in  motion  every  possible  instru- 
mentality for  procuring  supplies.  He  went  in  person  with  parties  among  the 
Indians  for  corn,  and  took  part  himself  in  every  labour. 

"  In  the  spiritual  prosperity  of  the  colony,  Governor  Bradford  took  an  in- 
cessant and  most  anxious  interest,  possessing  in  himself,  in  no  small  degree, 
the  wisdom  and  temper  of  his  beloved  pastor,  Robinson.  Under  him  and 
Brewster,  the  Plymouth  church  maintained  their  superiority  in  the  liberality 
and  independence  of  their  views  above  all  the  other  colonies.  The  answer 
which  the  governor  made  to  their  slanderers  in  England,  in  regard  to  their 
church  policy  and  customs,  breathed  the  very  spirit  of  Scriptural  wisdom  and 
freedom,  so  remarkable  in  the  parting  discourse  of  Robinson  to  the  Pilgrims. 
' Whereas  you  would  tie  us  up  to  the  French  discipline  in  every  circumstance, 
you  derogate  from  the  liberty  we  have  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  apostle  Paul 
would  have  none  to  follow  him  in  anything,  but  wherein  he  follows  Christ ; 


<&  HISTORY    CF    AMERICA. 

chap,  much  less  ought  any  Christian  or  church  in  the  world  to  do  it.     The  French  ' 

'. —  may  err,  we  may  err,  other  churches  may  err,  and  doubtless  do,  in  many 

'  circumstances.  That  honour,  therefore,  belongs  only  to  the  infallible  word 
of  God,  and  pure  Testament  of  Christ,  to  be  propounded  and  followed  as  the 
only  rule  and  pattern  for  direction  herein  to  all  churches  and  Christians. 
And  it  is  too  great  arrogancy  for  any  man  or  church  to  think  that  he,  or  they, 
have  so  sounded  the  word  of  God  unto  the  bottom,  as  precisely  to  set  down 
the  church's  discipline  without  error  in  substance  or  circumstance,  that  no 
other,  without  blame,  may  digress,  or  differ,  in  anything  from  the  same.  And 
it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  the  Reformed  Churches  differ  in  many  circum- 
stances among  themselves.' 

"  Bradford  presided  over  the  affairs  of  the  colony  by  their  own  free  choice, 
and  even  affectionate  solicitation,  for  nearly  thirty-seven  years  together,  with 
admirable  temper  and  wisdom.  In  the  year  1633,  we  find  a  record  in  Go- 
vernor Winthrop's  Journal,  as  follows:  *  Mr.  Edward  Winslow  chosen 
Governor  of  Plymouth,  Mr.  Bradford  having  been  Governor  about  ten  years, 
and  now  by  importunity  got  off.'  He  pleaded  so  hard  to  be  let  off  for  that 
year,  that  they  yielded  without  fining  him.  Such  were  the  fathers  of  the 
New  England  States.  They  shared  each  other's  burdens  too  completely  to 
seek  or  desire  superiority  in  any  other  way.  They  sought  not  for  office,  had 
no  parties,  wished  for  no  power  but  that  of  doing  good.  It  was  not  till  pros- 
perity had  relaxed  their  vigilance,  and  men  of  worldly  minds  had  been  added 
to  their  company,  that  parties  began  to  exist  among  them.  Their  church 
covenant  was  of  great  solemnity  and  power  with  them,  '  of  the  violation 
whereof,'  said  Robinson,  f  we  make  great  consequence,  and  by  virtue  whereof 
we  hold  ourselves  straitly  tied  to  all  care  of  each  other's  good,  and  of  the 
whole  by  each,  and  that  mutual.'" 

The  first  settlement  of  New  England,  through  the  midst  of  distress  and 
discouragement,  has  now  been  briefly  traced.  It  is  a  memorable  enterprise  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  both  for  the  motives  that  led  to  it,  as  well  as  its 
momentous  and  far-reaching  consequences.  It  marks  the  period  when  the 
mind  first  threw  off  the  trammels  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  despotism,  and 
sought  to  found  in  the  New  World  a  Christian  democracy  upon  the  basis  of 
the  "  everlasting  word."  Other  settlements  of  America  arose  out  of  commercial 
or  patriotic  enterprise ;  this  had  its  origin  in  religious  enthusiasm.  Those 
who  founded  it  walked  with  God,  and  in  every  event  beheld  his  guiding  pro- 
vidence. Thus  led  forth  by  his  hand,  life  or  death  were  equally  welcome. 
In  the  perils  of  the  deep — amidst  sufferings  on  shore — in  failing  health — in 
bitter  privation — in  an  untimely  fate  upon  a  distant  shore — their  faith  sus- 
tained them.  Their  trials  and  distresses  were  soothed  by  referring  all  things 
to  the  will  of  God.  In  the  bright  sky  over  their  heads — the  blue  expanse  of 
waters — the  lovely  freshness  and  wildness  of  the  virgin  forest,  they  beheld 
the  traces  of  his  presence  and  the  tokens  of  his  goodness.  Their  humble  fare 
was  sweetened  by  honest  labour,  undertaken  in  cheerful  submission  to  the 
Divine  will.     The  spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  the  spirit  of  brotherly  love, 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  73 

was  the  sole  cement  of  their  simple  institutions.    Theirs  was  the  only  true  de-   chap. 

mocracy,  to  love  one  another  as  themselves  ;  theirs  the  only  true  government,  ■ 

when  the  ambition  of  the  greatest  is  to  be  the  servant  of  all. 

That  in  some  respects  they  were  not  above  the  spirit  of  their  age,  the  age  of 
sectarian  prejudice,  sharpened  by  bitter  persecution,  was  unavoidable.  But 
their  deep  religious  feeling,  their  stern  integrity,  their  guileless  simplicity, 
their  passion  for  freedom  and  abhorrence  of  oppression,  their  obedience  to 
law,  their  steady  courage  and  hardy  enterprise,  their  laborious,  frugal,  and  , 
self-denying  habits,  were  the  noble  qualities  which,  rooted  by  them  in  the 
land,  and  transmitted  to  their  descendants,  formed  the  solid  and  immovable 
foundations  of  the  American  State.  These  moral  and  intellectual  character- 
istics are  also  the  salt  wherewith  the  great  republic  has  been  preserved  from 
that  corruption,  which  its  unprecedented  progress  in  material  prosperity  might 
otherwise,  but  too  probably,  have  engendered. 

The  affectionate  interest  with  which  every  memorial  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
is  regarded  throughout  the  United  States,  will  probably  justify  the  insertion 
of  the  visit  of  a  recent  traveller  to  the  scene  of  their  first  settlement. 

"  We  admired,"  says  Sir  C.  Lyell,  "  the  fine  avenues  of  drooping  elms  in 
the  streets  of  Plymouth  as  we  entered,  and  went  to  a  small,  old-fashioned  inn, 
called  the  Pilgrim  House,  where  I  hired  a  carriage,  in  which  the  landlord 
drove  us  at  once  to  see  the  bay  and  visit  Plymouth  beach. 

"  The  wind  was  bitterly  cold,  and  we  learnt  that,  on  the  evening  before, 
the  sea  had  been  frozen  over,  near  the  shore ;  yet  it  was  two  months  later, 
when,  on  the  22nd  of  December,  1620,  now  called  Forefathers'  Day,  the  Pil- 
grims, consisting  of  101  souls,  landed  here  from  the  Mayflower.  No  wonder 
that  half  of  them  perished  from  the  severity  of  the  first  winter.  They  who 
escaped  seem,  as  if  in  compensation,  to  have  been  rewarded  with  unusual 
longevity.  We  saw  in  the  grave-yard  the  tombs  of  not  a  few  whose  ages 
ranged  from  seventy-nine  to  ninety-nine  years.  The  names  inscribed  on  their 
monuments  are  very  characteristic  of  Puritan  times,  with  a  somewhat  grotesque 
mixture  of  other  very  familiar  ones,  as  Jerusha,  Sally,  Adoniram,  Consider, 
Seth,  Experience,  Dorcas,  Polly,  Eunice,  Eliphalet,  Mercy,  &c.  The  New 
Englanders  laugh  at  the  people  of  the  "  Old  Colony  "  for  remaining  in  a  pri- 
mitive state,  and  are  hoping  that  the  railroad  from  Boston,  now  nearly  com- 
plete, may  soon  teach  them  how  to  go  a-head.  But  they  who  visit  the  town 
for  the  sake  of  old  associations,  will  not  complain  of  the  antique  style  of  many 
of  the  buildings,  and  the  low  rooms,  with  panelled  walls,  and  huge  wooden 
beams  projecting  from  the  ceilings,  such  as  I  never  saw  elsewhere  in  America. 
Some  houses,  built  of  brick  brought  from  Holland,  notwithstanding  the  abund- 
ance of  brick-earth  in  the  neighbourhood,  were  pointed  out  to  us  in  Leyden 
Street,  so  called  from  the  last  town  in  Europe  where  the  pilgrims  sojourned 
after  they  had  been  driven  out  of  their  native  country  by  religious  persecution. 
In  some  private  houses  we  were  interested  in  many  venerated  heir-looms,  kept 
as  relics  of  the  first  settlers,  and  among  others  an  antique  chair  of  carved  wood, 

L 


A.  D. 1633. 


74  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ii  a  p.  which  came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  still  retains  the  marks  of  the  staples 
which  fixed  it  to  the  floor  of  the  cabin.  This,  together  with  a  seal  of  Governor 
Winslow,  was  shown  me  by  an  elderly  lady,  Mrs.  Hanwood,  daughter  of  a 
Winslow  and  a  "White,  and  who  received  them  from  her  grandmother.  In  a 
public  building,  called  Pilgrim  Hall,  we  saw  other  memorials  of  the  same  kind, 
as,  for  example,  a  chest  or  cabinet,  which  had  belonged  to  Peregrine  White, 
the  first  child  born  in  the  colony,  and  which  came  to  him  from  his  mother, 
and  had  been  preserved  to  the  fifth  generation  in  the  same  family,  when  it 
was  presented  by  them  to  the  Museum.  By  the  side  of  it  was  a  pewter  dish, 
also  given  by  the  White  family.  In  the  same  collection  they  have  a  chair 
brought  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  the  helmet  of  King  Philip,  the  Indian 
chief,  with  whom  the  first  settlers  had  made  a  desperate  fight. 

"  A  huge  fragment  of  granite,  a  boulder  which  lay  sunk  in  the  beach,  has 
also  been  traditionally  declared  to  have  been  the  first  spot  which  the  feet  of 
the  Pilgrims  first  trod  when  they  landed  here  ;  and  part  of  this  same  rock  still 
remains  on  the  wharf,  while  another  portion  has  been  removed  to  the  centre 
of  the  town,  and  enclosed  within  an  iron  railing,  on  which  the  names  of  forty- 
two  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  have  been  inscribed.  They  who  cannot  sympathize 
warmly  with  the  New  Englanders  for  cherishing  these  precious  relics,  are  not 
to  be  envied,  and  it  is  a  praiseworthy  custom  to  celebrate  an  annual  festival, 
not  only  here,  but  in  places  several  thousand  miles  distant.  Often  in  New 
Orleans,  and  other  remote  parts  of  the  Union,  we  hear  of  settlers  from  the 
North  meeting  on  the  22nd  of  December,  to  commemorate  the  birth-day 
of  New  England ;  and  when  they  speak  fondly  of  their  native  hills  and  val- 
leys, and  recall  their  early  recollections,  they  are  drawing  closer  the  ties 
which  bind  together  a  variety  of  independent  States  into  one  great  con- 
federation. 

"  Colonel  Perkins,  of  Boston,  well  known  for  his  munificence,  especially  for 
founding  the  Asylum  for  the  Blind,  informed  me  in  1846,  that  there  was  but 
one  link  wanting  in  the  chain  of  personal  communication  between  him  and  Pe- 
regrine White,  the  first  white  child  born  in  Massachusetts,  a  few  days  after  the 
Pilgrims  landed.  White  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  and  was  known  to  a  man  of  the 
name  of  Cobb,  whom  Colonel  Perkins  visited  in  1807,  with  some  friends  who 
yet  survive.  Cobb  died  in  1808,  the  year  after  Colonel  Perkins  saw  him.  He 
was  then  blind,  but  his  memory  fresh  for  everything  which  had  happened  in 
his  manhood.  He  had  served  as  a  soldier  at  the  taking  of  Louisbourg,  in  Cape 
Breton,  in  1745,  and  remembered  when  there  were  many  Indians  near  Ply- 
mouth. The  inhabitants  occasionally  fired  a  cannon  near  the  town  to  frighten 
them,  and  to  this  cannon  the  Indians  gave  the  name  of  '  Old  Speakum.' 

"  When  we  consider  the  grandeur  of  the  results  which  have  been  realized 
in  the  interval  of  225  years,  since  the  Mayflower  sailed  into  Plymouth  Har- 
bour,— how  in  that  period  a  nation  of  twenty  millions  of  souls  has  sprung 
into  existence,  and  peopled  a  vast  continent,  and  covered  it  with  cities 
and  churches,  schools,  colleges,  and  railroads,  and  filled  its  rivers  and  ports 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  75 

with   steam-boats    and   shipping;    we  regard   the   Pilgrim   relics  with  that  chap. 
kind  of  veneration  which  trivial  objects  usually  derive  from  high  antiquity ' — 

,  ,,  A.  D.  1633. 

alone. 

[In  the  composition  of  this  chapter  the  author  has  to  acknowledge  his  obligations  to  the  Rev. 
R.  Hunter's  recent  valuable  tract  on  the  English  Localities  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  as 
also  to  the  excellent  work  of  Dr.  Cheever.] 


CHAPTER  VI. 


VI. 


A.  D. 1630. 


COLONY  OP  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. — PRELIMINARY  ATTEMPTS. — EMIGRATION  UNDER  WINTHROP. — 
ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  THEOCRACY.— RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE. — ROGER  WILLIAMS  AND  MRS. 
HUTCHINSON. — FOUNDATION  OF   CONNECTICUT.— THE   PEQUOD   WAR. 

The  settlement  of  the  Independents  was  soon  followed  by  another  and  more  chap. 
extensive  one  of  the  Puritans  upon  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  The 
increasing  uneasiness  of  their  position  in  England,  led  many,  even  of  the 
higher  ranks  of  the  gentry,  to  desire  a  similar  refuge  in  the  New  World,  to 
that  established  by  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  White,  a  clergyman  of  Dor- 
chester, leaving  a  few  settlers  at  Naumkeag,  or  Salem,  after  a  first  abortive 
attempt,  repaired  to  England,  and  soon  succeeded  in  interesting  a  body  of 
gentlemen  in  the  scheme. 

It  should  be  here  observed,  that  the  first  original  charter  of  Virginia  had 
empowered  the  patentees  to  form  a  second  colony  in  the  northern  portion  of 
the  territory,  comprised  within  the  limits  of  their  patent ;  and  more  than  one 
attempt  was  made  to  this  effect,  but  with  little  or  no  success.  One  of  them 
was  by  the  gallant  Captain  Smith,  distinguished  for  his  participation  in  the 
affairs  of  Virginia,  and  from  him  the  coast  first  received  its  lasting  appellation 
of  New  England.  Meanwhile,  the  Plymouth  company  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing an  exclusive  patent  for  all  the  northern  portion  of  the  territory  bestowed 
upon  the  original  Virginia  company.  The  settlement  of  the  Plymouth  Pil- 
grims had  anticipated  any  measures  for  colonization  under  the  auspices  of  the 
new  company. 

A  grant  was  obtained  from  this  New  England  company  of  Plymouth,  em- 
bracing Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  country  extending  to  the  westward.  The 
first  settlement  was  effected  under  the  conduct  of  John  Endicott,  who  estab- 
lished himself  at  Naumkeag.  On  exploring  the  head  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
a  few  solitary  squatters  were  found  to  have  occupied  the  principal  points.  A 
strong  body,  chiefly  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  soon 
followed,  and  a  fresh  patent  was  obtained  from  Charles  I.,  incorporating  the 
adventurers  as  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  Eng- 

x.  2 


76  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  land,  the  stockholders  to  elect  annually  a  governor,  deputy-governor,  and 

■ —  eighteen  assistants,  who  were  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  colony  in  monthly 

*  court  meetings.  Four  great  and  general  courts  of  the  whole  body  of  freemen 
were  to  be  held  for  the  transaction  of  public  affairs.  Nothing  might  be  en- 
acted contrary  to  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  but  the  supreme  power  resided 
with  the  company  in  England.  It  was  exclusively  regarded  as  a  patent  for 
a  trading  corporation,  and  no  provision  was  made  for  securing  religious 
toleration.  Indeed  the  great  body  of  the  proprietors  were  still  attached  to  the 
Church  of  England ;  and  when  Endicott,  who,  having  visited  Plymouth,  de- 
sired to  establish  an  Independent  church,  and  to  renounce  the  use  of  the 
English  liturgy,  became  involved  in  a  dispute  with  certain  of  the  more  mo- 
derate, and  these  were  sent  home  to  England  by  him  as  contumacious,  he  was 
indirect))'  reprimanded  by  the  company  for  this  dangerous  stretch  of  authority. 
A  plsn  to  transfer  the  charter  and  the  company  from  England  to  the  colony 
itself  \t  as  next  formed,  which  led  to  a  very  important  increase  in  the  number 
and  distinction  of  the  emigrants.  The  principal  of  these  were,  Sir  Richard 
Salton*  tall,  Isaac  Johnson,  (brother-in-law  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,)  Thomas 
Dudley,  and  John  Winthrop.  Winthrop  was  chosen  governor,  and,  by  his 
admirable  conduct,  fully  justified  the  general  confidence.  He  was  indeed  a 
noble  specimen  of  the  Puritan  English  gentleman — loyal,  yet  no  less  sternly 
bent  upon  the  assertion  of  public  liberty,  and,  by  old  association,  attached  to 
the  Church,  which  he  nevertheless  desired  to  see  reformed  upon  what  he 
deemed  the  pure  basis  of  Scripture.  The  emigrants  included  many  persons 
of  high  character,  wealth,  and  learning.  Their  attachment  to  the  mother 
country  was  manifested  in  a  protestation  against  certain  calumnious  reports 
which  had  gone  forth  against  them,  wherein  they  declare  their  undying  attach- 
ment, both  to  the  Church  that  had  nursed  them  in  her  bosom,  and  to  the  land, 
from  which  a  lofty  feeling  of  enterprise,  and  the  desire  of  founding  a  stricter 
form  of  government  among  themselves,  had  led  to  their  voluntary  expatriation. 
The  expedition  was  by  far  the  most  important  that  had  ever  left  the  shores 
of  England  for  the  wilds  of  America,  consisting  of  fifteen  ships  conveying 
about  a  thousand  emigrants,  among  whom  were  several  err-inent  Noncon- 
formist ministers.  Every  necessary  for  the  foundation  of  a  permanent  colony 
was  carried  out  by  the  settlers. 

Winthrop  himself  had  embarked  on  board  the  Arabella,  so  called  after 
Lady  Arabella  Johnson,  who,  with  her  husband,  were  also  passengers.  This 
vessel  and  some  of  the  others  reached  Massachusetts  Bay  in  June  and  July, 
and  found  a  settlement  already  established,  under  the  auspices  of  Endicott,  at 
Charlestown.  Upon  the  opposite  peninsula,  which  had  been  called,  from  its  pe- 
culiar form,  '  Trimountain,'  and  was  then  in  a  state  of  nature,  inhabited  by  a 
single  squatter,  Winthrop  determined  to  establish  the  seat  of  his  government, 
and  a  town  was  accordingly  begun,  which,  after  the  parent  English  birth-place 
of  the  principal  emigrants,  received  the  name  of  Boston.  The  others,  as  they 
arrived,  formed  a  cluster  of  settlements  at  short  distances  around  this  central 
post,  and  thus  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay  became  sprinkled  with  infant 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  77 

towns,  which  have  retained  their  local  name  and  habitation  unto  the  pre-   chap. 

,  VI. 

sent  day.  

Although  the  hardships  encountered  by  this  large  body  of  emigrants  were  *  '  163°* 
not  so  severe  as  those  which  had  befallen  their  brethren  at  Plymouth,  they 
were  felt  the  more  severely  on  account  of  the  superior  delicacy  and  tender 
nurture  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  at  home.  The  older  settlers,  far 
from  rendering  them  assistance,  flocked  to  them  for  food  and  succour.  The 
winter,  moreover,  proved  to  be  of  unusual  severity,  even  for  this  bitter  climate. 
The  weakest  were  winnowed  by  death,  two  hundred  perished  before  De- 
cember. Among  the  first  victims  were  the  Lady  Arabella  Johnson  and  her 
husband.  Many,  terrified  with  the  hardships  to  be  encountered,  lost  heart 
and  returned  to  England,  where  they  spread  the  most  injurious  reports. 
But  the  hope  of  accomplishing  that  for  which  so  many  had  left  the  luxuries 
and  refinements  of  England,  the  desire  to  found  on  the  shores  of  America  a 
purer  form  of  civil  and  religious  government,  sweetened  to  those  that  re- 
mained behind  the  temporary  hardships  through  which  they  were  called 
upon  to  pass. 

Their  proceedings  were  eminently  characteristic  of  the  religious  spirit  by 
which  they  were  animated.  Their  settlement  had  been  consecrated  by  a 
solemn  fast.  They  first  assembled  for  worship  under  a  large  tree,  but  a 
church  was  forthwith  constituted,  and  a  pastor  appointed,  while  the  first  ques- 
tion which  arose  at  the  first  court  of  assistants  was  touching  the  maintenance 
of  the  ministers,  for  whom  a  due  provision  was  immediately  set  apart. 

At  the  first  general  court,  many  new  freemen  were  admitted,  among  whom 
were  several  of  the  early  planters,  and  the  right  of  filling  up  the  vacancies  that 
fell  among  the  assistants,  was  conceded  to  them,  but  afterwards  rescinded. 

A  very  extraordinary  law  was  next  enacted.  "  To  the  end  that  the  body 
of  commons  may  be  preserved  of  good  and  honest  men,  it  is  ordered  and 
agreed,  that,  for  the  time  to  come,  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom 
of  the  body  politic,  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches  within 
the  limits  of  the  same."  The  reason  for  this  singular  enactment  is  apparent. 
The  Puritan  emigrants  had  left  England  to  establish  a  form  of  government 
which  was  afterwards  vainly  attempted  during  the  revolution — a  spiritual 
millennium,  the  reign  of  the  saints  upon  the  earth.  In  their  eyes  no  one  who 
had  not  been  elected  a  member  of  Christ's  church  by  saving  grace,  and  was 
not  thoroughly  weaned  from  the  corruptions  of  this  present  evil  world,  could 
be  fitted  to  assume  a  share  in  the  government  of  a  Christian  commonwealth, 
which  was  to  be  founded  on  the  maxims,  and  conducted  under  the  influence  of 
the  Bible.  Hence  their  evident  disposition  to  avoid  an  influx  of  the  "  baser 
sort,"  until  their  theocratic  form  of  government  had  fully  taken  root.  The 
excellence  of  their  motives  in  shutting  out  from  power  those  whom  they 
deemed  unfit  for  its  participation,  cannot  of  course  be  questioned.  In  those  days 
toleration  was  unknown,  and  every  religious  party  regarded  it  not  only  as  a 
right,  but  even  as  a  duty,  to  enforce  conformity  to  its  tenets  by  the  power 
of  the  civil  magistrate. 


78  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       Under  this  arbitrary  system,  however,  a  large  proportion  of  the  popula- 


■ —  tion  were  deprived  of  political  rights,  and  the  legislation  of  this  self-con- 

'  i63i. ' '  stituted  body  was  characterized  by  a  spirit  of  puritanical  severity  within 
themselves,  and  a  harsh  and  rigid  exclusiveness  towards  those  without, 
which  were  not  long  in  producing  the  same  bitter  fruits  of  persecution  by 
which  they  had  themselves  suffered.  The  clergy  acquired  an  undue  degree 
of  influence;  minute  enactments  interfered  with  individual  freedom  of  action, 
amusements  which,  though  innocent  in  themselves,  were  supposed  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  gravity  of  professing  Christians,  were  studiously  dis- 
couraged, and  devotional  exercises  substituted  in  their  room.  Under  this 
austere  and  forbidding  exterior,  however,  existed  a  spotless  purity  of  life,  the 
most  exalted  integrity,  and  the  noblest  patriotism.  The  faults  of  the  Puritans 
arose  partly  out  of  their  peculiar  views,  and  partly  from  mistakes  shared  by 
them,  at  that  day,  in  common  with  every  other  religious  body. 

The  evil  report  carried  back  by  those  who  returned  from  the  first  emi- 
gration, operated  at  first  as  a  great  discouragement  to  others,  and  in  the 
following  year  the  number  of  new-comers  was  comparatively  small.  Among 
them,  however,  was  the  son  of  Winthrop  the  governor,  and  John  Eliot, 
afterwards  the  great  missionary  to  the  Indians.  A  friendly  connexion  was 
formed  with  the  people  of  Plymouth,  and  a  trade  opened  with  the  colonists  in 
Virginia,  and  the  Dutch  on  the  Hudson  river,  while  an  alliance  was  entered 
into  with  the  neighbouring  Indians.  On  the  fourth  year  of  the  settlement, 
several  hundred  immigrants  arrived,  among  whom  were  the  wealthy  and  esti- 
mable Haynes,  and  two  distinguished  ecclesiastics,  Cotton  and  Hooker. 
With  the  growing  numbers  and  prosperity  of  the  colonists,  came  an  in- 
crease also  in  popular  liberty  and  a  growth  of  the  democratic  element.  The 
jealous  watchfulness  of  the  great  body  of  freemen  had  been  excited  by  the 
levy  of  taxes  under  the  sole  authority  of  the  assistants,  and  at  the  next  general 
court  they  contended  for  the  right  of  annually  choosing  the  governor  and  offi- 
cers. This  was  conceded,  and  representatives  appointed  from  the  towns  to 
confer  on  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  Thus  emboldened,  the  democratic  spirit 
continued  its  encroachments.  Men  thrown  upon  their  own  resources  at  a 
distance  from  the  control  of  the  mother  country  ripen  rapidly  for  freedom. 
At  first  the  freemen,  satisfied  with  the  recognition  of  their  claims,  had  re- 
elected their  established  officers ;  two  years  later,  notwithstanding  a  pulpit 
appeal  from  Cotton,  against  the  rash  changing  of  those  in  office,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  choose  a  new  governor  in  the  place  of  Winthrop.  They  claimed 
and  obtained  besides,  the  right  of  legislative  participation,  and  of  levying 
taxes,  with  a  written  constitution,  while  the  ballot  box  was  also  introduced 
in  substitution  for  a  show  of  hands  by  the  voters. 

The  same  circumstances  that  had  brought  about  this  political  change,  had 
also  affected  the  condition  of  the  New  England  churches.  Nominally  sub- 
jected to  the  Church  at  home,  these  communities  soon  became  practically 
independent  of  her  authority,  choosing  their  own  ministers  and  officers,  each 
acting  for  itself,  while  yet  the  whole  were  bound  together  by  a  general  model 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  79 

established  among  themselves.     Thus  had  Massachusetts  already  assumed  its  chap. 
distinctive  character  of  a  government  at  once  within  itself  a  church  and 


VI. 


commonwealth,  in  which  all  the  members  possessed  equal  rights,  and  were  to  1034. 
animated  by  the  same  earnest  yet  exclusive  religious  profession ;  the  profane 
and  unregenerate  being  jealously  shut  out  from  any  participation  in  power, 
and  also  forced  to  conform,  at  least  externally,  to  the  established  form  of  re- 
ligion. 
/?'"'  It  was  not  long  before  this  state  of  things,  so  happily  established  that  it  ex- 
cited the  admiration  and  envy  of  the  English  Puritans,  was  rudely  disturbed 
by  a  single  individual,  whose  remarkable  character  combined  an  almost  childish 
eccentricity  about  trifles,  with  a  clearness  of  moral  vision  and  a  greatness  of 
soul  in  other  matters  remarkably  in  advance  of  the  times  and  circumstances 
in  which  he  lived.  This  was  Roger  Williams,  a  young  Puritan  preacher,  who, 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  the  colony,  began  to  broach  certain  novelties  and  he- 
resies, which  caused  much  perturbation  among  his  brethren,  and  occasioned  his 
removal  to  Plymouth,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  Returning  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, it  was  not  long  before  he  became  involved  in  fresh  disputes  and 
difficulties.  Among  other  fanatical  scruples,  he  entertained  one  against  the 
cross  displayed  on  the  English  standard,  as  being  a  relic  of  Popery — he  loudly 
inveighed  against  its  being  any  longer  tolerated  by  a  reformed  church;  his 
views  gained  ground,  and  a  division  of  the  colony  took  place  on  this  important 
subject.  One  half  of  the  militia  abhorred  to  follow  a  papistical  ensign,  the  other 
refused  to  march  under  a  mutilated  banner  :  Endicott,  one  of  the  assistants,  in 
an  ebullition  of  zeal,  cut  out  the  obnoxious  emblem ;  and  the  dispute  was  only 
settled  by  a  compromise,  that  the  cross  should  be  retained  in  the  flags  of  forts 
and  ships,  but  erased  from  those  of  the  local  militia.  This,  together  with  his 
affirmation  of  the  unlawfulness  of  attending  the  ministry  of  any  clergyman  of 
the  English  Church,  to  which  Williams  had  conceived  a  peculiar  aversion, 
and  other  attempts  at  innovations,  either  trifling  or  mischievous,  so  zealously 
propagated,  seem  justly  enough  to  have  incurred  the  censure  of  his  brethren 
in  the  ministry,  not  only  as  calculated  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  their  theo- 
cratic state,  but  also  to  attract  the  attention  of  their  enemies  in  England.  An 
excess  of  conscientiousness  had  led  him  also,  while  at  Plymouth,  to  preach 
against  the  lawfulness  of  the  patent  by  which  the  colonists  derived  their  terri- 
torial claims,  as  being  unjustly  granted  at  the  expense  of  those  of  the  Indians. 
This,  however,  he  satisfactorily  explained  away.  But  his  most  serious  and  un- 
pardonable offence  was,  that  he  boldly  affirmed  the  sacred  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  the  unlawfulness  of  persecution  for  conscience'  sake.  He  in- 
veighed against  the  alleged  authority  of  the  magistrate  to  punish  offences 
of  the  first  table,  to  compel  attendance  upon  Divine  service  under  penalty,  or 
to  levy  contributions  from  the  unwilling  for  the  support  of  the  church.  Nay, 
he  affirmed  that "  the  magistrate  might  not  intermeddle  even  to  stop  a  church 
from  apostacy  and  heresy,"  that  his  jurisdiction  extended  solely  to  the  tem- 
poral affairs  of  men,  and  that  the  removal  of  the  "  yoke  of  soul  oppression," 
"  as  it  will  prove  an  act  of  mercy  and  righteousness  to  the  enslaved  nations,  so 


80  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  it  is  of  binding  force  tc   engage  the  whole  and  eveiy  interest  and  conscience 

— — —  to  preserve  the  common  liberty  and  peace."* 

.684.  These  principles  strack  at  the  very  root  of  the  theocratic  constitution 
established  by  general  consent  of  the  colonists,  and  a  conscientious  conviction  of 
their  dangerous  tendency,  led  the  court  at  Boston  earnestly  to  desire  the  re- 
moval of  one  whom  they  could  not  but  regard  as  unsettled  in  judgment,  and 
a  troubler  of  the  public  peace.  It  was  certainly  unfortunate  that  the  scru- 
ples of  Williams  were  such  as  had  a  tendency  to  divide  and  weaken  the 
colony,  struggling  as  it  was  for  independent  existence,  under  the  jealous 
and  watchful  eye  of  the  arbitrary  power  in  England.  His  agitations  even 
tended  to  paralyse  resistance  against  aggressions  which  they  tended  to 
bring  about.  The  newly  established  liberties  of  the  Massachusetts  colonists 
were  dear  to  them,  and  the  magistrates  having  heard  of  dangerous  designs 
against  them  on  the  part  of  the  Episcopalians,  it  was  resolved  to  administer  a 
general  pledge,  called  the  "  Freeman's  Oath,"  to  the  effect  that  the  colonists 
would  support  their  local  constitution  against  all  foreign  interference  what- 
soever. But  against  the  imposition  of  this  oath  also  Williams  raised  such  a 
spirit  of  resistance,  that  the  magistrates  were  obliged  to  give  way.  In  short, 
however  excellent  the  principles  he  had  espoused,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
his  conduct  bears  some  tinge  of  factious  opposition,  or,  to  say  the  least, 
of  an  ill-timed  and  narrow-minded  scrupulosity.  But  his  piety  was  so 
genuine,  and  his  character  so  noble  and  disinterested,  that  the  people  of  Salem, 
who  knew  and  loved  him,  re-elected  him  for  their  pastor,  in  spite  of  the  cen- 
sure of  his  doctrines  by  the  court  at  Boston,  an  act  of  contumacy  for  which 
they  were  reprimanded  and  punished  by  the  withholding  a  certain  portion  of 
lands.  Such  harshness  aroused  Williams  to  retort  by  a  spirited  protest,  and 
he  engaged  the  Salem  church  to  join  with  him  in  a  general  appeal  to  the  other 
churches  against  the  injustice  of  which  the  magistrates  had  been  guilty — a 
daring  proceeding,  for  which  the  council  suspended  their  franchise,  and  they 
shrunk  from  their  leader,  who  was  thus  left  absolutely  alone.  Upon  this  he 
openly  renounced  allegiance  to  what  he  deemed  a  persecuting  church.  His 
opinions  and  conduct  were  condemned  by  the  council,  who  pronounced 
against  him  a  sentence  of  banishment,  but  on  account  of  the  dangerous  feeling 
of  sympathy  it  awakened,  decided  shortly  after  on  sending  him  back  to  England. 
It  was  the  depth  of  a  New  England  winter,  when  Williams  fled  into  the 
wilderness,  and  took  refuge  among  the  Narragansett  Indians,  with  whom  he 
had  become  acquainted  at  Plymouth.  He  wandered  several  weeks  through 
the  snow-buried  forests,  before  he  reached  their  wigwams,  where  he  was 
received  and  sheltered  with  the  utmost  kindness.  In  the  spring  he  departed  in 
quest  of  some  spot  where  he  could  found  an  asylum  for  those  who,  like  himself, 
were  persecuted  for  conscience'  sake.  He  first  attempted  a  settlement  at 
Sekonk,  but  afterwards,  at  the  friendly  suggestion  of  Winslow,  the  governor  of 
Plymouth,  removed  to  Narragansett  Bay,  where  he  received  from  the  Indians 
a  free  grant  of  a  considerable  tract  of  country,  and  in  June,  1636,  fixed  upon  the 
*  Bancroft — from  a  rare  tract  by  Roger  Williams. 


A.  D. 1638. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  81 

site  of  a  town  which  he  called  "Providence,"  as  being  an  appointed  refuge   chap. 
from  his  persecutions  and  wanderings.     Here  he  was  joined  by  many  of  his 
adherents  from  Salem,  his  lands  were  freely  distributed  among  them,  and  thus 
arose  the  new  State  of  Rhode  Island ;  the  most  free,  and  simple,  and  untram- 
melled in  its  institutions  of  any  ever  founded  on  the  soil  of  America. 

Scarcely  had  the  colony  subsided  after  the  excitement  of  this  religious  dis 
pute,  when  fresh  troubles  arose,  from  the  operation  of  the  same  restless  prin- 
ciple of  private  judgment  applied  to  the  investigation  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
providential  establishment  of  the  model  State  of  New  England,  for  such  it  was 
considered  to  be  by  the  English  Puritans,  continued  to  attract  considerable 
numbers  of  them;  and  among  others  who  came  over  were  Hugh  Peters,  the 
chaplain  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  Mr.  Henry  Vane,  son  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  a 
privy  councillor,  a  young  man  of  the  highest  principles  and  acquirements ; 
second  in  love  of  liberty  to  none  of  that  noble  band  who  stemmed  the  en- 
croachments of  arbitrary  power  in  England,  of  manners  strict  to  austerity, 
and  animated  with  the  highest  religious  fervour,  but  of  a  subtle,  restless,  and 
speculative  genius,  which  found  its  favourite  field  for  exercise  in  the  theological 
questions  awakened  and  set  afloat  at  the  Reformation.  The  sonnet  of  Milton 
speaks  of  him  as  "  young  in  years,  but  in  sage  counsel  old,"  attributes  to  him 
the  utmost  skill  in  statesmanship,  the  most  intimate  knowledge  of  affairs 
"  both  spiritual  and  civil,"  and,  as  the  highest  and  crowning  encomium,  calls 
him  the  "  eldest  son  "  of  Religion,  upon  whose  "  firm  hand  she  leans  in  peace." 
The  emigration  of  so  distinguished  a  personage,  and  of  others  who  were  prepar- 
ing to  follow  him,  created  no  little  stir  among  the  Massachusetts  freemen  ;  it  was 
even  proposed,  to  meet  the  desires  of  the  new-comers,  that  an  order  of  heredi- 
tary magistracy  should  be  established ;  but  as  this  proposition  was  inconsistent 
with  the  peculiar  constitution  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy,  which  could 
be  constituted  by  church  members  alone,  it  was  eventually  laid  aside.  Vane, 
however,  was  received  with  the  highest  honours,  and  presently  elected  as  chief 
magistrate  of  the  colony.  Not  long  after  his  arrival  arose  a  new  religious  fer- 
mentation, in  which  he  himself  soon  became  a  prominent  actor ;  and  as  this 
controversy,  and  the  important  results  to  which  it  led,  cannot  be  better  or  more 
succinctly  stated  than  in  the  language  of  Robertson,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  it. 

"  It  was  the  custom  at  that  time  in  New  England,  among  the  chief  men  in 
every  congregation,  to  meet  once  a  week,  in  order  to  repeat  the  sermons  which 
they  had  heard,  and  to  hold  religious  conference  with  respect  to  the  doctrines 
contained  in  them.  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  whose  husband  was  among  the  most 
respectable  members  of  the  colony,  regretting  that  persons  of  her  sex  were 
excluded  from  the  benefit  of  those  meetings,  assembled  statedly  in  her  house 
a  number  of  women,  who  employed  themselves  in  pious  exercises  similar  to 
those  of  the  men.  At  first  she  satisfied  herself  with  repeating  what  she  could 
recollect  of  the  discourses  delivered  by  their  teachers.  She  began  afterwards 
to  add  illustrations,  and  at  length  proceeded  to  censure  some  of  the  clergy  as 
unsound,  and  to  vent  opinions  and  fancies  of  her  own.  These  were  all  founded 
on  the  system  which  is  denominated  Antinomian  by  divines,  and  tinged  with 


A.  D. 1637. 


8£  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  the  deepest  enthusiasm.  She  taught  that  sanctity  of  life  is  no  evidence  of  jus- 
tification, or  of  a  state  of  favour  with  God ;  and  that  such  as  inculcated  the 
necessity  of  manifesting  the  reality  of  our  faith  by  obedience,  preached  only  a 
covenant  of  works  ;  she  contended  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelt  personally  in 
good  men,  and  by  inward  revelations  and  impressions  they  received  the  fullest 
discoveries  of  the  Divine  will.  The  fluency  and  confidence  with  which  she 
delivered  these  notions,  gained  her  many  admirers  and  proselytes,  not  only 
among  the  vulgar,  but  among  the  principal  inhabitants.  The  whole  colony 
was  interested  and  agitated.  Vane,  whose  sagacity  and  acuteness  seemed  to 
forsake  him  whenever  they  were  turned  towards  religion,  espoused  and  de- 
fended her  wildest  tenets.  Many  conferences  were  held,  days  of  fasting  and 
humiliation  were  appointed,  a  general  synod  was  called;  and,  after  dissen- 
sions which  threatened  the  dissolution  of  the  colony,  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  opi- 
nions were  condemned  as  erroneous,  and  she  herself  banished.  Several  of 
her  disciples  withdrew  from  the  province  of  their  own  accord.  Yane  quitted 
America  in  disgust,  unlamented  even  by  those  who  had  lately  admired  him ; 
some  of  them  now  regarded  him  as  a  mere  visionary,  and  others,  as  one  of  those 
dark,  turbulent  spirits  doomed  to  embroil  every  society  into  which  they  enter." 

The  fate  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  as  unhappy  as  her  life  was  restless.  After 
her  retirement  to  Ehode  Island,  where  she  participated  in  all  the  toils  and 
privations  of  a  new  settlement,  she  continued  to  promulgate  her  doctrines 
with  the  utmost  ardour.  Her  sons,  openly  arraigning  the  justice  of  her  banish- 
ment, were  seized  and  thrown  into  prison.  To  fly  beyond  the  reach  of  perse- 
cution, the  whole  family  passed  over  into  the  territory  of  the  Dutch,  at  the 
time  when  Kieft,  the  governor,  had  aroused  by  his  rashness  and  cruelty 
vindictive  reprisals  on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  The  dwelling  cf  Mrs.  Hut- 
chinson was  set  on  fire,  and  she  perished  with  her  children  amidst  the  flames, 
or  was  murdered  by  the  infuriated  savages. 

In  the  mean  time,  Massachusetts  continued  to  put  forth  numerous  off-shoots 
from  the  parent  stem.  A  permanent  settlement  had,  in  1635,  been  formed  in  the 
beautiful  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  which,  from  its  rich  and  fertile  levels,  had,  at 
an  early  period,  become  a  subject  of  competition.  The  fort  built  by  the  Dutch 
has  been  already  noticed  :  and  now  a  large  body  of  emigrants  from  Massa- 
chusetts prepared  to  push  through  the  virgin  forest  to  the  desired  spot,  where 
the  towns  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Wethersfield  had  already  been  founded. 
This  proved  to  be  an  expedition  of  great  hardship,  from  its  being  undertaken 
too  late  in  the  year.  The  cattle  perished,  provisions  were  exhausted,  and 
many  returned  through  the  snows  to  the  places  whence  they  departed.  A  sta- 
tion for  the  fur  trade  had  been  for  some  time  established  at  Windsor  by  another 
body  of  emigrants.  Winthrop  the  younger  had  come  out  with  Vane,  author- 
ized by  the  proprietors  to  settle  and  take  possession  of  the  region.  Next  year 
a  larger  body,  consisting  of  the  members  of  two  churches  with  their  pastors, 
one  of  whom  was  the  distinguished  Hooker,  (who  is  supposed  by  some  to  have 
desired  a  removal  from  the  vicinity  of  Cotton,  a  rival  preacher,)  made  their 
way  through  the  wilderness,  steering  through  the  thick  woods  by  compass, 


VI. 


A.  D.  1636. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

and  driving  their  cattle  before  them  through  the  tangled  thickets.  The  com-  chap. 
missioners  also  sent  a  party  by  water  to  found  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
which,  from  the  names  of  Lords  Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke,  the  propri- 
etaries, was  called  Say-brook.  The  rising  colony  was  exposed  to  dissensions 
with  the  Dutch,  and  placed  in  jeopardy  by  hostilities  with  the  neighbouring 
Indians,  which  they  themselves  had  not  originated. 

This  war,  which  ended  in  the  extermination  of  the  Pequods,  arose  out  of 
provocations  and  misunderstandings  trivial  in  themselves,  but  which  acquired 
a  fatal  importance  from  the  secret  feeling  of  fear  and  suspicion  with  which 
the  Indians  and  the  English  regarded  one  another.  The  former  could  not 
behold  the  progress  of  the  new  comers  without  deep  dissatisfaction ;  they 
found  the  territory  over  which  they  had  long  exclusively  reigned,  encroached 
upon  at  various  points,  till  they  might  apprehend,  at  no  distant  period,  a  final 
expulsion  from  the  hunting  grounds  of  their  forefathers.  On  their  part,  the 
settlers  looked  with  uneasiness  upon  the  savages,  like  a  dark  cloud  which 
threatened  to  burst  over  them  when  unprepared,  as  had  been  the  case  with 
the  massacre  of  the  settlers  in  Virginia ;  and  conscious  of  the  feelings  with 
which  their  gradual  encroachments  were  secretly  regarded,  they  determined  to 
stand  upon  their  guard,  and  to  punish  the  first  symptoms  of  aggression  with 
stern  and  inexorable  severity.  The  train  thus  laid,  a  single  opark  was  suf- 
ficient to  create  an  explosion.  The  Pequods  were  the  most  powerful  confeder- 
acy in  the  neighbourhood  of  Narragansett  Bay,  their  authority  extending  over 
twenty-six  petty  tribes.  A  band  of  them  had  murdered  the  captain  of  a  Vir- 
ginia trading  vessel,  and  as  this  incident  created  some  alarm  among  the  people 
of  Massachusetts,  the  Pequods  sent  to  Boston,  urging  that  the  deed  had  been 
hastily  committed  in  revenge  for  some  provocation  on  the  part  of  the  captain ; 
they  offered  to  give  up  the  surviving  murderers,  requested  the  good  offices  of 
the  magistrates  to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  their  enemies  the  Narragansetts, 
and  desired  to  open  a  traffic.  Satisfied  with  the  apology,  the  Massachusetts 
magistrates  effected  the  desired  mediation ;  but  the  murderers,  perhaps  from 
inability  on  the  part  of  the  Pequod  Sachems,  were  not  delivered  up.  Some 
time  after,  one  Oldham,  an  old  settler  on  Block  Island,  was  murdered  by  a 
party  of  Narragansett  Indians,  in  revenge  for  the  trade  he  had  opened  with 
their  late  enemies  the  Pequods  *  Although  Canonicus,  the  Narragansett 
Sachem,  sent  to  make  ample  apology  for  a  crime  committed  without  his  know- 
ledge, and,  of  course,  without  that  of  the  Pequods,  an  expedition  was  sent  to 
punish  the  Indians  of  Block  Island,  and  thence  the  chief  settlement  of  the  Pe- 
quods, to  demand  the  promised  delivery  of  the  murderers.  Upon  their  refusal, 
he  destroyed  their  villages,  both  there  and  on  the  Connecticut.  The  Pequods 
retaliated,  and  sent  messengers  to  engage  the  Narragansetts  in  a  conspiracy  to 
cut  off  every  white  man  from  the  soil.  Poger  Williams,  who  had  sent  timely 
information  to  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  was  entreated  to  prevent,  if 
possible,  the  dreaded  coalition.  He  hastened  to  the  Narragansetts,  among 
whom  his  virtues  were  regarded  with  veneration,  and  was  happily  successful 

*  The  account  given  of  this  transaction  by  Hildreth  is  followed. 
m  2 


84 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1637. 


chap,  in  frustrating   the  influence  of  the   Pequod  messengers,  and  engaging  the 
goodwill,  or  at  least  the  neutrality,  of  the  Narragansetts. 

The  unfortunate  Pequods,  thus  compelled  to  stand  alone,  and  forced  into 
a  war,  rather  by  a  concurrence  of  accidents  than  by  any  direct  purpose  of  hos- 
tility, determined  to  carry  it  on  with  their  hereditary  spirit.  After  their  usual 
tactics,  they  began  to  cut  off  the  detached  settlers  on  the  Connecticut  river  by 
surprise,  and  carry  off  their  scalps,  and  they  even  ventured  to  attack  Fort 
Say-brook.  These  cruelties  soon  led  to  the  organization  of  an  expedition 
against  them  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Connecticut,  as  well  as  those  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Having  obtained  the  alliance  of  Uncas,  Sachem  of  the  Mohegans, 
the  greater  part  of  the  able-bodied  men,  under  the  command  of  Mason,  who 
had  been  a  soldier  in  Flanders,  prepared  for  their  departure.  It  was  a  peiilous 
crisis ;  should  they  fail  in  the  enterprise,  the  infant  settlement,  left  without 
defenders,  would  fall  into  the  power  of  their  vindictive  enemies — their  wives 
and  children  would  be  ruthlessly  scalped.  The  night  was  spent  in  solemn 
prayer.  On  the  morrow  the  militia  embarked  at  Hartford,  and  being  joined 
by  twenty  men  from  Boston,  under  the  command  of  Underhill,  sailed  past 
the  Thames,  and  entered,  unobserved,  a  harbour  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Pequod 
Fort.  They  rested  on  the  following  sabbath,  and  early  in  the  week  endeavoured 
to  engage  the  assistance  of  the  Narragansetts,  whose  Sachem,  Miantonimoh,  at 
first  joined  them  with  a  large  body  of  men,  who  on  learning  that  the  intention 
of  the  English  was  to  attack  the  Pequod  forts  with  so  small  a  body,  were  panic- 
struck,  and  most  of  them  retreated.  The  catastrophe  cannot  be  better  described 
than  in  the  words  of  Trumbull,  the  historian  of  Connecticut. 

"  After  marching  under  the  guidance  of  a  revolted  Pequod  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  principal  fort,  they  pitched  their  little  camp  between,  or  near,  two  large 
rocks,  in  Groton,  since  called  Porter's  rocks.  The  men  were  faint  and  weary, 
and  though  the  rocks  were  their  pillows,  their  rest  was  sweet.  The  guards 
and  sentinels  were  considerably  advanced  in  front  of  the  army,  and  heard  the 
enemy  singing  at  the  fort,  who  continued  their  rejoicings  even  until  midnight. 
They  had  seen  the  vessels  pass  the  harbour  some  days  before,  and  had  con- 
cluded that  the  English  were  afraid,  and  had  no  courage  to  attack  them.  The 
night  was  serene,  and  towards  morning  the  moon  shone  clear.  The  im- 
portant crisis  was  now  come,  when  the  very  existence  of  Connecticut,  under 
Providence,  was  to  be  determined  by  the  sword  in  a  single  action,  and  to  be 
decided  by  the  good  conduct  of  less  than  eighty  brave  men.  The  Indians 
who  remained  were  now  sorely  dismayed,  and  though  at  first  they  had  led  the 
van,  and  boasted  of  great  feats,  yet  were  now  fallen  back  in  the  rear.  About 
two  hours  before  day  the  men  were  roused  with  all  expedition,  and,  briefly 
commending  themselves  and  their  cause  to  God,  advanced  immediately  to  the 
fort,  and  sent  for  the  Indians  in  the  rear  to  come  up.  Uncas  and  Obequash 
at  length  appeared.  The  captain  demanded  of  them  where  the  fort  was. 
They  answered,  on  the  top  of  the  hill.  He  demanded  of  them  where  were  the 
other  Indians.  They  answered  that  they  were  much  afraid.  The  captain  sent 
to  them  not  to  fly,  but  to  surround  the  fort  at  any  distance  they  pleased,  and 


VI. 


A.  D.  1637. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  85 

see  whether  Englishmen  would  fight.  The  day  was  nearly  dawning,  and  no  ch^ap, 
time  was  now  to  be  lost.  The  men  pressed  on  in  two  divisions,  Captain  Mason 
to  the  north-eastern,  and  Underhill  to  the  western  entrance.  As  the  object 
which  they  had  been  so  long  seeking  came  into  view,  and  while  they  reflected 
that  they  were  to  fight  not  only  for  themselves,  but  their  parents,  wives,  chil- 
dren, and  the  whole  colony ;  the  martial  spirit  kindled  in  their  bosoms,  and 
they  were  wonderfully  animated  and  assisted.  As  Captain  Mason  advanced 
within  a  rod  or  two  of  the  fort,  a  dog  barked,  and  an  Indian  roared  out, — 
c  Owanux !  Owanux  ! '  that  is,  Englishmen  !  Englishmen  !  The  troops  pressed 
on,  and  as  the  Indians  were  rallying,  poured  in  upon  them,  through  the  pali- 
sadoes,  a  general  discharge  of  their  muskets,  and  then  wheeling  off  to  the 
principal  entrance,  entered  the  fort  sword  in  hand.  Notwithstanding  the  sud- 
denness of  the  attack,  and  the  blaze  and  thunder  of  the  arms,  the  enemy  made 
a  manly  and  desperate  resistance.  Captain  Mason  and  his  party  drove  the 
Indians  in  the  main  street  towards  the  west  part  of  the  fort,  where  some  bold 
men,  who  had  forced  their  way,  met  them,  and  made  such  slaughter  among 
them,  that  the  street  was  soon  clear  of  the  enemy.  They  secreted  themselves 
in  and  behind  their  wigwams,  and,  taking  advantage  of  every  covert,  main- 
tained an  obstinate  defence.  The  captain  and  his  men  entered  the  wigwams, 
where  they  were  beset  with  many  Indians,  who  took  every  advantage  to  shoot 
them,  and  lay  hands  upon  them,  so  that  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  they 
could  defend  themselves  with  their  swords.  After  a  severe  conflict,  in  which 
many  of  the  Indians  were  slain,  some  of  the  English  killed,  and  others  sorely 
wounded,  the  victory  still  hung  in  suspense.  The  captain,  finding  himself 
much  exhausted,  and  out  of  breath,  as  well  as  his  men,  by  the  extraordinary 
exertions  wThich  they  had  made  in  this  critical  state  of  action,  had  recourse 
to  a  successful  expedient.  He  cries  out  to  his  men,  '  We  must  burn  them  ! ' 
He  immediately,  entering  a  wigwam,  took  fire  and  put  it  into  the  mats  with 
which  the  wigwams  were  covered.  The  fire  instantly  kindling,  spread  with 
such  violence,  that  all  the  Indian  houses  were  soon  wrapped  in  one  general 
flame.  As  the  fire  increased,  the  English  retired  without  the  fort,  and  com- 
passed it  on  every  side.  Uncas  and  his  Indians,  with  such  of  the  Narragan- 
setts  as  yet  remained,  took  courage  from  the  example  of  the  English,  and 
formed  another  circle  in  the  rear  of  them.  The  enemy  were  now  seized  with 
astonishment ;  and,  forced  by  the  flames  from  their  lurking-places  into  open 
light,  became  a  fair  mark  for  the  English  soldiers.  Some  climbed  the  pali- 
sadoes,  and  were  instantly  brought  down  by  the  fire  of  the  English  muskets. 
Others,  desperately  sallying  forth  from  their  burning  cells,  were  shot,  or  cut 
to  pieces  with  the  sword.  Such  terror  fell  upon  them,  that  they  would  run 
back  from  the  English  into  the  very  flames.  Great  numbers  perished  in  the 
conflagration.  The  greatness  and  violence  of  the  fire,  the  reflection  of  the 
light,  the  flashing  and  the  roar  of  the  arms,  the  shrieks  and  yellings  of  the 
men,  women,  and  children,  in  the  fort,  and  the  shouting  of  the  Indians  with- 
out, just  at  the  dawning  of  the  morning,  exhibited  a  grand  and  awful  scene. 
In  little  more  than  an  hour,  this  whole  work  of  destruction  was  finished.    Se- 


86  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  venty  wigwams  were  burnt,  and  five  or  six  hundred  Indians  perished,  either 
- —  by  the  sword,  or  in  the  flames.     A  hundred  and  fifty  warriors  had  been  sent 

to  i64o.  on  the  evening  before,  who,  that  very  morning,  were  to  have  gone  forth 
against  the  English.  Of  these  and  all  who  belonged  to  the  fort,  seven  only 
escaped,  and  seven  were  made  prisoners.  It  had  been  previously  concluded 
not  to  burn  the  fort,  but  to  destroy  the  enemy,  and  take  the  plunder  ;  but  the 
captain  afterwards  found  it  the  only  expedient,  to  obtain  the  victory  and  save 
his  men.  Thus  parents  and  children,  the  sannap  and  squaw,  the  old  man  and 
the  babe,  perished  in  promiscuous  ruin." 

In  the  midst  of  this  frightful  scene  a  large  body  of  Pequod  warriors  arrived 
to  join  their  brethren  at  the  fort.  Frantic  with  horror  and  revenge,  they 
rushed  upon  the  conquerors,  but  were  easily  driven  back,  and  compelled  to 
retreat.  A  portion  of  the  victors  hastily  returned  to  prevent  a  surprise  of 
their  homes  by  the  Indians,  while  Mason,  having  sent  his  wounded  by  a  vessel 
just  arrived  from  Boston,  marched  across  the  country  to  Fort  Saybrook,  where 
he  was  received  by  the  commandant  with  a  discharge  of  artillery. 

What  the  men  of  Connecticut  had  thus  begun,  was  finished  by  the  militia 
from  Massachusetts,  who  shortly  after  arrived  upon  the  scene  of  action.  The 
Pequods  were  hunted  from  their  hiding-places  in  the  swamps ;  their  forts  de- 
stroyed; their  fugitive  chief,  Sassacus,  murdered  by  the  Mohawks,  among 
whom  he  had  taken  refuge ;  the  male  prisoners  sold  into  slavery  in  the  West 
Indies ;  the  women  and  children  retained  as  domestic  drudges.  Some  few 
who  escaped  were  incorporated  into  other  tribes,  and  the  very  name  of  the 
once  proud  and  powerful  Pequods  was  blotted  from  the  earth.  This  ruthless 
process  of  extermination,  which  was  regarded  by  the  pious  settlers  in  the  light 
of  a  providential  victory  over  their  "  heathen  "  enemies,  had  the  effect  of 
striking  such  terror  into  the  surrounding  Indians,  that  the  peace  of  the  colony 
was  not  again  disturbed  by  them  for  many  years  afterward. 

The  religious  dissensions  caused  by  the  arbitrary  standard  set  up  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, had  the  beneficial  effect  of  causing  different  emigrations,  promoted 
for  directly  opposite  ends.  To  obtain  a  more  unlimited  freedom,  Williams 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  Rhode  Island,  while  the  desire  of  enjoying  a  still  more 
exclusive  degree  of  puritanical  strictness,  prompted  the  establishment  by 
Davenport  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  in  which  church-membership  was  the 
condition  of  citizenship,  and  the  Bible  the  only  code  of  legislation.  Wheel- 
wright, banished  for  his  participation  in  the  heresies  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
went  forth  and  planted  Exeter.  Captain  Underhill,  involved  in  the  same 
quarrel,  and  suspected  moreover  of  licence  rather  soldier-like  than  edifying, 
was,  notwithstanding  his  bravery,  expelled,  upon  which  he  retired  to  Dover. 
Others  also  departed  and  founded  separate  and  independent  congregations,  until 
the  whole  land  was  sprinkled  with  settlements,  so  many  little  oases  amidst  the 
wide-spreading  forest  which  had  so  lately  covered  it,  and  which  began  rapidly 
to  open  before  the  axe  of  the  sturdy  woodman.  Among  these  settlements  was 
that  of  Rowley  in  Massachusetts,  formed  by  a  company  of  Yorkshire  clothiers, 
under  the  pastoral  superintendence  of  the  pious  Ezekiel  Rogers. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  87 

The  wild  indented  coast  of  Maine  had  also  become  sprinkled  with  a  few   chap. 

settlements,  the  progress  of  which,  however,  was  for  some  time  extremely  slow. — 

The  name  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  will  be  held  in  honour  as  one  of  the  most  to  1623. 
persevering  of  all  the  planters  of  the  American  continent.  Having  obtained 
a  charter  from  the  Plymouth  company,  he  sent  out  more  than  one  expedition, 
but  to  little  or  no  purpose.  One  of  these,  commanded  by  Raleigh  Gilbert 
and  George  Popham,  repaired  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kennobec,  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  colony,  but  were  compelled  to  abandon  the  scheme.  A  second 
body  of  settlers  established  themselves  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscatoqua,  under 
a  patent  granted  to  Gorges  and  Mason,  for  a  tract  called  Laconia,  where  they 
founded  Portsmouth  and  Dover.  Mason,  who  had  been  associated  with 
Gorges  in  this  scheme,  obtained  a  grant  of  the  territory  of  New  Hampshire,  a 
tract  discovered  by  Martin  Pring,  but  his  affairs  fell  into  disorder,  and  he  soon 
after  died.  Gorges  obtained  a  new  charter  for  the  incorporation  of  all  his 
grants  under  the  name  of  Maine,  drew  up  an  elaborate  scheme  for  the  govern- 
ment of  a  territory  as  yet  little  better  than  a  wilderness,  and  sent  out  his  kins- 
man, Thomas  Gorges,  with  numerous  subordinates,  to  administer  it.  A 
Scotchman,  Sir  William  Alexander,  had  also  obtained  from  James  I.  the  ter- 
ritory of  Acadie,  already  granted  by  Henry  IV.  of  France  to  his  subjects,  and 
changed  its  name  to  Nova  Scotia.  These  confused  and  conflicting  charters 
and  claims  originated  much  private  litigation  and  international  hostility. 

The  Plymouth  company  had  endeavoured  to  assert  their  exclusive  right  to  the 
fisheries  off  their  coasts,  and  to  levy  a  tax  upon  the  numerous  fishing  vessels 
that  frequented  them.  They  even  appointed  one  West,  as  "  Admiral  of  New 
England,"  with  authority  to  assert  their  claims ;  but  this  was  found  to  be  im- 
possible, Virginia  refused  to  submit,  and  the  whole  line  of  coast  was  soon 
studded  with  little  fishing  stations,  the  nurseries  of  hardy  seamen,  and  the 
origin  of  a  most  lucrative  commerce. 

The  material  and  intellectual  progress  of  the  colony,  in  spite  of  all  its  religious 
dissensions,  had,  owing  to  the  energetic  character  of  the  New  England  settlers, 
been  steady  and  rapid.  Trade  continued  to  increase,  vessels  were  built,  water 
and  wind  mills  were  set  up ;  the  towns  and  villages  began  to  assume  a  settled 
appearance.  Although  intercourse  between  the  settlements,  divided  by  large 
intervals  of  forest,  was  chiefly  carried  on  by  coasting.  No  plantation  on  the 
shores  of  America  had  made,  as  it  was  universally  conceded,  so  unexampled  a 
progress  within  so  short  a  period,  or  gave  promise  of  such  a  brilliant  career 
of  future  greatness. 

Such  was  the  flourishing  state  of  the  New  England  colonies  about  the  time 
of  the  breaking  out  of  the  English  Revolution. 


88  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


COLONIZATION   OF  MARYLAND   BY  LORD   BALTIMORE.— ITS   ADVANTAGES    AND   PROGRESS.— DISPUTE 
WITH   CLAYBORNE. — ESTABLISHMENT  OF  RELIGIOUS   TOLERATION. 


chap.  "While  Virginia  was  compelled  to  pass  through  various  struggles  before  at- 
taining her  liberties,  and  Massachusetts  strenuously  contended   against  the 


to  1632. '  liberty  of  private  judgment,  another  colony  was  founded,  of  which  representa- 
tive government  and  religious  toleration  were  fundamental  principles ;  and, 
singularly  enough,  under  the  auspices  of  a  member  of  that  Church  which  had 
itself  first  set  the  example  of  persecution  for  conscience'  sake.  The  Roman 
Catholics  in  England,  from  being  the  oppressors,  had  of  late  become  the  op- 
pressed, under  the  combined  operation  of  public  prejudice  and  of  Episcopalian 
and  Puritanical  rancour.  Sir  George  Calvert,  a  native  of  Yorkshire,  a  scholar 
and  traveller,  so  popular  in  his  native  county,  by  far  the  largest  in  England, 
as  to  be  chosen  as  its  representative  in  parliament,  and  so  great  a  favourite  at 
court  as  to  have  become  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state,  had  become  a  convert 
to  the  proscribed  faith.  With  honourable  candour  he  avowed  his  opinions, 
and  tendered  the  resignation  of  his  office.  Far,  however,  from  losing  the 
influence  he  had  obtained,  he  was  loaded  with  fresh  favours,  and  soon  after 
created  an  Irish  peer,  by  the  title  of  Lord  Baltimore.  He  had  been  one  of 
the  original  associates  of  the  Virginia  company,  and  had  tried  an  experimental 
colony  of  his  own  upon  the  island  of  Newfoundland,  which,  after  having  twice 
visited,  he  at  length  resolved  to  abandon.  He  then  turned  his  attention  to 
Virginia,  where  he  met  with  little  encouragement  to  engage  in  a  settlement, 
the  oath  of  allegiance,  expressly  framed  so  as  that  no  Catholic  could  con- 
scientiously subscribe  it,  being  expressly  and  offensively  tendered  for  his  adop- 
tion. He  thus  became  desirous  of  obtaining  a  settlement  to  which  the  Ca- 
tholics might  repair  unmolested,  and  on  his  return  to  England  had  little  dif- 
ficulty in  obtaining  from  Charles  I.  a  grant  of  a  considerable  tract  on  the  river 
Potomac,  which,  in  compliment  to  the  queen,  Henrietta  Maria,  he  denomin- 
ated Maryland.  Baltimore  was  a  man  of  clear  and  comprehensive  mind,  of 
high  and  generous  character ;  he  appreciated  the  necessity  of  a  popular  go- 
vernment, as  well  as  of  its  independence  of  the  despotism  of  the  crown ;  and 
thus  the  charter  which  gave  to  him,  and  to  his  heirs,  the  absolute  proprietor- 
ship in  the  soil,  together  with  the  power  of  making  necessary  laws,  was  coupled 
with  the  condition  that  nothing  should  be  enacted  without  the  advice,  con- 
sent, and  approbation  of  the  freemen  of  the  province,  or  their  representatives 
convoked  in  general  assembly,  and  nothing  enacted  but  what  was  in  spirit,  if 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  89 

not  in  letter,  consonant  to  the  laws  of  England.     It  was  also  the  first  instance  chap. 

in  which  the  local  proprietary  was  exempted  from  the  control  of  the  crown, — 

and  from  the  power  of  parliamentary  taxation.  Sir  George  Calvert  died  before  to  i'mX" 
the  patent  had  been  arranged,  which  was,  however,  confirmed  to  his  son,  Cecil 
Calvert,  who  appointed  his  natural  brother,  Leonard  Calvert,  to  the  command 
of  the  company  destined  to  found  a  colony  under  auspices  so  peculiarly  fa- 
vourable. They  embarked  on  board  the  Ark  and  the  Dove,  in  number  about 
two  hundred — the  great  body  of  the  settlers  being  Roman  Catholics,  many  of 
them  ranking  among  the  gentry.  After  a  circuitous  voyage  by  way  of  the  West 
Indies,  where  they  spent  the  winter,  they  arrived  on  the  shores  of  Virginia, 
where,  notwithstanding  the  jealousy  of  the  inhabitants  at  so  close  an  infringe- 
ment upon  their  own  territory  and  upon  the  commercial  advantages  derived 
from  the  possession  of  the  Chesapeake,  the  new  settlers  were  courteously 
received  by  the  governor,  Harvey.  Shortly  after  Calvert  entered  the  Poto- 
mac, and  upon  a  spot,  partly  occupied,  and  about  to  be  abandoned  by  the 
Indians,  and  ceded  by  them  next  year  in  full  to  the  emigrants,  he  built  the 
little  village  of  St.  Mary's.  Every  colony  planted  on  the  American  soil  had 
passed  through  a  season  of  hardship  and  calamity ;  the  foundation  of  Maryland 
was  the  first  exception.  The  favourable  provisions  of  the  charter,  the  liberal 
spirit  of  the  institutions,  and  the  readiness  with  which  the  Indians  conceded 
to  the  settlers  a  footing  on  the  soil,  the  unanimity  of  design,  the  ready  supply 
of  all  their  wants  by  the  neighbouring  colonists  through  the  liberal  outlay  of 
the  proprietor,  all  concurred  to  promote  the  peaceful  establishment  and  rapid 
progress  of  the  new  colony. 

Its  harmony  was,  however,  disturbed,  by  a  dispute  arising  out  of  some  prior 
claims  to  an  exclusive  trade  upon  a  portion  of  the  territory  included  in  the 
patent.  "William  Clayborne,  an  enterprising  member  of  the  council  of  Vir- 
ginia, after  surveying  the  different  branches  of  the  Chesapeake,  satisfied  with 
the  advantages  of  the  region  for  opening  an  advantageous  traffic,  had  ob- 
tained a  grant  from  Charles  L,  authorizing  the  formation  of  a  trading  company, 
and  had  built  an  establishment  at  Kent  Island,  in  the  heart  of  the  territory  now 
made  over  to  Lord  Baltimore,  of  whose  patent  he  had  endeavoured  to  invalidate 
the  legality  as  being  opposed  to  his  own  prior  claims,  although  no  right  to  the 
territory  had  been  assigned  to  him  with  his  trading  patent.  His  appeal  was  set 
aside,  and,  esteeming  himself  to  be  aggrieved  by  this  decision,  he  not  only  en- 
deavoured to  prevent  the  progress  of  the  colony  by  prejudicing  the  Indians 
against  it,  but  actually  fitted  out  a  vessel  to  resist  or  capture  the  boats  of  the 
new  settlers.  After  a  bloody  skirmish  Clayborne's  men  were  defeated,  and  his 
trading  station  seized,  while  he  himself  was  obliged  to  fly  into  Virginia,  where 
the  justice  of  his  claims  was  universally  recognised.  The  first  colonial  as- 
sembly of  Maryland  having  assembled,  passed  an  act  of  attainder  against  him, 
and  required  that  he  should  be  given  up  to  them  for  trial  by  the  government 
of  Virginia.  But  the  strong  feeling  in  his  favour  existing  in  the  latter  colony 
determined  Harvey,  the  governor,  to  evade  this  demand  by  sending  him  to 
England  for  trial,  together  with  the  witnesses  against  him. 


90  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       The  tendency  to  self-government  which  seems  to  have  sprung  up  in  the 

■ —  breasts  of  the  English  colonists  simultaneously  with  the  first  crop  raised  by 

to  1*649.  them  from  the  soil,  appeared  in  the  proceedings  of  the  first  council  convened 
in  Maryland.  Popular  as  was  Lord  Baltimore  with  the  colonists,  and  liberal 
his  provisions  in  their  favour,  they  watched  with  jealousy  the  slightest  tend- 
ency to  encroachment  on  his  part.  In  this  spirit  they  rejected,  by  virtue  of 
the  power  vested  in  them,  a  body  of  laws  sent  over  by  him  for  their  accept- 
ance, and  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  take  the  initiative  in  legislation.  With 
the  next  assembly  came  the  establishment  of  representative  government. 
The  "  rights  and  liberties  of  Holy  Church  "  were  especially  protected,  but  no 
provisions  were  made  to  enforce  conformity  to  her  dogmas.  This  was  alike 
repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  founder  of  the  colony,  and  indeed  impossible 
in  the  state  of  public  opinion  against  the  Catholics.  Whether  from  ne- 
cessity or  policy,  or  more  honourable  reasons,  practical  toleration  was  at  all 
events  established  in  Maryland,  which  thus  became  an  asylum  for  those  ex- 
posed to  persecution  in  the  other  colonies  as  well  as  in  the  parent  country. 
Experience  further  demonstrated  the  inestimable  blessing,  almost  then  un- 
known, of  a  free  religious  toleration,  and  it  was  decisively  confirmed  by  statute 
ten  years  afterwards.  Liberty  of  opinion  was  not  indeed,  nor  could  it  well  have 
been,  as  absolute  as  in  our  own  times.  A  general  profession  of  belief  in  Tri- 
nitarian Christianity  was  required,  and  so-called  "blasphemy"  severely  pun- 
ished ;  but  with  this  limitation  the  terms  of  the  statute  forbade  any  interference 
in,  or  even  reproachful  censure  of,  the  private  opinions  or  modes  of  worship, 
already  sufficiently  numerous  and  eccentric,  established  among  the  citizens. 
"  Whereas,"  it  states,  "  the  enforcing  of  the  conscience  in  matters  of  religion 
hath  frequently  fallen  out  to  be  of  dangerous  consequence  in  those  common- 
wealths where  it  hath  been  practised,  and  for  the  more  quiet  and  peaceable 
government  of  this  province,  no  persons  whatsoever,  professing  to  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  shall  from  henceforth  be  in  any  ways  troubled,  molested,  or  dis- 
countenanced, for,  or  in  respect  of,  his  or  her  religion,  nor  in  the  free  exercise 
thereof;  nor  any  way  compelled  to  the  belief  or  exercise  of  any  religion  against 
his  or  her  consent,  so  that  they  be  not  unfaithful  to  the  lord  proprietary,  or 
molest  or  conspire  against  the  civil  government  established." 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  91 


to  1634. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  STATES  DURING  THE  PARLIAMENT. — PERSECUTIONS  OP  THE  BAPTISTS  AND 
QUAKERS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.— ELLIOT  AND  THE  INDIANS.  —  GENERAL  PROGRESS  OF  THE 
NORTHERN   COLONIES. 

The  effects  of  the  great  struggle  now  going  on  in  England  between  Charles  I.  CvinP* 
and  his  parliament  were  not  unfelt  even  on  the  distant  shores  of  New  Eng-  A#  D  ]630 
land.  The  settlement  of  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims  had  occurred  with  little  or 
no  notice,  and  the  increasing  interest  of  affairs  at  home  had  so  occupied 
attention,  that  Massachusetts  was  allowed  to  grow  up,  and  assume  a  distinct 
and  independent  policy,  before  any  interference  was  threatened  by  the  minis- 
ters. It  had  been  the  wise  endeavour  of  the  founders  of  the  infant  State  to 
avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  attracting  the  attention  of  those  in  power,  and  to  veil 
over  their  great  design,  the  founding  of  an  independent  theocracy,  by  the 
external  profession  of  loyalty  to  the  monarch  as  well  as  obedience  to  the 
Church. 

But  in  spite  of  this  cautious  policy,  their  designs  had  leaked  out,  and  their 
proceedings  had  begun  to  attract  the  serious  attention  of  the  ministers  of 
Charles.  Those  Episcopalians  who  had  been  expelled  from  Salem  by  the 
rashness  and  fanaticism  of  Endicott  were  loud  in  their  complaints.  The 
council  for  New  England  was  summoned  to  answer  for  the  alleged  misconduct 
of  the  settlers  under  their  charter.  But  not  only  did  this  body  repudiate  all 
responsibility  on  account  of  the  Massachusetts  freemen,  but  laboured  still 
further  for  their  inculpation.  They  charged  them  with  surreptitiously  procur- 
ing a  grant  of  lands  previously  conveyed  to  others,  for  which,  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  council,  they  had  obtained  a  private  charter.  The  accus- 
ation, however,  which  more  especially  attracted  the  jealous  eye  of  Archbishop 
Laud  was,  that  they  had  virtually  "  made  themselves  a  free  people,"  and 
"  framed  unto  themselves  new  laws  in  matters  of  religion,  and  ecclesiastical 
forms,  departure  from  which  they  had  punished  by  the  severest  penalties." 
These  unwarrantable  encroachments  the  council  declared  itself  unable  to 
restrain  or  punish,  and  therefore  referred  the  whole  matter  to  the  gracious  in- 
terference of  his  Majesty  and  the  privy  council. 

No  invitation  could  be  more  welcome  to  the  bigoted  Archbishop.  He 
had  received  private  information  of  the  secret  designs  of  the  Massachusetts 
planters,  he  had  witnessed  with  uneasiness  the  rapid  stream  of  emigration 
which  was  caused  by  his  arbitrary  measures,  and  had  found  that  many  of 
"  the  best "  were  going  over  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  detested  Puritans. 
An  embargo   was  laid   upon   vessels  bound  to  New  England;    the   letters 

K    2 


VIII. 


9£  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  patent  of  the  company  were  imperiously  demanded,  and  a  special  commission 
was  appointed,  giving  to  himself  and  his  creatures  full  power  to  introduce 
into  the  New  England  colonies  the  same  atrocious  system  by  which  he  was 
vainly  labouring  at  home  to  crush  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

The  Plymouth  company  having  surrendered  their  charter  to  the  king,  a 
"  quo  warranto  "  was  issued  against  the  Massachusetts  colonists.  The  freemen 
were  outlawed,  and  the  resignation  of  their  patent  demanded,  under  the 
threat  of  his  Majesty's  assuming  the  management  of  the  colony.  An  evasive 
remonstrance  was  sent  over  by  the  council,  in  the  hope  of  averting  the  threat- 
ened attack  upon  their  liberties,  against  which  they  made  meanwhile  every 
preparation  for  a  determined  resistance.  The  fort  was  ordered  to  be  garrisoned, 
and  other  defences  hastily  prepared.  But  the  distance  from  home,  and,  above 
all,  the  increasing  troubles  in  England,  which  now  engrossed  the  whole  atten- 
tion of  the  ministry,  prevented  their  carrying  out  the  dreaded  project. 

The  acts  in  the  great  drama  of  the  revolution  now  succeeded  each  other  with 
a  rapidity  that  kept  all  men  in  a  state  of  breathless  suspense  and  excitement. 
It  was  no  longer  needful  to  lay  an  embargo  upon  emigrants  to  Massachusetts, 
many  of  its  citizens  repairing  home  to  take  a  part  in  the  agitating  but  glo- 
rious scene.  The  Scotch  had  entered  England,  the  Long  Parliament  had 
been  called,  arbitrary  power  had  been  swept  away,  and  a  complete  change  had 
taken  place  in  the  system  of  legislation.  Strafford  was  impeached,  condemned, 
and  executed.  Laud  soon  after  followed  him  to  the  scaffold ;  the  Church, 
whose  authority  he  had  laboured  by  every  species  of  cruel  persecution  to 
enforce,  was  dissolved  and  proscribed,  and  Puritanism,  which  it  was  the 
great  object  of  his  life  to  extirpate,  was  triumphantly  established  in  power. 

Meanwhile  the  colony  was  left  undisturbed  to  the  development  of  her 
internal  resources,  and  to  the  framing  of  a  "  Body  of  Liberties."  Of  these 
the  rough  draft,  having  been  prepared  by  the  council,  was  sent  round  and 
submitted,  first  to  the  local  magistrates  and  elders,  then  to  the  freemen  at 
large  for  due  consideration  and  improvement :  and  having  been  thus  decided 
upon,  they  were  at  length  formally  adopted.  After  three  years'  trial  they 
were  to  be  revised,  and  finally  established.  These  laws,  about  a  hundred  in 
number,  are  characteristic  and  curious.  The  supreme  power  was  still  to  re- 
side in  the  hands  ^f  the  church  members  alone ;  universal  suffrage  was  not 
conceded,  but  every  citizen  was  allowed  to  take  a  certain  share  in  the 
business  of  any  public  meeting.  Some  degree  of  liberty  was  granted  to 
private  churches  and  assemblies  of  different  Christians,  but  the  power  of  veto 
was  still  vested  in  the  supreme  council,  who  might  arbitrarily  put  down  any 
proceedings  which  they  deemed  heterodox  and  dangerous,  and  punish  or 
expel  their  authors.  Strangers  and  refugees  professing  the  true  Christian 
religion  were  to  be  received  and  sheltered.  Bond-slavery,  villanage,  or  cap- 
tivity, except  in  the  case  of  lawful  captives  taken  in  war,  or  any  who  should 
either  sell  themselves  or  be  sold  by  others,  were  to  be  abolished.  Injurious 
monopolies  were  not  to  be  allowed.  Idolatry,  witchcraft,  and  blasphemy,  or 
wilful  disturbing  of  the  established  order  of  the  state,  were  punishable  with 


VJII. 


A.D.I  635. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  93 

death.     All  torture  was  prohibited,  unless  whipping,  ear-cropping,  and  the    chap. 
pillory,  which  were  retained  as  wholesome  and  necessary  punishments,  might 
be  so  considered.     The  liberties  of  women,  children,  and  servants  are  defined 
in  a  more  benevolent  spirit,  in  harmony  with  the  milder  institutes  of  the 
Mosaic  law  so  constantly  referred  to  by  the  framers  of  the  document. 

The  infant  province  of  New  Hampshire  sought  and  obtained  annexation, 
on  equal  terms,  to  its  more  powerful  neighbour  Massachusetts.  Shortly  after- 
wards, in  1643,  the  whole  of  the  scattered  settlements  resolved  upon  uniting 
in  one  common  confederation,  under  the  name  of  the  "  United  Colonies  of 
New  England."  This  union  was  suggested  after  the  Pequod  war,  by  the 
necessity  of  making  common  cause  against  the  Indians,  as  well  as  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  Dutch  in  Connecticut,  and  of  the  French  on  the  coast  of 
Maine.  It  consisted  of  the  colonies  of  New  Plymouth,  New  Haven,  Con- 
necticut, and  Massachusetts.  The  preservation  of  "gospel  truth"  being  a 
principal  object  of  the  confederacy,  all  the  delegates  were  accordingly  to  be 
church  members.  Two  of  these  were  to  be  sent  by  each  colony,  annually, 
or  oftener  if  necessary.  They  were  to  choose  a  president,  and  all  questions 
were  to  be  decided  by  six  votes  out  of  the  eight.  They  were  to  meet  alter- 
nately at  Boston,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Plymouth.  Each  State  was  to 
retain  its  local  rights  of  legislation,  and  no  new  plantation  could  be  received 
without  the  approval  of  the  others.  No  war  was  to  be  levied  by  any  one  of 
the  colonies  without  the  consent  of  the  rest,  and  although  the  expenses  of  a 
war  were  to  be  defrayed  out  of  a  common  fund,  yet  should  any  colony  have 
brought  a  war  upon  itself  or  the  rest  by  its  own  fault,  it  was  to  make  satis- 
faction to  the  adverse  party,  and  to  bear  in  addition  the  entire  expense  of  the 
war.  Runaway  servants  were  to  be  restored,  and  legal  judgments  in  one 
colony  to  be  held  valid  in  the  rest.  Such  were  the  principal  points  of  this 
famous  compact,  the  idea  of  which  was  borrowed  from  the  provinces  of  Hol- 
land, and  suggested  perhaps  in  turn  the  great  federation  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  which  some  of  its  provisions  were  retained.  Enacted  with 
entire  independence  of  the  control  of  the  mother  country,  it  nevertheless  sub- 
sisted until  its  abrogation  by  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  last  of  the  Stuarts. 

Armed  as  they  were  with  an  absolute  power  to  restrain,  although  certainly 
not  private  belief  in,  yet  at  least  open  profession  of,  any  creed  differing  from 
their  established  standard,  it  was  not  long  before  the  Massachusetts  fathers 
were  called  upon  to  fence  off  their  orthodoxy  against  a  crowd  of  troublesome 
intruders. 

The  carrying  out  to  its  ultimate  results  the  principle  of  free  private 
judgment  continued  to  breed  new  forms  of  visionary  speculation,  and  of  doc- 
trinal subtleties,  with  a  perilous  unloosening  of  the  ordinary  principles  of 
morals.  Such  was  the  Antinomianism  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  such,  though 
in  a  minor  degree,  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Anabaptists,  so  fearfully  carried 
out  by  the  fanatics  of  Munster. 

This  doctrine,  against  which  peculiar  prejudices  might  then  well  be  enter- 
tained, although  it  has  now  moderated  into  a  mere  question  of  the  time  and 


A.  D. 1G43 


94  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  mode  of  baptism,  now  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  New  England.  The 
restless  Williams  had  embraced  it,  and  became  the  founder  of  the  first  Baptist 
church  in  America,  and  the  foundations  of  Newport  were  laid  by  a  body  of 
these  sectarians.  Their  views  gained  ground,  the  orthodox  churches  were 
troubled,  and  numerous  complaints  were  made  against  the  innovators,  who 
had  renounced  all  communion  with  their  brethren,  and  propagated  their  pe- 
culiar dogmas  with  indefatigable  zeal.  Clark  and  Holmes,  two  of  the  leaders, 
were  seized  on  the  sabbath,  as  they  were  in  the  act  of  preaching,  and  forcibly 
carried  off  to  attend  the  more  orthodox  services  of  a  neighbouring  church. 
The  moment  the  minister  began  to  pray,  Clark  put  on  his  hat,  for  which 
insult  he  was  allowed  the  alternative  of  fine  or  flagellation.  Anxious,  pos- 
sibly, to  obtain  sympathy  as  a  martyr,  he  fearlessly  chose  the  latter  punish- 
ment, and  thirty  lashes  were  accordingly  inflicted  upon  him.  The  activity 
and  obstinacy  of  the  new  sectaries  provoked  the  severest  measures  of  preven- 
tion and  punishment ;  a  sentence  of  expatriation  was  pronounced  against  all 
who  should  openly  assert  their  obnoxious  tenets,  and  many  were  accordingly 
sent  forth  from  the  colony. 

Samuel  Gorton  was  a  religious  enthusiast  of  a  different  vein,  one  who  enter- 
tained certain  refined  and  mystical  views  of  the  doctrines  of  Scripture  peculiar 
to  himself;  to  whom  there  was  "no  heaven  but  in  the  heart  of  the  good  man, 
no  hell  but  in  the  conscience  of  the  wicked;"  who  looked  upon  the  doctrinal 
formulas  and  church  ordinances  of  the  orthodox  Puritans  as  human  inventions, 
alike  unauthorized  and  mischievous,  and  regarded  their  assumed  authority  as 
an  intolerable  yoke  of  bondage,  which  he  was  careless  and  daring  enough  to 
defy  or  ridicule.  The  "soul  tyranny"  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy  seems 
indeed,  as  a  natural  result,  invariably  to  have  stimulated  to  opposition  and  de- 
fiance. Gorton,  expelled  from  Plymouth,  retired  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Providence,  where  he  had  become  involved  in  further  dispute  with  some  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  invited  the  interference  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  cited  to  ap- 
pear before  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  but  he  preferred  to  retire  still  farther 
from  their  reach,  and  having  purchased  some  land  of  Miantonomoh,  the  Nar- 
ragansett  chief  and  the  ally  of  the  colonists  in  the  Pequod  war,  commenced 
an  independent  settlement.  The  rightfulness'  of  this  grant  of  Miantonomoh's 
was  denied  by  two  inferior  Sachems ;  their  appeal  was  confirmed  by  the 
Boston  magistrates,  to  whom  they  now  made  over  the  disputed  territory. 
Gorton  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  court  at  Boston ;  he  replied  with 
a  counter-summons  of  defiance,  denied  the  legality  or  impartiality  of  their 
proceedings,  and  offered  to  submit  the  case  to  the  arbitration  of  the  other 
colonists.  A  strong  party  was  sent  out  to  seize  him  and  his  adherents,  and 
being  taken  and  conveyed  to  Boston,  he  was  shortly  after  brought  before 
the  court  on  the  charge  of  being  a  blasphemous  subverter  of  "  true  religion 
and  civil  government."  He  vainly  endeavoured  to  explain  away  the  obnoxious 
imputations,  and  being  convicted,  was  by  the  greater  part  of  the  magistrates 
sentenced  to  death,  although  this,  at  the  instance  of  the  deputies,  was  commuted 
to  imprisonment  and  hard  labour,  which  was  also  inflicted  upon  his  adherents 


A.  D. 1643. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  95 

who  had  been  taken  with  him.     Not  even  the  fear  of  death  could,  however,   c  n  a  p. 
restrain  their  zeal,  and  they  were  accordingly  sent  ouv  of  the  colony.     Gorton 
soon  after  returned  to  England,  where  he  found,  for  a  while,  a  suitable  scope 
for  his  doctrinal  phantasies  amidst  the  sectarian  disputes  of  the  time.  . 

Far  different  was  the  fate  of  Miantonomoh.  Between  himself  and  Uncas, 
chief  of  the  Mehegans,  the  firm  ally  of  the  English,  and  who  had  placed  him- 
self under  their  protection,  a  bitter  hatred  subsisted ;  and  mutual  hostilities 
had  broken  out,  as  it  is  said,  in  consequence  of  an  aggression  on  the  part 
of  Uncas.  Miantonomoh  was  taken  prisoner,  the  intercession  of  Gorton  saved 
him  from  immediate  death,  but  Uncas  carried  his  captive  to  Hartford,  and 
referred  his  fate  to  the  decision  of  the  commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies. 
The  Narragansett  chief  was,  on  many  grounds,  obnoxious  to  the  English ;  he 
was  looked  upon  as  a  "  turbulent  spirit,  whom  it  would  be  dangerous  to  set 
at  liberty ; "  moreover  he  was  the  friend  of  Gorton  and  of  Williams,  through 
whose  agency  indeed  he  had  been  prevented  from  joining  in  the  conspiracy 
of  the  Pequods.  Yet  the  consciences  of  the  council  could  not  be  satisfied 
without  at  least  some  decent  pretext  for  his  legal  condemnation ;  and  he  was 
charged  with  the  murder  of  a  servant  belonging  to  the  Mohegan  chief.  It 
was  decided  that  he  should  die,  but  not  by  the  sentence  of  the  council; 
and  they  accordingly  ordered  him  to  be  delivered  over  to  Uncas,  who  was 
permitted  to  convey  him  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  colony,  and  deal  with 
him  summarily,  after  his  own  fashion,  but  without  the  infliction  of  torture. 
The  exulting  Uncas  hastened  to  fulfil  this  welcome  command,  and  the  instant 
he  had  passed  the  border,  drove  his  hatchet  into  the  skull  of  the  unfortunate 
Miantonomoh,  and  even  glutted  his  savage  appetite  of  revenge  by  drinking 
the  blood  and  tasting  the  flesh  of  his  victim. 

During  the  progress  of  the  civil  war  in  England,  it  may  be  well  imagined, 
that  the  sympathies  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  in  favour  of  the 
"  Godly  Parliament,"  although  they  wisely  determined  not  to  involve  them- 
selves in  the  dispute.  There  were  not  wanting,  however,  among  them,  some 
"  malignant  spirits,"  who  were  disposed  to  stir  in  favour  of  the  king,  English 
vessels,  belonging  to  the  rival  factions,  having  come  to  action  even  in  Boston 
Bay ;  but  a  strict  neutrality  was  now  enforced.  When  the  Parliament  had 
fully  established  its  authority,  friendly  invitations  were  sent  over  to  the  min- 
isters of  New  England  to  attend  the  conference  at  Westminster,  and  to  sue 
for  additional  privileges ;  yet  the  wise  and  wary  heads  of  the  Massachusetts 
fathers  evaded  a  proposal  which,  while  it  might  tend  to  breed  dangerous  in- 
novations, could  add  nothing  to  the  virtual  independence  which  they  al- 
ready enjoyed.  Satisfied  that  they  had  built  up  the  best  of  all  possible  com- 
monwealths, they  had  determined  to  defend  their  newly-established  theocracy 
against  the  troublesome  interference  of  either  king  or  parliament.  This  latter 
body  had  indeed  appointed  a  board  of  control  for  the  colonies,  of  which  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  was  governor,  and  Vane,  Pym,  and  Cromwell  members. 
This  board  was  endowed  with  very  ample  general  powers,  and  might  appoint 
at  pleasure  governors,  counsellors,  and  officers.     No  interference  with  the 


( 

VIII 
A.  D.  1C45 


96  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ii  a  p.  established  order  of  things  was  as  yet  attempted,  a  friendly  feeling  subsisted 
between  the  parties,  and  the  exports  and  imports  of  Massachusetts  were  ex- 
empted from  taxation. 

Not  only  had  the  council  to  watch  jealously  against  external  interference, 
but  also  to  repress  a  dangerous  fermentation  within  its  own  boundaries.  The 
strict  exclusiveness  and  rigid  regimen  of  the  self-constituted  government  ap- 
peared, to  a  large  body  of  those  without,  to  be  as  unjust  as  it  was  unpalatable. 
The  harshness  considered  necessary  to  repress  the  vagaries  of  different  sect- 
aries had  not  only  tended  to  increase  their  acrimony,  but  appeared  to  many, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  in  the  light  of  a  cruel  persecution.  There  was  also  a 
dangerous  party,  who  were  aiming  at  the  establishment  of  Presbyterianism, 
and  the  re-modelling  of  the  state  by  the  authority  of  parliament.  A  spirit  of 
determined  opposition  against  the  authority  of  the  council  was  awakened. 
The  people  rejected  fresh  officers  recommended  by  authority,  and  re-nominated 
the  old,  merely  to  show  their  independence.  At  length  the  dispute  arose  to  a 
head.  Winthrop,  the  governor,  in  the  exercise  of  a  legal  right,  had  set  aside 
a  military  election  at  Hingham.  Complaint  was  eagerly  made,  and  Winthrop 
stood  upon  his  defence  before  the  general  court,  which  was  divided  in  opinion, 
the  minority  being  in  favour  of  the  people,  the  majority  siding  with  the  go- 
vernor. After  a  stormy  discussion,  Winthrop  was  declared  to  be  honourably 
acquitted,  when  he  ascended  the  bench  and  delivered  a  speech,  in  which  the 
peculiar  views  entertained  by  the  leaders  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  limitations 
imposed  by  them  on  popular  liberty,  are  so  well  expounded,  that  we  cannot 
do  better  than  quote  it. 

"  The  questions,"  said  Mr.  Winthrop,  "  that  have  troubled  the  country 
have  been  about  the  authority  of  the  magistracy  and  the  liberty  of  the  people. 
It  is  you  who  have  called  us  unto  this  office ;  but  being  thus  called,  we  have  our 
authority  from  God.  I  entreat  you  to  consider,  that  when  you  choose  magis- 
trates, you  take  them  from  among  yourselves,  men  subject  unto  like  passions 
with  yourselves.  If  you  see  our  infirmities,  reflect  on  your  own,  and  you  will 
not  be  so  severe  censurers  of  ours.  The  covenant  between  us  and  you,  is  the 
oath  you  have  exacted  from  us,  which  is  to  this  purpose,  '  That  we  shall  go- 
vern you  and  judge  your  causes  according  to  God's  laws,  and  the  particular 
statutes  of  the  land,  according  to  our  best  skill !  As  for  our  skill,  you  must  run 
the  hazard  of  it ;  and  if  there  be  an  error  only  therein,  and  not  in  the  will,  it 
becomes  you  to  bear  it.  Nor  would  I  have  you  mistake  in  the  point  of  your 
own  liberty.  There  is  a  liberty  of  a  corrupt  nature,  which  is  affected  both  by 
men  and  beasts,  to  do  what  they  list.  This  liberty  is  inconsistent  with  au- 
thority ;  impatient  of  all  restraint,  'tis  the  grand  enemy  of  truth  and  peace, 
and  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are  bent  against  it.  But  there  is  a  civil,  a  moral, 
a  federal  liberty,  which  is  the  proper  end  and  object  of  authority:  it  is  a 
liberty  for  that  only  which  is  just  and  good.  For  this  liberty  you  are  to  stand 
with  the  hazard  of  your  very  lives  ;  and  whatsoever  crosses  it  is  not  authority, 
but  a  distemper  thereof.  This  liberty  is  maintained  in  a  way  of  subjection  to 
authority ;  and  the  authority  set  over  you  will,  in  all  administrations  for  your 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  97 

good,  be  quietly  submitted  unto  by  all  such  as  have  a  disposition  to  shake  off  chap. 
the  yoke,  and  lose  their  true  liberty  by  their  murmuring  at  the  honour  and 


power  ot  authority. 

The  defeat  of  the  popular  party  seemed  almost  their  victory,  since  they  had 
indirectly  obtained  the  concession,  that  the  council  for  life  should  be  deprived 
of  its  military  authority,  and  they  soon  put  forth  fresh  demands.  A  petition, 
got  up  by  dissentients  of  different  sects  and  parties,  was  presented,  headed 
by  Child,  a  young  physician,  recently  arrived  from  England,  where  the  doc- 
trines of  toleration  were  making  rapid  progress.  Complaining  of  the  exclusion 
of  all  but  church  members  from  a  share  in  the  government,  they  prayed  that 
civil  liberty  and  freedom  might  be  granted  to  all  "  truly  English,"  and  that 
members  of  other  English  or  Scotch  churches  might  be  admitted  to  the  same 
privileges  as  those  of  New  England.  They  charged  the  government  with 
being  "  ill  compacted,"  and  threatened,  in  default  of  redress,  to  appeal  to  the 
government  at  home.  A  similar  movement  had  taken  place  at  Plymouth, 
whence  the  governor,  Winslow,  wrote  to  Winthrop,  "  admiring  how  sweet  this 
carrion,"  this  indiscriminate  toleration  of  all  sects,  alike  clamorous  for  pre- 
eminence, "  relished  in  the  palate  of  most  of  the  deputies."  It  was  thrown 
out,  however,  as  "  being  that  which  would  eat  out  all  power  of  godliness." 
Child  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  council,  where  he  endeavoured  to 
argue  the  matter,  but  was  speedily  silenced  and  fined,  whereupon  he  pre- 
pared to  sail  with  a  new  petition  for  parliamentary  interference  in  favour  of 
the  non-freemen,  but  being  seized  before  he  could  embark,  was  amerced  in 
still  heavier  penalties. 

Another  incident  had  occurred  which  added  to  the  gravity  of  the  crisis.  Gor- 
ton had  made  interest  in  England  in  favour  of  his  claim  to  the  land  of  which  he 
had  been  dispossessed  by  the  council,  and  now  sent  over  his  agent,  armed  with 
a  letter  of  safe-conduct  from  the  parliament,  together  with  an  order  from  them 
to  allow  him  present  possession  of  the  disputed  territory,  until  their  final  judg- 
ment could  be  pronounced.  Such  an  assumption  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
the  parliament  struck  directly  at  the  root  of  the  independence  of  Massachu- 
setts. The  council,  with  closed  doors,  anxiously  investigated  the  nature  of 
their  relation  to  the  parent  state ;  and  it  was  agreed  upon  after  much  discus- 
sion, that  allegiance,  rather  nominal  indeed  than  real,  was  to  be  paid  to  Eng- 
land, but  that  the  right  of  regulating  their  internal  affairs  belonged  exclu- 
sively to  the  council.  In  the  critical  position  of  affairs,  however,  and  menaced 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  they  decided  on  adopting  the  policy  of  conciliation, 
and  Winslow,  who  had  influential  friends  in  London,  was  deputed  to  repair 
thither  to  obtain  the  countenance  of  parliament  by  amicable  means. 

In  the  same  vessel  with  the  agent  thus  sent  over  to  defend  the  cause  of  the 
council,  sailed  another  who  carried  out  a  copy  of  the  obnoxious  petition  which, 
laboured  to  subvert  their  authority.  This  personage  was  William Vassall,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Plymouth  colony,  one  whose  restless  liberalism  would  have  involved 
him  in  trouble,  but  that  his  brother  happened  to  be  an  influential  member  of 
parliament,  on  which  ground  he  was  therefore  reluctantly  allowed  to  embark. 


A.  D.  1647. 


98  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  But  in  his  parting  sermon  to  the  passengers,  the  zealous  Cotton  had  declared, 
that  "  if  any  should  carry  writings  or  complaints  against  the  people  of  God  in 
that  country  to  England,  it  would  be  as  Jonas  in  the  ship/'  a  hint  which  his 
pious  shipmates  were  not  slow  in  understanding.  A  storm  arose,  the  trunk 
containing  the  obnoxious  papers  was  thrown  overboard,  but  Vassall  had 
secretly  preserved  copies.  On  their  arrival  both  parties  commenced  their 
counter-intrigue.  The  apparently  noble,  though  specious  appeal  of  the  council, 
together  with  the  private  interest  of  Winslow  with  Vane  and  other  influential 
members,  carried  the  day.  "  We  have  not  admitted  your  authority,"  said  the 
remonstrance,  "  being  assured  they  cannot  stand  with  the  liberty  and  power 
granted  us  by  our  charter,  and  would  be  subversive  of  all  government."  While 
they  humbly  admit  the  superior  wisdom  of  parliament,  they  modestly  plead 
the  great  distance  from  the  colony  and  ignorance  of  its  local  requirements, 
as  tending  to  destroy  the  force  and  vitiate  the  suitableness  of  their  legislation. 
"  Confirm  our  liberties,"  they  conclude,  "  discountenance  our  enemies,  the 
disturbers  of  our  peace  under  pretence  of  our  injustice."  This  appeal, 
backed  by  powerful  influence,  proved  an  overmatch  for  the  machinations  of 
Vassall  and  Child.  The  parliament  refused  to  reverse  the  decisions  of  the 
council,  and  generously  extended  to  them  "  the  utmost  freedom  and  latitude 
that  could,  in  any  respect,  be  duly  claimed  by  them."  Meanwhile  the 
dread  of  parliamentary  interference  had  produced  a  strong  reaction  in  the 
colony  against  the  liberals,  and  thus  the  Massachusetts  council,  after  a  long 
and  anxious  struggle  with  their  opponents,  found  themselves  established  still 
firmer  in  power  than  before. 

The  foundation  of  "  Providence, "  and  the  settlement  of  Aquiday  or  Rhode 
Island  by  Roger  Williams,  has  been  already  described.  Thither,  since  the 
expulsion  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  from  Boston,  had  continued  to  repa?r  a  large 
number  of  those  who  were  discontented  with  the  "  soul  tyranny  "  established 
in  Massachusetts.  Antinomians  and  Anabaptists,  fanatics  and  latitudinarians 
of  every  shade  of  belief,  had  there  found  a  shelter  from  persecution,  and  a 
field  for  the  free  exercise  of  their  conflicting  creeds.  Universal  suffrage  and 
equal  right  being  the  established  code,  the  little  state  soon  became  notorious 
for  the  tumultuous  character  of  its  popular  assemblies,  for  the  collision  of 
opinions  and  interests,  of  whims  and  vagaries,  elements  which  by  agitation 
neutralized  one  another,  and  formed  an  harmonious  unity  by  the  balance  of 
forces.  "  Amor  vincit  omnia"  was  the  happy  and  well-chosen  motto  of  their 
little  state.  Over  this  restless  democracy  presided  Roger  Williams,  venerated 
for  the  uprightness  and  simplicity  of  his  daily  walk.  As  years  stole  on  him, 
and  he  beheld  the  evil  arising  from  sectarian  animosity,  his  zeal  for  fantastic 
innovation  was  sobered  down,  and  from  a  restless  propagator  of  novel  tenets 
he  became  a  humble  and  charitable  "seeker"  after  truth.  His  antipathy  to 
persecution,  however,  and  his  advocacy  of  an  impartial  toleration,  increased 
only  with  his  age.  The  arbitrary  encroachments  of  the  Massachusetts  the- 
ocracy, their  increasing  territorial  aggrandizement,  and  the  apprehension  lest 
they  might  ultimately  claim  jurisdiction  over  the  other  colonies,  determined 


A.  D. 1C5C. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  99 

him  to  repair  to  England  and  to  obtain  a  charter  of  incorporation.  He  was  chap. 
entirely  successful  in  his  object.  His  publications  on  the  Indian  manners  and 
language  attracted  deserved  admiration.  He  attacked  the  principle  of  re- 
ligious despotism  in  his  tract  entitled  "  Bloody  Tenet  of  Persecution  for  the 
Cause  of  Conscience,"  afterwards  replied  to  by  Cotton.  Vane,  who,  though 
he  had  befriended  the  Massachusetts  council,  was  opposed  to  a  system  of 
exclusiveness  under  which  he  had  himself  been  stigmatized,  strongly  sym- 
pathized with  Williams,  and  through  his  influence  the  benevolent  founder  of 
Rhode  Island  returned  to  America  with  the  desired  charter.  As  he  ap- 
proached the  spot  where  in  his  flight  from  persecution  he  had  laid  the  first 
foundations  of  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed,  the  river  was  covered  with  a  fleet 
of  canoes,  the  whole  population  poured  forth  to  meet  their  benefactor,  "  ele- 
vated and  transported  out  of  himself"  by  the  success  of  his  efforts,  and  the 
grateful  acclamations  of  his  fellow-citizens.  A  commission  for  governing 
the  islands,  granted  to  one  Coddrington,  by  the  council  of  state  in  England, 
which  threatened  to  interfere  with  the  patent,  occasioned  a  second  voyage,  to 
obtain  the  powerful  intercession  of  'Vane,  who  obtained  the  withdrawal  of  the 
obnoxious  instrument,  and  the  confirmation  of  the  charter  of  Rhode  Island. 
It  was  not  until  after  some  further  troubles,  however,  that  the  government 
of  that  State  was  firmly  and  peacefully  established.  Dissensions  arose  among 
its  citizens,  while  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  asserted  their  claims  to  differ- 
ent portions  of  the  territory,  and  even  meditated  the  annulling  of  their  charter. 

The  affairs  of  the  last  few  years,  and  especially  the  recent  agitation  of 
Child  and  Vassall,  had  threatened  the  dissolution  of  the  Massachusetts 
theocracy.  Assailed  on  all  sides  by  sectarian  innovation,  menaced  by  parlia- 
mentary interference,  they  had  successfully  weathered  the  storm  ;  but  there 
were  only  two  courses  now  open  to  them,  either  the  relaxation  of  the  bonds 
imposed  by  their  rule,  or  their  increased  stringency.  Before  the  recent  agi- 
tation they  had  contemplated  the  former  alternative — the  opposite  course  was 
now  resolved  upon.  As  even  among  their  own  body  there  were  not  a  few  im- 
bued with  Antinomian  or  Anabaptist  tendencies,  it  was  determined  to  leave  to 
them  no  latitude  for  schism,  but  to  define  the  rule  of  faith,  to  draw  up  a  formal 
standard  of  confession,  and  to  subject  the  churches,  hitherto  more  than  half  in- 
dependent, to  the  superintendence  of  a  self-constituted  majority,  whose  dictum 
should  be  without  appeal.  This  scheme  was  not  carried  out  without  some  oppo- 
sition. Boston  at  first  refused  to  choose  delegates.  At  length  however,  after 
much  discussion,  and  "  a  clear  discovery  and  refutation  of  such  errors,  objec- 
tions, and  scruples,  as  had  been  raised  about  it  by  some  young  heads,"  a  confes- 
sion of  faith  was  agreed  upon,  conforming  in  all  doctrinal  points  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic  articles  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  This  standard  of 
orthodoxy  resolved  upon,  it  was  decided,  to  insure  unity  of  sentiment  and  action, 
that  no  deputy  should  be  sent  to  the  general  court  who  did  not  subscribe  it. 
The  first  shoots  of  heterodoxy  were  vigilantly  watched  for  and  extirpated,  and 
recusant  ministers  were  compelled  to  be  silent  or  to  resign  their  seats. 

Latitudinarianism,  even  more  than  heterodoxy,  exposed  its  professors  to  the 

o  2 


VIII. 
A.D.  1G5C 


100  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  severest  penalties,  and  any  who  should  venture  openly  to  deny  that  the  Bible 
was  the  word  of  God,  were  punishable  not  only  with  fine,  flogging,  imprison- 
ment, or  banishment,  but  even  with  death.  The  Roman  Catholics  had  de- 
manded obedience  to  the  traditions  of  the  Church  and  asserted  its  authority,  as 
the  sole  expounder  of  that  Bible  which  it  withheld  from  the  people.  Repudi- 
ating these  claims,  the  different  sects  of  the  Reformers  made  the  Bible  itself 
their  rule  of  faith,  but  each  party  claimed  the  right  to  decide  upon  its  meaning, 
while  it  aimed  at  imposing  its  own  convictions  as  the  rule  for  others.  Thus 
the  right  of  private  judgment  was  in  truth  as  much  derided  by  the  Puritans 
of  New  England,  as  by  their  Romanist  or  Anglican  persecutors. 

"  New  presbyter  was  but  old  priest  writ  large." 

They  came  over  to  establish  a  distinctive  polity,  which  they  believed  to  be 
founded  on  the  word  of  God,  and  they  would  have  deemed  it  a  base  derelic- 
tion of  duty  and  principle  to  open  the  door  to  sectarians  of  every  shade. 
This  is  well  seen  in  the  epitaph  of  the  stern  old  Dudley,  the  governor  : — 

"  Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 

O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 

Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 

To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice ; 

If  men  be  left,  and  otherwise  combine, 

My  epitaph's,  I  died  no  libertine." 

It  was  precisely  when  they  were  congratulating  themselves  on  the  vigour 
and  firmness  of  their  administration,  and  their  victory  over  heresy  and  schism, 
that  they  were  exposed  to  the  most  formidable  irruption  which  they  had  yet 
experienced,  called  upon  to  carry  out  their  inexorable  principles  to  their 
ultimate  consequences,  and,  in  defiance  of  their  humaner  feelings,  to  inflict  the 
last  punishment  of  their  harsh  and  mistaken  code  upon  the  fanatic  enthusiasts 
who  rushed  upon  and  gloried  in  their  fate. 

This  last  onslaught  was  that  of  the  Quakers,  a  body  which  had  recently 
sprung  up  in  England,  the  latest  and  the  most  remarkable  form  which  sec- 
tarian development  had  yet  assumed.  The  tenets  and  practices  of  its  adherents 
overstepped  the  nice  and  perilous  line  of  demarcation  that  separate  the  sublime 
from  the  ridiculous.  As  its  fundamental  principle  was  that  of  an  inward  reve- 
lation of  God  to  man,  an  indwelling  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  human  soul, 
and  as  by  this  unerring  voice,  and  not  by  the  creeds  and  formularies  of  man, 
were  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  be  interpreted  to  every  individual  believer, 
the  interference  of  the  magistrate  with  the  consciences  of  men  was  expressly 
denounced  as  antichristian  and  intolerable.  "While  Cromwell  had  declared 
that  "he  that  prays  best,  and  preaches  best,  will  fight  best,"  a  doctrine 
religiously  carried  out  in  Massachusetts,  the  Quakers  denied  the  lawfulness 
even  of  defensive  warfare,  and  refused  to  bear  arms  when  commanded  by  the 
civil  magistrate.  Their  "  yea  was  yea,  and  their  nay  was  nay,"  and  believing 
that  "whatsoever  was  more  than  this  cometh  of  evil,"  they  insisted  upon 
observing  the  letter  of  Scripture,  which  commands  the  believer  to  "  swear  not 


VIII. 

A.  D. 1650. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  101 

at  all,"  and  refused  to  take  oaths  when  required  by  human  authority.  Titles  chap 
they  abhorred  as  opposite  to  the  simplicity  of  the  faith,  which  commands  us 
to  "  call  no  man  master  " — declined  even  to  take  off  their  hats  before  the  ma- 
gistrate, and  thee'd  and  friended  alike  a  Cromwell  or  a  Charles  II.  Believ- 
ing that  every  man  and  woman  was  at  liberty  to  preach  as  moved  by  the 
Spirit  alone,  they  rejected  either  printed  formularies,  or  established  modes  of 
worship,  as  cramping  the  free  spirit  of  devotion,  and  regarded  a  settled  and 
salaried  priesthood  as  false  prophets  and  as  hireling  wolves,  against  whom  it 
was  their  duty  to  bear  testimony.  In  the  renunciation  of  the  world  and  all  its 
vanities,  they  outran  even  the  most  rigid  Puritans ;  they  abhorred  even  the 
most  innocent  pleasures — they  adopted  a  peculiar  dress,  divested  of  every  trace 
of  shapeliness  and  adornment — compassed  their  words  and  manners  with  ridi- 
culous formality ;  their  hair  was  lank,  their  visage  sunken,  and  their  eyes  turned 
upwards,  as  if  in  invocation  of  spiritual  succour.  But  they  were  above  all  dis- 
tinguished by  the  uncompromising  boldness  of  their  denunciations  against  the 
tyranny  of  rulers  in  high  places,  whether  temporal  or  spiritual.  Filled,  as 
they  believed,  with  the  Divine  afflatus,  they  feared  not  the  face  of  man ;  and 
if  they  refused  the  common  titles  of  respect  to  established  authority,  upon 
those  that  withstood  them  they  poured  forth  a  complete  vocabulary  of  abuse. 
Their  adversaries  were  "  dogs,  lizards,  scorpions,  tinkers,  firebrands,  and  Ju- 
dases."  Nothing  could  surpass  their  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  their  tenets. 
"  The  apostles  of  the  New  Light,  ploughmen  and  milkmaids,"  says  Bancroft, 
"  becoming  itinerant  preachers,  sounded  the  alarm  through  the  world,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  consciences  of  Puritans  and  Cavaliers,  of  the  Pope  and  the  Grand 
Turk,  of  the  negro  and  the  savage.  Their  apostles  made  their  way  to  Pome  and 
Jerusalem,  to  New  England  and  Egypt,  and  some  were  even  moved  to  go  to- 
wards China  and  Japan,  and  in  search  of  the  unknown  realms  of  Prester  John." 

Boston  had  already  obtained  in  England  the  reputation  of  being  the  head- 
quarters of  intolerance,  and  thither,  of  course,  some  of  the  more  zealous  were 
not  long  in  finding  their  way.  Their  evil  report  had  preceded  them,  and  they 
are  described  as  "  a  cursed  set  of  heretics  lately  risen  in  the  world."  Their 
principles,  which  struck  at  the  very  root  of  the  theocracy,  and  the  fierce  en- 
thusiasm with  which  they  propagated  them,  were  far  more  to  be  dreaded  than 
the  errors  of  Antinomians  or  Anabaptists.  The  first  that  came  over  in  July, 
1656,  were  two  women,  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann  Austin.  Popular  superstition 
invested  them  with  Satanic  attributes,  and  their  persons  were  examined  for 
the  marks  of  witchcraft.  They  were  shortly  afterwards  imprisoned  and  sent 
away,  on  which  Mary  Fisher  repaired  to  Constantinople,  where  the  Turks, 
who  venerate  the  insane  as  being  under  the  especial  protection  of  God, 
listened  with  respect  to  her  unintelligible  ravings. 

Heavy  fines  were  now  enacted  against  any  who  should  introduce  Quakers 
into  the  colony,  or  circulate  the  tracts  in  which  they  disseminated  their 
opinions.  Those  who  defended  the  opinions  of  the  sectaries  or  gave  them 
harbour  were  severely  fined,  and,  on  persisting,  banished.  Whipping  was 
the  mildest  punishment  awarded  to  a  Quaker,  and  this  discipline  was  inflicted 


102  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

<: "  Arp-  upon  males  and  females  indiscriminately.  On  the  first  conviction  they  were  to 
— — — —  lose  one  ear,  on  a  second  the  other  one,  and,  although  the  law  proscribed  tor- 
'  ture,  on  the  third  were  to  have  their  tongues  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron — 
extreme  penalties,  which  were  indeed  rather  intended  to  frighten  away  those 
who  persisted  in  returning  over  again,  in  the  face  of  the  severest  prohibitions. 
But  their  zeal  amounted  almost  to  insanity;  they  insulted  and  defied  the 
magistrates — disturbed  the  public  worship  with  contemptuous  clamour — nay, 
instances  afterwards  occurred  in  which  women,  to  testify  after  prophetic 
fashion  against  the  spiritual  nakedness  of  the  land,  and  regarding  the  violence 
thus  done  to  their  natural  modesty  as  "  a  cross  "  which  it  behoved  them  to 
bear,  displayed  themselves  without  a  particle  of  clothing  in  the  public  streets. 
The  obstinacy  of  the  Quakers  was  not  to  be  repressed  by  any  ordinary  se- 
verities. Many  of  them  had  repaired  to  Rhode  Island,  where  the  free  toleration 
afforded  to  all  sects  indiscriminately,  allowed  them  to  propagate  their  tenets 
undisturbed.  These,  however,  few  appeared  inclined  to  embrace,  and  above 
all — they  were  not  persecuted.  Their  zeal  was  of  that  sort  that  loves  to  be 
sharpened  by  opposition,  and  rushes  upon  martyrdom  with  intense  delight. 
To  Boston  therefore  they  were  attracted,  like  the  moth  to  the  candle,  by  a 
sort  of  fatal  fascination.  It  was  war  to  the  knife  between  ecclesiastical  bigotry 
and  insane  fanaticism.  The  Puritans,  to  do  them  justice,  sought  to  decline 
the  conflict,  but  it  was  forced  upon  them.  They  did  not  desire  to  injure  the 
Quakers,  but  they  were  determined  to  maintain  their  principles.  Hitherto  all 
had  been  in  vain,  fines,  whippings,  and  imprisonments,  and  now,  by  a  decree 
of  the  council,  as  a  last  resource,  though  not  without  the  strenuous  resistance 
of  a  portion  of  the  deputies,  banishment  was  enforced  on  pain  of  death. 
But  that  indomitable  sect  gloried  in  the  opportunity  of  suffering  martyrdom. 
Robinson,  Stephenson,  and  Mary  Dyer,  persisting  in  braving  the  penalty 
denounced  against  them,  were  tried  and  condemned.  The  governor,  Win- 
throp,  earnestly  sought  to  prevent  their  execution,  and  Colonel  Temple  offered 
to  carry  them  away,  and,  if  they  returned,  fetch  them  off  a  second  time.  There 
was  a  struggle  among  the  council,  many  regarding  them  as  mere  lunatics, 
against  whom  it  would  be  as  foolish  as  cruel  to  proceed  to  extremities ;  but 
the  majority  prevailed,  and  Stephenson  and  Robinson  were  brought  to  the 
scaffold.  "  I  die  for  Christ;5'  said  Robinson.  "  We  suffer  not  as  evil-doers,  but 
for  conscience'  sake,"  said  Stephenson.  Mary  Dyer,  with  the  rope  round  her 
r.eck,  after  witnessing  the  execution  of  her  two  companions,  exclaimed,  "  Let 
me  suffer  as  my  brethren,  unless  you  will  annul  your  wicked  law."  At 
the  intercession  of  her  son,  she  was  almost  forced  from  the  scaffold,  on  con- 
dition of  leaving  the  colony  in  eight  and  forty  hours,  but  the  spirit  of  the 
wretched  woman  was  excited  almost  to  insanity  by  inward  enthusiasm  and 
the  horrible  scenes  she  had  witnessed,  and  after  the  trial  she  addressed  from 
her  prison  an  energetic  remonstrance  against  the  cruelty  of  the  council. 
"  Woe  is  me  for  you !  ye  are  disobedient  and  deceived,"  she  urged  to  the 
magistrates  who  had  condemned  her.  ""You  will  not  repent  that  you  were 
kept  from  shedding  blood,  though  it  was  by  a  woman."    With  a  courage  that 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  103 

would  bs  sublime  were  it  not  tinctured  with  insanity,  forced  by  an  irresistible  c$Ap- 
impulse,  she  returned  to  defy  the  tyrants  of  "  the  bloody  town,"  and  to  seal  — — — 
her  testimony  against  them  with  her  life.     She  was  taken  and  hanged  upon 
Boston  Common. 

These  fearful  scenes  excited  a  growing  spirit  of  discontent.  Disgust  at  the 
folly  and  frenzy  of  these  enthusiasts  was  forgotten  in  the  commiseration  excited 
by  their  sufferings.  The  magistrates,  before  the  last  execution,  had  been  com- 
pelled to  put  forth  a  formal  apology  for  their  proceedings.  "  Although,"  they 
urge,  "  the  justice  of  our  proceedings  against  William  Robinson,  Marmaduke 
Stephenson,  and  Mary  Dyer,  supported  by  the  authority  of  this  court,  the  laws 
of  the  country,  and  the  law  of  God,  may  rather  persuade  us  to  expect  encourage- 
ment and  commendation  from  all  prudent  and  pious  men  than  convince  us  of 
any  necessity  to  apologize  for  the  same  :  yet,  forasmuch  as  men  of  weaker  parts, 
out  of  pity  and  commiseration,  (a  commendable  and  Christian  virtue,  yet 
easily  abused,  and  susceptible  of  sinister  and  dangerous  impressions,)  for 
want  of  full  information,  may  be  less  satisfied,  and  men  of  perverser  principles 
may  take  occasion  hereby  to  calumniate  us  and  render  us  bloody  persecutors, — 
to  satisfy  the  one  and  stop  the  mouths  of  the  other,  we  thought  it  requisite  to 
declare,  That,  about  three  years  since,  divers  persons,  professing  themselves 
Quakers,  (of  whose  pernicious  opinions  and  practices  we  had  received  intelli- 
gence from  good  hands,  both  from  Barbadoes  and  England,)  arrived  at  Bos- 
ton, whose  persons  were  only  secured  to  be  sent  away  by  the  first  opportunity, 
without  censure  or  punishment.  Although  their  professed  tenets,  turbulent 
and  contemptuous  behaviour  to  authority,  would  have  justified  a  severer 
animadversion,  yet  the  prudence  of  this  court  was  exercised  only  to  make 
provision  to  secure  the  peace  and  order  here  established  against  their  attempts, 
whose  design  (we  were  well  assured  of  by  our  own  experience,  as  well  as  by 
the  example  of  their  predecessors  in  Munster)  was  to  undermine  and  ruin  the 
same.  And  accordingly,  a  law  was  made  and  published,  prohibiting  all 
masters  of  ships  to  bring  any  Quakers  into  this  jurisdiction,  and  themselves 
from  coming  in,  on  penalty  of  the  house  of  correction  until  they  should  be 
sent  away.  Notwithstanding  which,  by  a  back  door,  they  found  entrance, 
and  the  penalty  inflicted  upon  themselves,  proving  insufficient  to  restrain 
their  impudent  and  insolent  intrusions,  was  increased  by  the  loss  of  the  ears  of 
those  that  offended  the  second  time ;  which  also  being  too  weak  a  defence 
against  their  impetuous  fanatic  fury,  necessitated  us  to  endeavour  our  se- 
curity; and  upon  serious  consideration,  after  the  former  experiment,  by  their 
incessant  assaults,  a  law  was  made,  that  such  persons  should  be  banished  on 
pain  of  death,  according  to  the  example  of  England  in  their  provision  against 
Jesuits,  which  sentence  being  regularly  pronounced  at  the  last  court  of  assist- 
ants against  the  parties  above-named,  and  they  either  returning  or  continuing 
presumptuously  in  this  jurisdiction  after  the  time  limited,  were  apprehended, 
and  owning  themselves  to  be  the  persons  banished,  were  sentenced  by  the 
court  to  death,  according  to  the  law  aforesaid,  which  hath  been  executed  upon 
two  of  them.     Mary  Dyer,  upon  the  petition  of  her  son,  and  the  mercy  and 


104  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  clemency  of  this  court,  had  liberty  to  depart  Avithin  two  days,  which  she  hath 

—  accepted  of.     The  consideration  of  our  gradual  proceedings  will  vindicate  us 

'  from  the  clamorous  accusations  of  severity;  our  own  just  and  necessary  de- 
fence calling  upon  us  (other  means  failing)  to  offer  the  point  which  these 
persons  have  violently  and  wilfully  rushed  upon,  and  thereby  become  felones 
de  se,  which  might  have  been  prevented,  and  the  sovereign  law,  salus  populi, 
been  preserved.  Our  former  proceedings,  as  Avell  as  the  sparing  of  Mary 
Dyer  upon  an  inconsiderable  intercession,  will  manifestly  evince  we  desire 
their  lives,  absent,  rather  than  their  deaths,  present."  But  the  magistrates 
having  now  dipped  their  hands  in  blood,  and  boldly  maintained  the  justice 
of  so  doing,  consistency  required  that  they  should  persist  in  the  same 
fatal  course.  William  Leddra  was  put  to  trial  and  sentenced,  but  was  offered 
pardon  on  condition  of  departing  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  colony.  He  re- 
fused, and  was  executed;  but  he  was  the  last  victim  sacrificed.  For  the 
desperate  expedient,  which  had  brought  so  much  odium  upon  the  magistrates, 
was  all  in  vain,  and  they  were  terrified,  moreover,  by  the  threat  of  an  appeal  to 
England.  During  the  trial  of  Leddra,  Wenlock  Christison,  who  had  also  been 
banished,  returned,  entered  the  court,  and  being  put  on  his  defence,  hurled 
defiance  into  the  teeth  of  his  judges.  "  By  what  law,"  he  demanded,  "  will  ye 
put  me  to  death?"  "We have  alaw,"  it  was  answered,  "  and  by  it  you  are  to 
die."  "  So  said  the  Jews  to  Christ.  But  who  empowered  you  to  make  that 
law?"  "We  have  a  patent,  and  we  make  our  own  laws."  "Can  you  make 
laws  repugnant  to  those  of  England?"  "No."  "Then  you  are  gone  be- 
yond your  bounds.  Your  heart  is  as  rotten  towards  the  king  as  towards 
God.  I  demand  to  be  tried  by  the  laws  of  England,  and  there  is  no  law 
there  to  hang  Quakers."  "  The  English  banish  Jesuits  on  pain  of  death ; 
and  with  equal  justice  we  may  banish  Quakers."  The  jury  returned  a  ver- 
dict of  guilty.  Wenlock  replied,  "  I  deny  all  guilt ;  my  conscience  is  clear 
before  God."  The  magistrates  were  divided  in  pronouncing  sentence ;  the 
vote  was  put  a  second  time,  and  there  appeared  a  majority  for  the  doom  of 
death.  "  What  do  you  gain,"  cried  Christison,  "  by  taking  Quakers'  lives  ? 
For  the  last  man  that  ye  put  to  death,  here  are  five  come  in  his  room.  If  ye 
have  power  to  take  my  life,  God  can  raise  up  ten  of  his  servants  in  my 
stead." 

The  people,  too,  gave  unequivocal  signs  of  sympathy  with  the  sufferers.  The 
scandal  would  go  forth  to  all  Christendom.  The  magistrates  felt  that  they 
had  gone  too  far,  and  we  may  reasonably  believe  that  they  were  glad  to  re- 
trace their  steps.  Accordingly  they  discharged  such  Quakers  as  were  in  con- 
finement, and  contented  themselves  with  ordering  all  who  returned  to  be 
whipped  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  jurisdiction,  over  and  over  again,  until 
they  desisted  from  their  obstinate  infatuation. 

Whilst  a  religious  corporation  were  thus  earnestly  striving  to  maintain  an 
exclusive  orthodoxy,  a  design  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  was  originated 
by  the  benevolence  of  a  single  individual.  John  Elliot,  the  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Roxbury  near  Boston,  being  animated  with  zeal  for  the  temporal  and 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  105 

spiritual  improvement  of  the  savages,  undertook  the  task  of  learning  their   chap. 

language,  into  which  he  was  at  length  enabled  to  translate  the  Bible.     The ~ 

objects  of  his  labours  were  looked  upon  but  coldly  by  the  Puritans.  With 
their  constant  reference  of  every  thing  to  the  canons  and  circumstances  of  the 
Old  Testament,  they  beheld  in  the  Indians  the  counterpart  of  the  idolatrous 
heathen,  whose  inheritance  was  to  be  given  into  the  hands  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  while,  according  to  their  harsh  theological  opinions,  these  children  of  un- 
regenerated  nature  were  reprobate  and  accursed  of  God.  They  were  also  de- 
spised for  their  helplessness  and  ignorance,  secretly  hated,  and  feared,  perhaps, 
as  the  original  tenants  of  the  soil,  to  which  they  might  yet  arise  and  assert  their 
claim.  Compassion  however  was,  by  many,  largely  mingled  with  this  bitter  and 
contemptuous  estimate,  since  God  might  have  chosen  some  of  these  despised 
ones,  in  the  exercise  of  his  inscrutable  sovereignty,  as  coheirs  of  salvation  with 
their  superior  brethren.  This  feeling  was  predominant  in  the  mind  of  the  bene- 
volent Elliot.  He  began  his  labours  in  1645,  among  the  tribes  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Massachusetts  Bay.  His  simplicity  and  kindness  of  heart  won 
greatly  upon  the  affections  of  the  Indians,  and  their  regard  for  the  pastor  was 
extended  to  the  system  which  he  propounded,  even,  perhaps,  when  it  was 
but  partially  apprehended  by  them.  When  he  assembled  his  Indian  congre- 
gation, after  getting  one  of  the  magistrates  to  offer  up  in  English  a  prayer  for 
Divine  help,  he  would  preach  in  a  simple  style  to  the  Indians,  encourage  them 
to  propose  questions  on  what  they  had  heard,  and  catechise  the  children,  re- 
warding their  diligence  with  presents  of  apple  and  cake.  His  tact  was  dis- 
played in  simplifying  to  their  obtuse  apprehensions  the  knotty  doctrines  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly,  until  the  children  were  at  length  able  to  answer,  if 
they  could  not  understand,  all  the  questions  it  contained,  in  their  own  language. 
Although  the  Puritans,  it  is  true,  obtained  far  less  influence  over  the  minds 
of  the  Indians  than  the  Roman  Catholics,  who  sought  for  external  conformity 
rather  than  inward  conviction,  who  addressed  the  senses  rather  than  the  in- 
tellect ;  under  the  influence  of  the  "  Apostle  of  the  Indians,"  the  number 
of  converts  multiplied  so  rapidly  as  to  excite  attention,  and  Winslow,  then 
in  London,  as  political  agent,  formed  a  society  in  that  country  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  amongst  the  Indians,  which  received  a  charter  from  the 
government,  and  appears  to  have  been  warmly  supported  by  the  pious  in  Eng- 
land. A  considerable  sum  was  remitted,  churches  were  founded,  and  several 
native  teachers  received  salaries,  while  other  Puritan  ministers,  following  the 
example  of  Elliot,  also  acquired  the^  language  of  the  Indians,  and  extended 
their  labours  on  every  side.  Anxious  to  withdraw  his  converts  from  their  un- 
settled mode  of  life,  Elliot  endeavoured  to  engage  them  in  the  pursuits  of  re- 
gular industry,  and  drew  up  for  them  a  popular  form  of  government.  Good 
books  were  translated  for  their  benefit,  and  a  sort  of  Indian  college  estab- 
lished. No  great  or  lasting  impression  was  effected  by  these  benevolent 
labours.  The  Indian  Sachems  and  their  priests  looked  with  an  evil  eye  upon 
the  proceedings,  and  the  habits  of  savage  life  were  not  to  be  easily  eradicated. 
Between  the  pharisaic  Puritan  and  the  despised  Indian  there  was  also  a  great 


106  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

crap,  gulf,  which  the  former  would  not,  and  the  latter  could  not  pass.     But  if  the 

_  project  was  in  the  end  all  but  abortive,  this  should  not  detract  from  the  glory 

to  l'ceo.  of  the  benevolent  Elliot,  who  is  worthy  to  take  his  place  by  the  side  of  Las 
Casas  and  of  Schwartz,  and  especially  of  Oberlin  and  of  NefF,  who  sought  to 
raise  the  objects  of  their  laborious  sympathy  from  the  depths  of  temporal,  as 
well  as  of  spiritual  destitution.  "  It  is  a  remarkable  feature,"  says  Grahame, 
"  in  Elliot's  long  and  arduous  career,  that  the  energy  by  which  he  was 
actuated  never  sustained  the  slightest  abatement,  but,  on  the  contrary,  evinced 
a  steady  and  vigorous  increase.  As  his  bodily  strength  decayed,  the  energy 
of  his  being  seemed  to  retreat  into  his  soul,  and  at  length,  all  his  faculties  (he 
said)  seemed  absorbed  in  holy  love.  Being  asked,  shortly  before  his  de- 
parture, how  he  did,  he  replied,  c  I  have  lost  every  thing ;  my  understanding 
leaves  me,  my  memory  fails  me,  my  utterance  fails  me — but  I  thank  God,  my 
charity  holds  out  still,  I  find  that  rather  grows  than  fails.' "  This  admirable 
man  died  in  1690,  full  of  years  and  honours. 

During  the  establishment  of  the  commonwealth  in  England,  the  colony, 
untroubled  by  its  interference,  enjoyed  a  steady  prosperity.  The  successes 
of  Cromwell  were  regarded  with  enthusiasm,  the  prayers  of  the  Puritans  were 
offered  up  for  him,  and  he  received  the  warmest  expressions  of  their  regard. 
In  return  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  well-being  of  their  little  state,  to 
which,  it  is  popularly  believed,  though  not  on  adequate  foundation,  he  had 
been  at  one  time  about  to  retire  from  persecution  in  England.  With  the  vigour 
that  characterized  his  foreign  policy,  the  Protector  had  wrested  Acadie  from 
the  French,  and  Jamaica  from  the  Spaniards,  and  Winslow  went  out  from  Lon- 
don as  one  of  the  commissioners  for  the  conquered  countries,  but  died  soon 
after  his  arrival.  Cromwell  had  already  offered  to  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land the  lands  confiscated  in  his  recent  war  in  Ireland ;  he  now  desired  that 
a  large  body  of  them  should  settle  in  Jamaica,  and  plant  the  institutions  and 
religion  of  England  as  a  strong-hold  in  the  midst  of  Catholics  and  Spaniards. 
Few  availed  themselves  of  his  proposal,  the  majority  being  too  well  satisfied 
with  the  blessings  of  their  actual  condition,  to  desire  a  removal  to  a  more  daz- 
zling but  uncertain  scene  of  enterprise. 

Whatsoever  faults  may  be  found  with  the  exclusiveness  and  intolerance  of 
the  fathers  of  Massachusetts,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  under  their  administra- 
tion, firm  even  to  sternness  as  it  was,  the  colony  had  made  far  more  rapid 
progress  than  any  other  in  America.  Industry  was  encouraged,  nay,  en- 
forced ;  if  any  one  would  not  work,  neither  could  he  eat ;  mendicancy  was  a 
thing  unknown,  and  thrift,  self-denial,  and  enterprise  soon  distinguished 
the  New  Englander  as  much  as  his  seriousness  of  deportment.  The  nature 
and  climate  of  the  country  favoured  the  development  of  a  hardy,  self-re- 
lying character.  Except  in  a  few  favoured  spots,  the  soil  was  not  rich,  and 
required  hard  labour  to  subdue  and  render  it  productive.  The  fisheries  off 
the  coasts  bred  up  a  race  of  intrepid  seamen,  who  were  not  long  in  extending 
the  sphere  of  their  enterprise  to  distant  shores,  the  sea-ports  grew  rapidly, 
ship-building  was  soon  extensively  practised,  and  the  Massachusetts  mer- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  107 

chantmen  visited  Madeira  and   Spain.      At  first  the  inhabitants  had  been   chap. 

obliged  to  import  corn  for  their  sustenance,  they  now  sent  cargoes  even  to f— 

England.  Almost  all  the  trades  had  taken  firm  root  in  the  land;  saw-mills  toieso. 
were  established  on  the  beautiful  New  England  brooks,  and  a  traffic  in  lumber 
and  shoes,  still  characteristic  staples,  had  been  established.  In  1639,  the  ma- 
nufacture of  cloth  was  introduced,  by  a  colony  from  Yorkshire,  led  by  their 
pastor,  Ezekiel  Rogers  ;  and  in  1643,  iron-works  were  founded  by  a  body  of 
workmen  brought  over  from  England  by  the  younger  Winthrop. 

If  we  look  to  the  progress  of  the  towns,  we  find  that  the  rude  log-houses  of 
the  first  settlers  had  been  long  replaced  by  a  superior  class  of  habitations. 
The  beautiful  villages  with  their  frame-houses  and  verandahs,  and  groups 
of  weeping  elms,  were  even  then  admired.  Boston,  as  the  head-quarters  of 
government  and  commerce,  had  in  the  course  of  twenty  years  surprisingly 
increased.  Among  a  numerous  body  of  other  foreign  vessels,  the  French,  Por- 
tuguese, and  Dutch  were  to  be  seen  in  its  harbour.  The  base  of  the  hilly 
peninsula  on  which  it  is  built  was  of  course  the  principal  seat  of  traffic ;  here 
thickly  crowded  buildings  and  wharves  were  "  fairly  set  out  with  brick,  tile, 
stone,  and  slate,"  and  the  continual  enlargement  of  the  "  comely  street,  presaged 
some  sumptuous  city."  "  At  the  head  of  King  Street,"  says  a  traveller  of  the 
period,  "  now  State  Street,  was  the  old  Town-house,  built  in  1660.  It  stood 
upon  pillars,  serving  as  an  arcade  for  the  merchants.  The  monthly  courts 
were  held  in  the  chambers  above,  and  here  the  governor  resided.  The 
general  style  of  the  architecture,  if  we  may  judge  from  some  houses  near 
Faneuil  Hall,  bearing  the  date  1630,  was  the  exact  counterpart  of  that  which 
formerly  distinguished  an  English  country  town,  with  picturesque  pointed 
gables,  overhanging  stories,  huge  chimneys,  and  projecting  oriel  windows. 
Some  of  the  houses  stood  embowered  in  gardens  and  orchards."  "  South  of 
the  Town-house  was,"  says  John  Josselyn,  Gent.,  who  visited  the  colonies 
in  1663,  "  a  small  but  pleasant  common."  This  was  probably  the  scene  of  the 
execution  of  the  Quakers,  and  here  "  the  gallants,  a  little  before  sun-set,  walk 
with  their  marmalet  madams,  as  we  do  in  Moorfields,  till  the  nine  o'clock  bell 
rings  them  home  to  their  respective  habitations,  when  presently  the  constables 
walk  the  rounds  to  see  good  order  kept,  and  to  take  up  loose  people." 

The  regimen  of  the  good  fathers  of  the  Commonwealth  was  indeed  more  than 
ordinarily  severe.  They  had  fled  as  much  from  the  licence  as  from  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Episcopalians,  as  much  from  "  the  Book  of  Sports  "  as  from  the  prison 
or  the  pillory.  On  their  emigration  to  New  England,  they  had  been  above 
all  things  desirous  to  avoid  the  influx  of  "  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort," 
before  they  could  establish  a  model  commonwealth,  from  which  every  in- 
dulgence that  savoured  of  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the 
pride  of  life"  should  be  sedulously  excluded.  What  Macaulay  says  of  the 
Puritans  in  general,  will  apply,  with  little  exception,  to  the  founders  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. "  Morals  and  manners  were  subjected  to  a  code  resembling  that  of 
the  synagogue,  when  the  synagogue  was  in  its  worst  state.  The  dress,  the 
deportment,  the  language,  the  studies,  the  amusements  of  the  rigid  sect  wei  e 

p  2 


108  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  regulated  on  principles  resembling  those  of  the  Pharisees,  who,  proud  of  their 
— '■—  washed  hands  and  broad  phylacteries,  taunted  the  Redeemer  as  a  sabbath- 

to  i6so.  breaker  and  a  wine-bibber.  It  was  a  sin  to  hang  garlands  on  a  Maypole,  to 
fly  a  hawk,  to  hunt  a  stag,  to  play  at  chess,  to  drink  a  friend's  health,  to  ivear 
love-locks,  (against  which  customs  enactments  were  levied,)  to  put  starch  upon 
a  ruff,  to  touch  the  virginals,  to  read  the  e  Fairy  Queen.'  The  Puritan  was 
at  once  known  from  other  men  by  his  gait,  his  garb,  his  lank  hair,  the  sour 
solemnity  of  his  face,  the  upturned  white  of  his  eyes,  the  nasal  twang  with 
which  he  spoke,  and  above  all,  by  his  peculiar  dialect.  He  employed  on 
every  occasion  the  imagery  and  style  of  Scripture.  Hebraisms  violently  in- 
troduced into  the  English  language,  and  metaphors  borrowed  from  the  bold- 
est lyric  poetry  of  a  remote  age  and  country,  and  applied  to  the  common  con- 
cerns of  life,  were  the  most  striking  peculiarities  of  this  cant,  which  moved, 
not  without  cause,  the  derision  both  of  prelatists  and  libertines." 

Such  were  the  figures,  and  such  was  the  phraseology  which  might  have 
been  seen  and  heard  in  Boston  two  centuries  ago,  in  the  meeting-house  and 
the  court  of  magistrates,  in  the  public  assembly  and  the  private  family,  in  the 
intercourse  of  business,  or  the  labours  of  the  field,  on  the  deck  of  the  mer- 
chantman, and  in  the  ranks  of  the  militia.  But  he  must  have  been  a  bold  man 
who  should  have  ventured  to  smile  at  it.  Beyond  the  pale  of  church  member- 
ship there  was  indeed  a  "  mixed  multitude,"  who  claimed  and  enjoyed  a  certain 
latitude.  The  attempt  of  the  magistrates  to  introduce  sumptuary  regulations 
had  been  in  vain,  female  vanity  would  break  through  the  trammels  imposed 
upon  it ;  "  superfluous  ribbons,"  and  "  strange  new  fashions,"  vexed  the  right- 
eous souls  of  the  fathers  of  the  theocracy,  even  "  divers  of  the  elders'  wives," 
it  seems,  being  "  partners  in  this  disorder."  In  spite,  too,  of  all  restric- 
tions, there  were  those,  to  quote  the  language  of  a  traveller  of  the  period, 
u  who  treated  the  fair  sex  with  so  much  courtship  and  address,  as  if  loving 
had  been  all  their  trade."  But  the  Puritan  legislators  frowned  upon  every 
thing  that  tended  to  laxity  of  manners,  they  sternly  watched  over  the  morals  of 
the  community ;  wisely  considering  prevention  as  better  than  cure,  they  coun- 
tenanced early  unions ;  and  although  courtship  carried  on  without  the  per- 
mission of  the  girl's  parents,  or  of  "  the  next  magistrate,"  was  punishable  with 
imprisonment,  the  magistrates  might  redress  "  wilful  and  unreasonable  denial 
of  timely  marriage "  on  the  part  of  parents.  Adultery  was  a  capital  offence, 
and  incontinence  was  punished  with  a  severe  discipline.  Underhill,  who, 
uniting,  as  he  did,  the  gallantry  of  the  soldier  with  his  proverbial  love  of 
licence,  and  of  "  bravery  of  apparel,"  having  been  accused  of  a  backsliding  of 
this  nature,  was  summoned  into  the  presence  of  the  magistrates;  and  then, 
"  after  sermon,  in  presence  of  the  congregation,  standing  on  a  form,  and  in 
his  worst  clothes,  without  his  band  and  in  a  dirty  night  cap,  confessed  the  sin 
with  which  he  had  been  charged ;"  and  "  while  his  blubberings  interrupted 
him,"  says  Winthrop,  dolefully  lamented  the  loss  of  his  "  assurance,"  which 
had  been  graciously  vouchsafed  while  enjoying  a  pipe  of  tobacco.  Such  was 
the  godly  discipline  under  which  succumbed  even  the  martial  spirits  which 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  109 

had  borne  the  brant  of  many  a  desperate  struggle  against  the  fierce  and  wily  c**I£rp- 
aborigines.  Failings  like  these,  however,  were  by  no  means  frequent  among 
the  pious  "  men  of  war  "  of  Massachusetts.  They  believed  "  that  he  who  ruleth  to  l'eeo. 
his  own  spirit  is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a  city,"  and  to  the  most  fervid 
fanaticism  they  united  the  sternest  self-control.  The  whole  population  were 
trained  as  militia,  and  formed  twenty-six  companies  of  foot  and  a  regiment  of 
horse,  but  the  officers  were  all  required  to  be  "  specially  endued  with  faith." 
They  were  well  armed  and  perfectly  disciplined,  and  when  "  the  Lord  called 
them  to  war,"  a  call  they  were  always  ready  enough  to  obey,  displayed  the 
most  enthusiastic  courage.  The  forts,  two  in  the  town  and  suburbs,  and  one 
commanding  the  entrance  of  the  harbour,  were  well  supplied  with  artillery 
and  carefully  garrisoned.  "  The  God  of  armies,"  exclaims  the  pious  Johnson, 
"  was  over  us  for  a  refuge.     Selah." 

The  standard  of  comfort  appears  to  have  been  unusually  high.  Those  who 
had  come  over  with  nothing  but  their  axe  in  their  hand,  were  soon  in  posses- 
sion of  comfortable  dwellings  and  gardens,  and  many  had  saved  considerable 
sums.  "  Good  white  and  wheaten  bread,"  says  Johnson,  "  is  no  dainty,  but 
every  ordinary  man  hath  his  choice,  if  gay  clothing  and  liquorish  taste  after 
sack,  sugar,  and  plums  lick  not  away  his  bread  too  fast.  Flesh  is  now  no  rare 
food,  beef,  pork,  and  mutton  being  frequent  in  many  houses;  so  that  this  poor 
wilderness  hath  not  only  equalized  England  in  food,  but  goes  beyond  in  some 
places :"  an  assertion  fully  borne  out  by  Macaulay,  who  tells  us  that  in 
England,  at  this  period,  fresh  meat  was  not  commonly  in  use  even  in  the 
houses  of  the  country  squires,  and  unknown  among  the  peasantry. 

In  one  particular,  and  one  only,  the  Puritans  seem  to  have  been  less  rigid 
than  their  descendants.  They  had  brought»over  from  Old  England  the  taste 
for  beer,  the  want  of  which  was  often  felt  as  a  privation.  But  they  were 
now  getting  accustomed  to  more  generous  liquors,  the  wines  of  Spain  and 
Madeira  were  cheap  and  abundant,  and  were  found  wholesome  in  counter- 
acting the  cold  fogs  and  cutting  winds  of  the  climate.  In  the  use  of  these 
"creature  comforts"  they  were  satisfied  with  observing 


"  The  rule  of  not  too  much,  by  temperance  taught." 

The  doctrine  of  "  teetotalism  "  was  unknown  among  them. 

The  fathers  of  the  New  England  commonwealth  were  sincerely  anxious 
for  the  promotion  of  sound  learning.  Many  of  them  had  enjoyed  a  university 
education  in  England,  and  were  men  of  considerable  acquirements.  Their 
literary  taste  was  of  course  in  accordance  with  their  religious  views.  "We  find 
Josselyn  carrying  with  him  from  England  to  "Mr.  Cotton,  the  teacher  of 
Boston  Church,"  the  same  who  defended  the  cause  of  Massachusetts  intoler- 
ance against  the  attacks  of  Roger  Williams,  "  the  translation  of  several  Psalms 
in  English  metre  for  his  approbation,  as  a  present  from  Mr.  Francis  Quarles, 
the  poet."  In  Boston,  now  justly  considered  the  Athens  of  America,  and 
the  seat  of  the  most  enlarged  and  liberal  mental  culture,  the  abode  of  poets, 
historians,  philosophers,  and  painters,  controversial  divinity  was  at  that  time 


110 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


chap,  the  only  literature  cultivated.     The  Quakers  had  declared  that  "philosophy 
and  logic  are  of  the  devil/'  while  other  sectarians  gloried  in  their  emancipation 


to  :66o.  from  the  restraints  of  human  learning.  To  check  this  presumptuous  ignorance, 
from  the  ebullitions  of  which  they  had  suffered  so  much,  the  council  deter- 
mined on  every  where  establishing  free-schools  and  grammar-schools,  from 
which  some  youths  were  to  be  sent  to  the  university,  where  their  minds 
would  of  course  receive  like  wax  the  impress  of  that  system  of  instruction 
most  wisely  provided  for  their  reception.  A  college  had  been  established  for 
this  species  of  training  at  Newtown,  a  suburb  of  Boston,  which  John  Harvard, 
a  worthy  minister,  who  died  shortly  after  his  arrival,  endowed  with  his 
library,  and  half  his  estate.  It  was  now  erected  into  a  college  bearing  the 
name  of  its  benefactor,  and  the  village  where  it  stood  received  the  name  of 
Cambridge,  after  that  English  university  where  many  of  the  Massachusetts 
ministers  had  received  their  education.  Other  individuals  also  contributed 
large  donations,  and  some  assistance  was  received  from  the  other  colonies, 
to  which  were  added  the  proceeds  of  the  ferry  between  Boston  and  Charles- 
town.  To  Glover,  another  Nonconformist  minister,  who  died  on  his  passage 
from  England,  is  due  the  credit  of  causing  the  introduction  of  the  first" printing 
press  in  the  colony,  if  not  in  all  America.  He  contributed  largely  him- 
self, and  obtained  the  assistance  of  others  in  England  and  Holland.  This 
press  was  first  set  up  and  worked  at  Cambridge  by  Stephen  Day.  The 
"Freemen's  Oath,"  against  which  Roger  Williams  protested,  was  its  first 
production,  the  next  an  "  Almanack  for  New  England,  by  Mr.  William  Pierce, 
mariner,"  and  the  next  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  for  the  use  of  the 
New  England  congregations. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


TI12   ABORIGINAL   INDIANS. — THEIR  rilYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  CHARACTERISTICS,   CUSTOMS, 
MANNERS,   ANTIQUITIES,   AND   LANGUAGES. 


chap.   Having  now  traced  the  gradual  occupation  of  the  whole  coast  of  North 


IX. 


A.  D. 1650. 


America  by  the  colonies  of  the  white  man,  before  whom  the  aborigines, 
hitherto  subsisting  almost  undisturbed,  were  henceforth  destined  to  melt  so 
rapidly  away ;  it  may  be  well  to  pause  a  while  in  the  course  of  our  narrative, 
and  briefly  survey  their  original  condition,  before  we  pursue  any  further  the 
melancholy  chronicle  of  their  cruel  sufferings,  their  fierce  revenges,  their 
bootless,  although  often  heroic,  struggles  against  an  inevitable  fate.    The  story 


JX. 
A,r>.  u»eo. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  Ill 

of  the  Indians  is  the  poetry  of  North  America,  and  the  lingering  traces  of  chap. 
their  footsteps  affect  the  traveller  with  a  peculiar  interest.  There  is  some- 
thing mournful  in  this  fading  away  of  a  feeble  race  before  one  more  powerful 
and  gifted.  Of  the  tribes  that  roamed  at  will  over  the  forest-covered  con- 
tinent, some  are  wholly  extinct ;  others  are  cast  forth  beyond  the  boundaries 
or  subsist  uneasily  upon  the  outskirts  of  civilization,  receding  farther  and  far- 
ther into  the  wilderness  from  before  the  face  of  the  white  man,  with  the 
feeling  of  despondency  so  beautifully  embodied  by  the  poet — 

"  They  waste  us — ay,  like  April  snow 
In  the  warm  noon,  we  shrink  away ; 
And  fast  they  follow,  as  we  go 
Towards  the  setting  day ; — 
Till  they  shall  fill  the  land,  and  we 
Are  driven  into  the  western  sea." 

In  surveying  the  physical  and  mental  organization  of  the  tribes  extending 
over  such  an  immense  expanse  of  country,  its  remarkable  uniformity  first  at- 
tracts our  notice.  The  skin  of  the  North  American  Indians  is  of  a  reddish 
brown,  slightly  varying  in  shade,  according  to  the  locality ;  the  hair  black, 
lank,  and  straight,  with  little  or  no  beard ;  the  cheek-bones  high,  the  jaw-bone 
prominent,  and  the  forehead  narrow  and  sloping.  Their  figure,  untramineled 
in  every  movement,  is  lithe,  agile,  and  often  graceful,  but  they  are  inferior  in 
muscular  strength  to  the  European.  Their  intellectual  faculties  are  also  more 
limited,  and  their  moral  sensibilities  less  lively.  They  are  characterized  by 
an  inflexibility  of  organization,  which  appears  to  be  almost  incapable  of  re- 
ceiving foreign  ideas,  or  amalgamating  with  more  civilized  nations — a  people, 
in  short,  that  may  be  broken,  but  cannot  be  bent ;  and  this  peculiar  organiza- 
tion, together  with  the  state  of  nature  in  which  they  were  placed,  determined 
the  character  of  their  domestic  and  social  condition. 

The  dwellings  of  the  Indians  were  of  the  simplest  and  rudest  character. 
On  some  pleasant  spot  by  the  banks  of  a  river,  or  near  a  sweet  spring,  they 
raised  their  groups  of  wigwams,  constructed  of  the  bark  of  trees,  and  easily 
taken  down  and  removed  to  another  spot.  The  abodes  of  the  chiefs  were 
sometimes  more  spacious,  and  elaborately  constructed,  but  of  the  same  mate- 
rials. Their  villages  were  sometimes  surrounded  by  defensive  palisades. 
Skins,  taken  in  the  chase,  served  them  for  repose.  Though  principally  de- 
pendent upon  the  hunting  and  fishing,  its  uncertain  supply  had  led  them  to 
cultivate  around  their  dwellings  some  patches  of  Indian  corn,  but  their  exer- 
tions were  desultory,  and  they  were  often  exposed  to  the  pinch  of  famine. 
Every  family  did  every  thing  necessary  within  itself;  and  interchange  of 
commodities  was  almost  unknown  among  them. 

The  great  characteristic  of  the  savage  is  his  unwillingness  to  submit  to  any 
curtailment  of  his  freedom.  Necessity  and  instinct  dictated  the  institution 
of  marriage,  but  its  tie  was  but  loosely  held,  and  often  capriciously  broken. 
The  condition  of  women  was  degraded  and  miserable  ,  they  were  regarded  as 
an  inferior  race.  The  pride  of  the  savage,  satisfied  with  his  skill  in  the  cha.se, 


A  D. 1660. 


112  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  considered  domestic  drudgery  as  unworthy  of  him,  and  on  the  weaker  sex 
-—-  the  severe  and  continued  toil  of  attending  to  all  the  necessities  of  the  house- 
hold was  exclusively  devolved. 

The  communities  into  which  they  were  divided  were  very  imperfectly  or- 
ganized. Each  savage  conceded  as  little  as  possible  of  his  personal  liberty. 
There  was  no  system  of  government,  though  common  consent  had  con- 
secrated various  usages  as  authoritative.  The  chiefs  acquired  and  maintained 
their  ascendency  by  superior  valour,  energy,  and  wisdom.  They  were,  how- 
ever, sometimes  hereditary,  and  the  minor  tribes  were  united  into  wider  con- 
federacies under  some  general  head. 

The  life  of  the  savage  is  necessarily  filled  up  by  long  periods  of  listless  in- 
dolence and  mental  vacuity,  alternating  with  moments  of  wild  and  fierce  ex- 
citement. War  was  the  great  passion,  the  only  high  and  noble  pursuit,  the 
only  avenue  to  distinction,  in  which  the  Indian  found  scope  for  the  exercise  of 
his  faculties — for  the  most  undaunted  bravery,  the  keenest  subtlety,  and  the 
most  indefatigable  perseverance.  In  small  parties  the  warriors  would  follow 
upon  the  trail  of  an  enemy  for  weeks  through  the  tangled  intricacies  of  the 
forest,  hover  about  his  village,  pounce  upon  and  scalp  their  victims,  and  effect 
their  escape  with  these  trophies  of  their  skill  and  prowess  to  their  own 
wigwams,  where  they  were  received  with  the  distinction  due  to  a  successful 
"brave;"  their  feats  were  the  theme  of  rude  but  impressive  oratory,  and, 
according  to  the  number  of  similar  achievements,  was  the  meed  of  honour, 
and  the  consideration  in  which  they  were  held. 

To  inflict  and  to  bear  alike  the  severest  torture,  and  to  repress  every  ex- 
pression of  emotion  as  unworthy  of  his  dignity,  was  the  point  of  honour  in  the 
Indian's  code. 

"  As  monumental  bronze  unchanged  his  look, 

A  soul  that  pity  touch'd,  but  never  shook  ; 

Train'd  from  his  tree-rock'd  cradle  to  his  bier, 

The  fierce  extremes  of  good  and  ill  to  brook 

Impassive — fearing  but  the  shame  of  fear — 

A  stoic  of  the  woods — a  man  without  a  tear." 

The  captive  warrior,  after  being  paraded  in  triumph,  tied  to  the  stake,  and 
tortured  for  hours  with  all  the  refinements  of  cruelty,  would  defy  the  utmost 
efforts  of  his  enemies  to  shake  his  invincible  fortitude,  taunt  them  with  the 
success  of  his  former  exploits,  and  shout  forth  his  triumphant  death-song  in 
the  extremity  of  his  agonies.  Revenge,  finely  called  by  the  philosopher,  "  a 
sort  of  wild  justice,"  was  religion  to  the  savage,  and,  until  full  atonement  had 
been  made  for  the  blood  of  his  kindred,  he  deemed  that  a  solemn  duty  re- 
mained yet  unfulfilled. 

The  intervals  of  his  more  exciting  pursuits  the  Indian  filled  up  in  the  de- 
coration of  his  person  with  all  the  refinements  of  paint  and  feathers,  with  the 
manufacture  of  his  arms  —the  club,  and  the  bow  and  arrows,  and  of  canoes 
of  bark,  so  light,  that  they  could  easily  be  carried  on  the  shoulder  from 
stream  to  stream.  His  amusements  were  the  war-dance  and  song,  and  athletic 
games,  the  narration  of  his  exploits,  and  the  listening  to  the  oratory  of  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  113 

chiefs.     But,  during  long  periods  of  his  existence,  he  remained  in  a  state   chap. 

of  torpor,  gazing  listlessly  upon  the  dim  arcades  of  the  forests,  and  the " — 

clouds  that  sailed  over  the  tree-tops  far  above  his  head ;  and  this  vacancy- 
imprinted  an  habitual  gravity  and  even  melancholy  upon  his  aspect  and  de- 
meanour. 

The  undeveloped  faculties  of  the  savage,  ignorant  of  the  relations  of  things, 
cannot  form  the  idea  of  a  regular  system  of  causation  by  one  supreme  and 
benevolent  power  ;  but  what  reason  is  unable  to  demonstrate,  is  vaguely  di- 
vined by  instinct.  The  dread  of  evils  to  which  his  condition  exposes  him, 
the  awe  produced  by  the  more  striking  phenomena  of  the  elements,  first  rouse 
his  attention  towards  the  invisible  powers  of  nature.  Fear  is  his  earliest  re- 
ligion, and  its  rites,  often  cruel  and  bloody,  are  intended  to  propitiate  the  be- 
ings who  can  control  his  fate.  But  as  he  continues  to  ponder  upon  the  phe- 
nomena that  surround  him,  and  the  mysterious  movements  of  his  own  mind, 
he  forms  some  dim  conception  of  a  power  which  is  seen  not  only  in  the  whirl- 
wind and  the  earthquake,  but  stirs  in  the  rustling  leaf  and  the  flowing  stream,  in 
the  living  creatures  which  people  the  shades  of  the  forest,  and  in  the  passions 
and  emotions  of  his  own  breast.  This  is  their  Great  Spirit,  or  Manitou ;  and 
believing  that  every  thing  and  every  place  was  thus  pervaded,  and  rendered 
sacred,  the  Indians  treated  the  bones  of  the  animals  slain  by  them  with  a  certain 
reverence,  and  made  offerings  to  the  presiding  genius  of  particular  places.  They 
believed  that  every  man  had  his  guardian  spirit.  They  sought  for  amulets 
and  charms,  as  a  security  against  the  displeasure  of  the  unseen  being.  They 
put  faith  in  the  mysterious  teachings  of  dreams,  and  in  the  supernatural  powers 
of  the  Medicine  Man — half  enthusiast  and  half  impostor,  the  occasional  sue-  - 
cess  of  whose  incantations  and  contrivances,  with  some  rude  knowledge  of 
healing,  enabled  him  to  obtain  a  powerful  ascendency  over  their  credulous 
and  superstitious  minds. 

The  belief  in  immortality  was  distinct  and  consoling  to  the  Indian.  His 
paradise  was  coloured  by  his  favourite  pursuits  on  earth.  He  believed  that 
the  spirit,  of  the  departed  warrior  was  to  roam  through  a  delightful  country 
abounding  in  plenty  of  game,  and  to  amuse  himself  with  the  exercise  of  the 
chase ;  and  as  they  were  to  begin  their  career  anew,  their  weapons  and  gar- 
ments were  buried  with  them,  with  food  to  sustain  them  on  the  long  journey 
into  the  distant  land.  The  mother  would  envelope  her  dead  infant  in  its 
gayest  clothing,  and  lay  its  playthings  by  its  side,  that  it  might  resume  its 
amusements  in  that  far  region,  its  flight  to  which  she  followed  with  her  tears  ; 
and  sometimes,  on  the  decease  of  a  distinguished  Sachem,  some  of  his  de- 
pendants would  embrace  a  voluntary  death,  in  order  to  bear  him  company, 
and  to  render  him  accustomed  homage  in  the  world  of  spirits. 

The  antiquities  of  the  Indian  tribes  have  acquired,  within  the  last  half  cen- 
tury, an  immense  and  increasing  interest.  The  earlier  historians  of  the  con- 
tinent were  ignorant  or  incredulous  as  to  the  existence  of  any  such  mementos 
of  the  past,  although  the  chroniclers  who  followed  in  the  wake  of  Cortez  and 
other  corcverors,  had  described  them  in  the  most  glowing  terms.    At  length, 


A.  D. 1660 


111  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  by  the  researches  of  Humboldt  and  other  travellers  in  Mexico  and  Peru, 
especially  of  Stephens  and  Catherwood  in  Central  America,  it  has  been 
found,  that  those  portions  of  the  continent  abound  in  the  most  magni- 
ficent remains.  Immense  pyramidal  mounds  crowned  with  gorgeous  pa- 
laces, or  sacrificial  altars  adorned  with  elaborate  sculptures,  tablets  covered 
with  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  as  yet  undecipherable,  generally  rude,  but 
sometimes  elegant  in  idea  and  execution;  sculptures,  and  paintings,  and 
ornaments, — are  met  with  in  increasing  numbers  among  the  depths  of  the 
tropical  forests,  the  gorgeous  vegetation  of  which  invests  them,  as  it  were, 
with  a  funereal  shroud,  and  embraces  them  in  the  death-grasp  of  final  ob- 
literation. It  is  fortunate,  that  some  records  of  these  precious  memorials 
are  preserved  to  us  by  recent  explorers.  They  attest  the  former  existence 
of  a  race  which  had  attained  a  fixed  state  of  civilization,  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  with  a  religious  system,  of  which  terror 
appears  to  have  been  the  great  principle,  human  sacrifices  forming  its  con- 
spicuous feature ;  a  state  of  things  indeed  in  all  respects  identical  with  the 
condition  of  Mexico  at  the  period  of  its  invasion  by  Cortez,  when  some  of 
the  temples  were  doubtless  destroyed,  while  others  of  more  ancient  date  pro- 
bably were  at  that  period  already  fallen  into  ruin.  In  North  America,  during 
the  period  of  its  first  settlement,  which  was  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the 
seaboard,  no  discoveries  whatever  were  made ;  but  as  the  stream  of  emigra- 
tion, crossing  the  ridges  of  the  Alleghanies,  poured  down  upon  the  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Ohio,  and  the  dense  forests  and  boundless  prairies  of  the  west 
were  gradually  opened  and  explored,  another  and  very  interesting  class  of  an- 
tiquities began  to  be  disinterred  from  the  oblivion  of  centuries.  It  was  but 
slowly,  indeed,  as  the  forest  fell  beneath  the  axe  of  the  back-woodman,  that 
they  came  to  light ;  they  were  for  a  long  time  but  partially  uncovered,  or 
so  imperfectly  explored,  that,  even  until  a  very  recent  period,  they  were  re- 
garded by  many  as  being  only  peculiarities  of  geological  formation,  which 
credulous  imagination  had  converted  into  fortresses,  and  temples,  and  sepul- 
chres. The  recent  researches  of  Squier  and  Davis,  accompanied  as  they  are 
by  elaborate  surveys  and  drawings,  have  left  no  further  room  for  scepticism, 
and  have  established,  beyond  dispute,  the  interesting  fact,  that  the  interior 
of  the  North  American  continent,  as  well  as  the  southern,  was  once  in- 
habited by  an  immense  and  settled  population,  who  have  left  behind  them 
almost  innumerable  memorials  of  their  occupation. 

These  remains  extend  almost  continuously  over  the  whole  interior,  from  the 
great  lakes  on  the  north  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south,  and  from  the 
sources  of  the  Alleghany  in  western  New  York,  far  above  a  thousand  miles  up 
the  Missouri,  and  into  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa.  They  are  found  in  far 
greater  numbers  in  the  western  than  in  the  eastern  portion  of  this  immense 
district.  They  may  be  traced  too  along  the  seaboard  from  Texas  to  Florida, 
but  are  not  met  with  any  further  along  the  north-eastern  coast.  They  are 
generally  planted  in  the  rich  valleys  of  the  western  rivers,  or  elevated  above 
ihem  on  commanding  natural  terraces.     In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  upper 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  115 


Lakes  they  assume  the  singular  form  of  gigantic  rilievos  of  earthen  walls,  chap. 
often   covering   several   acres,   tracing   out  upon   the    soil   outlines  of    the 


figures  of  men,  birds,  beasts,  and  reptiles.  Southward  of  these  appear, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  its  tributaries,  mounds  and  truncated  terraces 
of  immense  extent,  sustaining  earthen  enclosures  and  embankments  extending 
for  entire  miles.  Of  these  extraordinary  earth-works  many  were  evidently 
fortifications,  exhibiting  no  small  constructive  skill,  defended  by  numerous 
bastions,  having  covered  ways,  hornworks,  concentric  walls,  and  lofty  mounds 
intended  as  observatories,  and  numerous  gateways  giving  access  to  the  im- 
mense line  of  fortified  enclosure,  with  graded  roadways  to  ascend  from  terrace 
to  terrace.  Of  these  defences  there  appears  to  have  been  a  chain,  extend- 
ing from  the  head  of  the  Alleghany  diagonally  across  central  Ohio  to  the 
river  Wabash. 

Not  all,  however,  of  these  earth-works  were  intended  as  fortresses ;  many  are 
evidently  designed  for  religious  purposes.  One  of  the  most  extraordinary  of 
these  is  called  the  Great  Serpent,  on  a  projecting  tongue  of  high  land  in 
Adams  County,  Ohio.  The  head  of  the  reptile  points  toward  the  extremity, 
his  form  is  traced  out  with  all  its  convolutions,  and  its  jaws  are  open  as  it  were 
to  swallow  a  large  egg-shaped  enclosure  occupying  the  extreme  point  of  the 
promontory.  Its  entire  length,  if  stretched  out,  would  be  a  thousand  feet. 
The  serpent  and  globe  was  a  symbol  in  Egypt,  Greece,  Assyria,  and  Mexico ; 
and  those  familiar  with  English  antiquities  will  no  doubt  remember  a  similar 
and  still  more  gigantic  instance  of  a  serpent,  sacred  enclosure,  and  mound 
on  the  downs  of  Avebury  in  Wiltshire.  Of  the  earth-works  some  are  square, 
some  perfectly  circular,  others  of  intricate  and  curious  outline,  while  many 
appear  to  have  something  symbolical  in  their  arrangements.  It  is  necessary 
also  to  correct  a  popular  mistake  with  regard  to  their  materials,  which,  it  has 
been  affirmed,  consist  exclusively  of  earth,  whereas  both  stone  and  unbaked 
brick  have  occasionally  been  made  use  of.  The  mounds  scattered  over  the 
western  valleys  and  prairies  are  almost  innumerable,  and  of  infinitely  various 
dimensions,  one  of  the  largest  covering  six  acres  of  ground.  These  also  ap- 
pear to  have  been  appropriated  to  different  purposes,  some  to  sustain  sacri- 
ficial altars  or  temples,  others  intended  for  sepulchres,  containing  skele- 
tons, with  pottery  and  charcoal  for  consuming  the  bodies.  A  remarkable 
instance  of  the  latter  class  is  the  great  mound  at  Grave  Creek,  which  was 
penetrated  by  a  perpendicular  shaft  opening  into  two  sepulchral  chambers, 
containing  several  skeletons  with  pottery  and  other  articles.  Within  these 
enclosures  and  mounds  have  been  discovered  numerous  stone  sculptures  of 
the  heads  of  men,  or  of  human  figures  in  crouching  attitudes ;  of  the  beaver, 
the  wild  cat,  and  the  toad;  of  the  swallow  and  other  birds;  of  the  heron 
striking  a  fish,  the  last  very  beautifully  executed;  and  of  the  sea  cow,  an 
animal  peculiar  to  the  tropical  regions.  Ornamented  tablets  have  also  been 
dug  up,  and  in  some  places  sculptures  of  men,  eagles,  and  elks  can  be  traced 
on  the  face  of  the  rocks,  with  rude  attempts  to  represent  hunting  scenes. 
There  have  also  been  found  instruments  of  silver  and  copper,  axes,  drills, 

Q  2 


116  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  and  spear  heads,  stone  discs,  and  instruments  for  games,  with  beads,  shells, 
ornaments,  and  pipes,  as  well  as  decorated  pottery. 

Respecting  the  whole  of  these  monuments  it  may  be  remarked,  that  they 
are  evidently  far  ruder  than  those  in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  to  which 
as  they  approach  in  locality  they  appear  to  approximate  in  their  character  and 
arrangements ;  and  it  is  thus  an  interesting  question  whether  we  are  to  regard 
them  as  the  original  and  more  ancient  works  of  a  race  who  afterwards  reached 
a  higher  degree  of  civilization  farther  to  the  south,  or  whether,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  present  to  us  traces  of  a  migration  from  the  south  towards  the  north. 
"  It  is  not  impossible,"  observes  Squiers,  "  that  the  agriculture  and  civiliza- 
tion of  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Peru,  may  have  originated  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi."  Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  further  researches,  one 
thing  is  abundantly  evident,  that  the  great  valley  of  that  river  and  of  its  tri 
butaries  was  once  occupied  by  a  population  who  had  advanced  from  the 
migratory  state  of  hunting  to  the  fixed  condition  of  cultivators  of  the  soil, 
that  the  population  who  raised  these  great  defensive  and  sacred  structures 
must  have  been  dense  and  widely  spread,  in  order  to  execute  works  for 
which  prolonged  and  combined  effort  were  so  obviously  necessary,  and  that 
their  customs,  laws,  and  religion  must  have  assumed  a  fixed  and  definite 
shape. 

The  languages  of  the  North  American  Indians,  like  their  physical  character- 
istics, are  generally  uniform,  and  may  be  reduced  to  a  few  general  heads.  The 
Algonquin  was  the  most  widely  diffused  throughout  the  northern  portion  of 
the  States,  and  was  that  spoken  by  the  Pokanokets,  Narragansetts,  and 
Pequods,  by  the  tribes  of  Lenni  Lenape  on  the  Delaware,  and  those  in  Vir- 
ginia and  on  the  Ohio.  The  Wyandot  was  the  language  of  the  Hurons,  who 
dwelt  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  of  the  Iroquois,  who  occupied  the 
southern  borders  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  interior  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  where  they  have  left  behind  them  the  names  of  their  several  confeder- 
acies, the  Mohawks,  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas — powerful 
tribes,  who  having  subjugated  and  extirpated  many  others,  were  destined 
to  act  a  more  conspicuous  part  in  the  intercolonial  struggles  than  any  other 
body  of  Indians,  and  to  figure  as  the  chief  allies  of  the  English.  Advancing 
to  the  southward,  we  find  that  the  Tuscaroras  in  North  Carolina,  the  Cherokees, 
occupying  the  southern  district  of  the  romantic  Alleghanies,  spoke  a  separate 
language,  as  did  also  the  Natchez,  and  the  Uchees  on  the  Lower  Mississippi ; 
while  the  dialects  of  the  rest  of  the  tribes  on  this  part  of  the  great  river  and 
its  borders,  the  Choctaws,  the  Chickasaws,  the  Creeks,  the  Appalachees, 
and  the  Yamassees,  are  grouped  under  the  general  title  of  the  Mobilian. 
Other  tribes  formed  a  link  between  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  great  West,  where  the  prevailing  language  is  that  of  the  powerful  Sioux 
or  Dahcotas. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  discuss  at  any  length  the  mysterious  question  of 
the  first  peopling  of  America — whether  this  immense  chain  of  antiquities,  ex- 
tending, with  few  interruptions,  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  extremity 


A.  D.  1660. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  117 

of  the  vast  continent,  were  the  works  of  a  race  who  came  from  afar,  or  who  grew  chap. 
up  upon  the  soil  itself.  Endless  have  been  the  theories  on  this  question,  the 
final  solution  of  which  must  await  the  progress  of  ethnological  science.  Some 
have  imagined  that  the  existence  of  pyramids  denoted  an  oriental  origin,  and 
that  they  could  trace  upon  the  monuments  of  Copan  and  Palenque  indubita- 
ble marks  of  a  Tyrian  migration ;  while  others,  finding  certain  remarkable 
analogies  between  the  customs  of  the  Red  Race  and  those  of  the  Jews,  have  sup- 
posed that  the  former  people  must  be  derived  from  the  latter.  It  is  indeed  well 
observed  by  Bradford,  that  "the  character  of  American  civilization  is  not  wholly 
indigenous  ;  that  its  mutual  diversities  are  no  more  than  might  naturally  arise 
when  nations  of  the  same  stock  are  separated,  while  its  uniformities  are  great 
and  striking,  and  exhibit,  in  common,  an  astonishing  resemblance  to  many  of 
the  features  of  the  most  ancient  types  of  civilization  in  the  eastern  hemisphere. 
The  monuments  of  these  nations  were  temples  and  palaces;  their  temples 
were  pyramids ;  their  traditions  were  interwoven  with  cosmogonical  fables 
which  still  retained  relics  of  primitive  history  ;  and  their  religion  was  sub- 
lime and  just  in  many  of  its  original  doctrines,  though  debased  in  their  super- 
stitious abuse  and  corruption.  In  all  this  there  is  nothing  modern,  nothing 
recent ;  these  features  are  not  strictly  Hindoo,  Egyptian,  or  Chinese,  though 
they  approximate  the  aboriginal  civilization  to  that  of  each  of  these  nations. 
The  origin  of  this  resemblance  is  to  be  traced  back  to  the  earliest  ages,  when 
these  great  nations  first  separated,  and  carried  into  Egypt,  Hindoostan,  China, 
and  America,  the  same  religion,  arts,  customs,  and  institutions,  to  be  variously 
modified  under  the  influence  of  diverse  causes.  The  great  diversity  of  Ame- 
rican languages,  the  few  analogies  they  present  to  those  of  the  old  world  ;  the 
absence  of  the  use  of  iron ;  certain  peculiarities  in  their  astronomical  systems ; 
and  some  of  their  own  traditions,  which  have  pre'served  the  memory  of  the 
great  events  of  ancient  sacred  history,  and  attribute  the  colonization  of  the 
continent  to  one  of  those  tribes  who  .were  present  at  the  dispersion  of  man- 
kind ;  all  tend  to  support  this  position.  The  Red  Race,  then,  appears  to  be  a 
primitive  branch  of  the  human  family ;  to  have  existed  in  many  portions  of 
the  globe,  distinguished  for  early  civilization;  and  to  have  penetrated  at  a 
very  ancient  period  into  America.  The  American  family  does  not  appear  to 
be  derived  from  any  nation  now  existing ;  but  it  is  assimilated  by  numerous 
analogies  to  the  Etrurians,  Egyptians,  Mongols,  Chinese,  and  Hindoos ;  it  is 
most  closely  related  to  the  Malays  and  Polynesians ;  and  the  conjecture  pos- 
sessing perhaps  the  highest  degree  of  probability,  is  that  which  maintains  its 
origin  from  Asia,  through  the  Indian  Archipelago."  This  theory,  perhaps 
most  generally  received,  is  certainly  not  without  weight;  but  on  the  other 
hand,  it  may  be  argued  with  equal  truth  that  the  rude  efforts  of  all  uncivilized 
nations  must  greatly  resemble  each  other,  that  the  same  ideas  spring  up  spon- 
taneously in  the  minds  of  men  under  the  same  circumstances  and  in  the  same 
stage  of  development ;  and  thus  that  no  safe  conclusion  can  be  deduced  from 
correspondences,  which,  however  remarkable,  may,  after  all,  turn  out  to  be 
entirely  fortuitous. 


A.  D.  1660, 


118  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  The  evidence  which  has  been  adduced,  that  a  higher  state  of  civilization 
once  existed  in  North  America,  naturally  suggests  the  inquiry,  whether  we 
are  to  regard  the  Indians  found  on  that  continent  by  the  Europeans,  as  de- 
scended from  more  cultivated  ancestors,  like  those  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America  from  the  builders  of  the  pyramids  and  temples  of  Cholula  and  Pa- 
lenque.  u  The  important  question  has  not  been  solved,"  observes  W.  Van 
Humboldt,  "  whether  that  savage  state,  which  even  in  America  is  found  in  va- 
rious gradations,  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  dawning  of  a  society  about  to 
rise,  or  whether  it  is  not  the  fading  remains  of  one  sinking  amidst  storms, 
overthrown  and  shattered  by  overwhelming  catastrophes.  To  me  the  latter' 
supposition  appears  nearer  the  truth  than  the  former."  The  physical  simi- 
larity of  the  tribes  spread  over  the  whole  continent  from  north  to  south,  the 
resemblances  that  may  be  traced  in  their  religion,  manners,  customs,  and 
monuments,  certainly  favour  the  conclusion,  that  they  are  but  different 
branches  of  one  great  family,  whose  civilization,  though  not  uninfluenced 
from  abroad,  is  yet  principally  aboriginal,  and  who,  having  attained  a  cer- 
tain stage  of  development,  have,  from  various  disturbing  causes,  retrograded 
into  the  condition  in  which  we  find  them  at  the  present  day.  Tradition, 
however,  also  dimly  points  to  struggles  and  revolutions  among  them,  and 
ruder  tribes  from  the  hyperborean  regions  may,  as  it  records,  have  pressed 
down  upon  those  settled  in  the  more  fertile  valleys  of  the  south,  and  forced 
them  to  take  refuge  in  Mexico,  and  thus  the  present  North  American  Indians 
may  be  descended  from  nomad  hordes,  who,  like  the  Goths  and  Vandals  in 
Europe,  succeeded,  by  brute  strength  and  overwhelming  numbers,  in  extir- 
pating the  less  hardy,  but  more  gifted  races,  to  whose  skill  and  labour  we  are 
indebted  for  these  relics  of  a  lost  civilization. 


CHAPTER  X. 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  NETHERLANDS. — DISSOLUTION  OF  NEW  SWEDEN. — DIFFICULTIES  WITH  CON 
NECTICUT.  —  CAPTURE  OF  NEW  YORK  BY  THE  ENGLISH.  —  RECAPTURE  BY  THE  DUTCH,  AND 
FINAL   CESSION   TO   ENGLAND. 

chap.  After  the  death  of  Kieft,  generally  detested  for  his  cruelty  and  caprice, 
the  West  India  Company  of  Amsterdam  appointed  as  his  successor  Peter 


A.  D. 1816. 


Stuyvesant,  governor  of  Curacoa,  who,  disabled  from  a  wound  received  at  the 
siege  of  St.  Martin's,  had  returned  to  the  United  Provinces.  He  was  a  ge- 
nuine soldier,  somewhat  high  and  arbitrary,  and  determined  to  maintain  the 
supremacy  of  the  Company  against  the  encroachments  of  "  the  rabble  ; "  yet 
brave  without  any  tincture  of  cruelty,  and  open,  honest,  and  downright  in 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  119 

his  dealings,  both  with  the  colonists  and  their  adversaries.     To  his  firmness   chap. 

and  capacity  the  Company  trusted  for  the  settlement  of  the  long-pending  dis- — 

putes  with  the  people  of  New  England,  and  for  the  repression  of  the  rival  At0Di'654?° 
emigrants  from  Sweden.  The  boundary  question  with  Connecticut,  the  dis- 
covery of  the  river  by  the  Dutch,  their  erection  of  the  Fort  of  Good  Hope,  the 
encroachments  of  the  New  Englanders,  and  the  disputes  that  had  arisen  in 
consequence,  have  been  already  described  ;  and  these  had  now  increased  to 
such  a  pitch  that  it  was  feared  lest  the  New  Englanders,  ten  times  as  numerous 
as  the  Dutch  settlers,  might  adopt  a  summary  method  of  terminating  the 
controversy.  Soon  after  his  arrival  Stuyvesant  was  welcomed  by  a  compli- 
mentary letter  from  the  council  of  the  United  Colonies,  but  accompanied 
with  a  formidable  enumeration  of  grievances,  upon  which  he  repaired  to  the 
fort  of  Good  Hope  in  order  to  have  a  personal  conference  with  the  New 
England  commissioners.  The  dispute  was  referred  to  arbitration,  the  issue 
proving  entirely  favourable  to  the  people  of  Connecticut,  who  acquired  the 
half  of  Long  Island,  and  all  the  country  running  back  from  the  Sound,  to  a 
line  drawn  parallel  with,  and  only  ten  miles  distant  from,  the  Hudson.  The 
Dutch  were  however  to  retain  their  trading  fort  of  Good  Hope. 

Fresh  troubles  were  occasioned  by  the  attempts  of  some  settlers  from  New 
Haven  to  establish  a  colony  on  the  Delaware.  To  this,  which  he  deemed  an 
unjustifiable  encroachment,  Stuyvesant  was  determined  not  to  submit — he  de- 
tained the  vessel,  which  had  touched  at  Manhattan,  and  proceeded  to  occupy 
the  ground  by  the  erection  of  Fort  Casimir,  measures  which  with  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  war  between  Cromwell  and  the  Dutch,  had  nearly  led  to  an 
enterprise  from  Massachusetts  for  the  conquest  of  New  Netherlands.  A 
fugitive  Indian  had  endeavoured  to  provoke  hostilities  by  a  false  statement 
of  a  pretended  conspiracy  between  the  Dutch  and  the  neighbouring  tribes,  to 
cut  off  the  exposed  settlers  of  Connecticut — a  story  in  itself  sufficiently  im- 
probable, and  of  which  Stuyvesant  sent  an  indignant  denial  to  the  council 
of  Massachusetts.  Although  the  commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies 
had  decided  that  there  was  no  sufficient  ground  for  war,  the  people  of  Con- 
necticut and  New  Haven,  having  solicited  and  obtained  some  assistance  from 
Cromwell,  resolved  to  proceed  to  hostilities  on  their  own  account ;  but  being 
delayed  a^  hile  through  the  good  offices  of  Roger  Williams,  the  declaration 
of  peace  between  the  English  and  Dutch,  which  was  made  shortly  afterwards, 
compelled  them  to  break  up  the  expedition. 

Opposed  to  a  far  superior  force,  Stuyvesant,  though  little  disposed  for  sub- 
mission, felt  that  negociation  was  the  only  course  he  could  venture  to  pursue 
with  the  New  Englanders.  But  if  the  latter  were  far  more  numerous  than  the 
Dutch,  the  Dutch  were,  in  their  turn,  far  more  numerous  than  the  Swedes. 
With  these  intruders  therefore  Stuyvesant  was  prepared  to  deal  in  a  manner 
more  conformable  with  his  soldier-like  temper,  and  the  imprudence  of  his  ad- 
versaries soon  afforded  him  a  welcome  opportunity.  Jealous  of  the  vicinity  of 
Fort  Casimir  to  their  principal  settlement  of  Christiana,  Risings,  the  Swedish 
governor,  partly  by  force  and  partly  by  stratagem,  contrived  to  obtain  posees- 


J 


120  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  sion  of  the  Dutch  stronghold.  In  revenge  for  this  outrage,  Stuy vesant  received 
the  welcome  order,  twice  renewed,  to  effect  the  reduction  of  the   Swedish 


to  1*660.  colonists.  Gathering  together  a  body  of  six  hundred  men,  he  proceeded  to 
execute  his  commission ;  the  scattered  settlers,  after  a  brief  resistance,  were 
compelled  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  States-General,  being  at  the 
same  time  guaranteed  the  possession  of  their  lands  and  property :  and  thus, 
after  maintaining  its  footing  for  about  seventeen  years,  came  to  an  end  the 
little  colony  of  New  Sweden,  the  members  of  which,  always  a  mere  handful, 
soon  became  incorporated  with  those  who  had  conquered  them.  During  the 
absence  of  the  governor,  the  Indians  had  made  an  abortive  attempt  to  sur- 
prise "New  Amsterdam.  They  mustered  in  sixty-four  canoes,  ravaged  the 
unprotected  neighbourhood,  and  created  considerable  alarm  in  the  little  town, 
but  dispersed  to  their  forests  as  soon  as  the  Dutch  soldiery  appeared  in  sight. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  chief  cities  and  settlements  of  America  re- 
tain to  this  day  evident  traces  of  the  people  by  whom  they  were  planted,  and 
of  the  circumstances  under  which  they  grew  up.  New  England,  peopled 
exclusively  by  Puritans,  is  still  remarkable  for  the  deep  moral  sense  and 
serious  deportment  of  its  citizens  ;  Virginia,  founded  by  courtiers  and  ca- 
valiers, for  the  more  open  manners,  the  impulsive  generosity,  and  fiery 
temper  of  its  planters ;  while  New  York  was  from  the  first  a  cosmopolitan 
city,  the  resort  of  strangers  of  every  faith  and  from  every  clime — a  commercial 
rendezvous  for  merchants ;  and  by  these  characteristics  it  is  still  peculiarly 
distinguished.  Hither  had  repaired  some  of  those  Waldenses,  who,  expelled 
from  their  valleys  in  Piedmont  by  the  cruelty  of  the  Sardinian  king,  had  first 
found  a  refuge  in  Holland  and  Germany,  together  with  persecuted  Protest- 
ants from  France  and  different  countries  of  Europe,  Puritans  and  other  sec- 
taries from  New  England,  Jews,  refugees,  and  distressed  persons  of  every 
shade  of  belief,  who  were  alike  sheltered  by  the  wise  policy  of  the  West  India 
Company,  and  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  respective  modes  of  worship. 
A  considerable  number  of  negro  slaves  were  also  imported  by  the  special  in- 
structions of  the  Company. 

Thus  mixed  were  the  elements  of  the  future  state,  and  free  the  toleration 
in  religious  matters.  From  the  exercise  of  popular  rights,  the  people  were, 
however,  zealously  excluded  by  the  policy  of  the  Company.  A  body  of 
settlers  of  such  various  origin,  most  of  whom  had  lived  contentedly  under 
monarchical  or  aristocratical  institutions,  were  not  at  first  animated  by  the 
same  restless  desire  for  self-government  which  characterized  emigrants  of  the 
purely  English  blood.  But  this  spirit  was  not  long  in  breaking  forth,  partly 
from  that  natural  impulse  which  stirs  in  the  breasts  of  those  who  have  subdued 
the  wilderness,  and  partly  also  from  the  contagious  influence  of  the  neigh- 
bouring states  of  New  England.  Unlike  that  colony,  New  Netherlands  had 
not  been  founded  by  the  voluntary  compact  of  freemen,  but  was  a  commercial 
plantation  made  by  a  privileged  company,  and  managed  by  them  exclusively 
for  their  own  interests.  The  power  delegated  by  them  to  the  governor  was 
bestowed  for  this  purpose,  and  exercised  in  this  spirit.     The  settlers  might 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  121 

complain  of, but  they  could  not  control,  the  arbitrary  measures  of  Stuyvesant,   chap. 
who  appointed  to  all  subordinate  offices,  and  levied  taxes  at  his  own  discre- 


x. 


tion.  When  his  proceedings  were  deemed  rash  or  high-handed  by  the  West  to  1*664. 
India  Company  they  checked  him  as  they  thought  proper,  whilst  they  urged 
him  to  pay  no  attention  whatever  to  the  impatient  demands  of  the  settlers  for 
self-government,  and  in  levying  the  taxes  to  hare  no  regard  to  their  consent. 
Thus  urged  and  supported  at  home,  Stuyvesant  set  his  face  as  a  flint  against 
the  tide  of  democratic  encroachment.  A  convention  of  two  delegates  from 
every  village  met  to  deliberate  upon  the  state  of  the  colony,  and  in  a  pe- 
tition suggested  and  drawn  up  by  a  settler  from  New  England,  demanded  the 
abrogation  of  arbitrary  misrule,  and  asserted  their  own  right  of  approving,  at 
the  least,  the  laws  which  were  made  for  their  own  government.  Stuyvesant, 
however,  was  inflexible,  and  after  some  sarcastic  allusions  to  the  origin  of  the 
petition,  and  soldier-like  sneers  at  the  exercise  of  "  rabble "  sovereignty,  pe- 
remptorily dissolved  this  self-constituted  convention.  This  enforced  obedi- 
ence was  accompanied  by  a  sullen  discontent,  which  the  New  England  settlers, 
who  were  both  numerous  and  active,  were  not  slow  in  inflaming.  The  people, 
too  weak  to  resist,  evinced  a  passive  dissatisfaction  with  their  institutions, 
murmurs  and  questionings  of  the  authority  of  the  Company  were  heard  on  all 
sides,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  they  would  offer  but  a.  spiritless  resist- 
ance to  the  menaced  invasion  of  the  New  Englanders,  which  perhaps  they 
secretly  invoked,  as  bringing  in  its  train  the  popular  liberties  after  which  they 
sighed.  The  position  of  Stuyvesant  became  from  day  to  day  more  insecure, 
but  he  bore  up  bravely  against  his  difficulties.  The  weak  and  divided  con- 
dition of  New  Netherlands  encouraged  fresh  demands  and  aggressions  on  the 
part  of  her  more  powerful  neighbours.  Massachusetts  claimed  the  Upper 
Hudson ;  the  Connecticut  settlers,  regardless  of  the  limits  agreed  upon  by  the 
treaty,  pushed  nearer  and  nearer  to  New  Amsterdam.  The  New  England 
settlers  on  Long  Island,  though  under  Dutch  jurisdiction,  invited  the  pro- 
tection of  Connecticut.  In  vain  did  Stuyvesant  repair  personally  to  Boston  ; 
he  met  only  with  delays  and  evasions.  In  vain  did  he  invoke  the  public 
spirit  he  had  repressed,  call  together  the  assembly  he  had  formerly  dissolved ; 
it  passively  recommended  him  to  apply  to  the  States-General  and  the  West 
India  Company  for  that  protection  which  they  were  unable  to  afford.  With 
as  little  success  did  the  zealous  old  governor  appeal  to  his  employers  at  home, 
and,  setting  before  them  his  perils  and  perplexities,  entreat  for  succour  before 
it  should  prove  too  late.  Unable  or  unwilling  to  incur  any  further  expense 
on  behalf  of  the  colony,  they  had  left  it  to  defend  itself  even  against  the  Con- 
necticut settlers,  and  the  rumours  of  an  English  plot  to  take  possession  of  the 
province,  in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  were  received  by  them  with  incredulous 
apathy.  That  design,  however,  so  often  meditated  by  f.he  people  of  New  Eng- 
land, was  now  to  be  carried  out  in  earnest.  Sc  ,n  after  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.  the  Duke  of  York,  having  purchased  up  some  old  claims,  received 
from  the  king  a  grant  of  the  country  from  the  Connecticut  to  the  Delaware, 
and  a  fleet  of  three  armed  vessels,  having  on  board  Sir  Robert  Nichols,  Sir 


X 
A.  D.  1664, 


122  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  George  Cartwright,  and  Sir  Robert  Carr,  as  commissioners,  and  a  large  body 
of  soldiers,  was  sent  to  take  possession  of  the  country.  Touching  at  Boston, 
where  they  vainly  waited  awhile  for  recruits,  and  taking  on  board  Winthrop 
the  governor  of  Connecticut,  who  had  considerable  influence  among  the  Dutch, 
they  quietly  dropped  anchor  in  the  vicinity  of  New  Amsterdam.  Rumours 
of  their  design  had  indeed  reached  that  city,  but  no  effectual  defence  had 
been,  or  indeed  could  be,  attempted  by  the  Dutch.  Stuyvesant  endeavoured 
to  awaken  the  spirit  of  the  inhabitants  to  a  gallant  defence  by  recalling  to  them 
the  recent  heroic  struggle  of  the  fatherland  against  the  Spaniards,  but  he  met 
but  with  a  feeble  response.  Determined  at  least  to  put  a  bold  front  upon  the 
matter,  he  sent  in  concert  with  the  deputies  to  request  of  the  English  com- 
mander the  reason  of  his  hostile  appearance.  Nichols  replied  by  asserting  the 
claims  of  England,  and  demanding  an  immediate  surrender  of  New  Amster- 
dam on  condition  that  the  lives,  liberties,  and  property  of  the  inhabitants 
should  be  respected.  Stuyvesant  retorted  by  a  spirited  protest,  detailing  the 
manner  in  which  the  Dutch  had  obtained  a  lawful  possession  of  the  country, 
affecting  to  doubt  whether,  "  if  his  Majesty  of  Great  Britain  were  well  informed 
of  such  passages,  he  would  not  be  too  judicious  to  grant  such  an  order"  as  that 
by  which  he  was  summoned,  especially  in  a  time  of  profound  peace ;  and 
reminding  the  commissioners  that  it  was  "  a  very  considerable  thing  to  affront 
so  mighty  a  state  as  Holland,  although  it  were  not  against  an  ally  and  con- 
federate." Neither  argument  nor  threats  produced,  however,  any  effect  upon 
the  English  commander,  who  refused  to  protract  the  negociation,  and  threat- 
ened an  immediate  attack  upon  the  city.  Grating  as  it  was  to  the  spirit  of 
the  old  soldier  to  surrender  without  a  struggle,  he  was  compelled  to  submit  to 
circumstances ;  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  unwilling  to  run  all  the 
risks  of  an  assault  to  which  they  could  not  hope  to  offer  any  effectual  oppo- 
sition, in  defence  of  a  government  with  which  they  were  discontented,  against 
another  which  many  among  them  Avere  secretly  disposed  to  welcome.  Like 
the  ass  in  the  fable,  they  had  nothing  to  fear,  and  something  perhaps  to  hope 
for,  from  a  change  of  masters.  It  was  in  vain  for  Stuyvesant  to  contend  ;  the 
influence  of  Winthrop  had  been  active  among  the  New  Englanders  ;  the  com- 
missioners advocated  a  surrender,  which  was  consented  to  by  the  majority, 
and  quietly  carried  out  on  the  succeeding  days.  The  terms  granted  were 
liberal,  and  the  inhabitants  were  satisfied,  although  Stuyvesant  held  out  to 
the  last,  and  did  not  ratify  the  articles  until  two  days  after  they  had  been 
signed  by  the  commissioners. 

The  whole  province,  together  with  the  city,  now  received  the  appellation 
of  New  York.  In  a  few  days,  Fort  Orange  on  the  Hudson  capitulated,  and 
exchanged  its  name  for  Albany.  A  treaty  was  here  concluded  with  the  chiefs 
of  the  five  nations,  whose  hostilities  had  occasioned  so  much  distress  to  the 
Dutch.  Sir  George  Cai.  meanwhile  entered  the  Delaware,  and  received  the 
submission  of  the  settlers;  and  thus  by  a  claim  asserted  without  a  tittle  of 
foundation,  and  enforced  without  the  shedding  of  a  single  drop  of  blood,  the 
whole  of  North  America  passed  quietly  into  the  possession  of  England.     The 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  1?3 

Dutch  soon  became  as  loyal  as  their  English  neighbours;  few  of  them  re-   chap. 

turned  to  Holland,  and  even  the  stern  old  Stuyvesant  himself,  attached  to ■ — 

the  country,  remained  to  end  his  career  under  the   allegiance  he  had  so    to  1672. 
stoutly  tried  to  repudiate. 

Simultaneous  with  the  English  conquest  of  New  Netherlands  was  the 
establishment  of  another  State.  The  country  between  the  Hudson  and  the 
Delaware  had  been  conveyed  by  the  Duke  of  York  to  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir 
George  Cartaret.  Sir  George  had  been  governor  of  the  island  of  Jersey 
during  the  civil  war,  and  had  gallantly  defended  it  for  Charles  I. ;  and  in 
compliment  to  him,  the  province  received  the  name  of  New  Jersey.  This 
extensive  tract  was  then  but  very  thinly  inhabited.  The  settlements  of  the 
Swedes  upon  the  Delaware,  and  their  expulsion  thence  by  Stuyvesant,  together 
with  his  frustration  of  the  scheme  of  emigration  from  New  Haven,  have  been 
already  described.  A  few  Quakers  and  Puritans  had  nevertheless  been  per- 
mitted to  naturalize  themselves  on  the  banks  of  the  Raritan ;  extensive  pur- 
chases had  been  made  from  the  Indians ;  and  a  few  scattered  hamlets  and 
isolated  farms  appeared  at  wide  intervals  in  the  immense  expanse  of  wilderness. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  proprietaries  to  attract  settlers  for  their  thinly  peo- 
pled territory  by  offering  to  them  the  most  advantageous  terms.  Absolute 
freedom  of  worship,  a  colonial  assembly,  which  had  the  sole  power  of  taxa- 
tion, and  participated  in  the  legislative  but  not  the  executive  government  of 
the  province,  with  a  moderate  quit-rent  not  to  be  collected  till  1770,  were  the 
principal  inducements.  The  proprietaries  reserved  the  right  of  checking  the 
local  legislation  and  of  appointing  the  officers  of  government.  Messengers 
were  despatched  to  New  Haven,  from  whence  a  considerable  emigration  of  the 
Puritans  soon  took  place.  The  liberality  of  the  institutions,  the  beauty  of  the 
climate,  attracted  many  to  the  new  State,  the  "  Paradise  "  of  those  who  delighted 
in  an  untrammeled  and  primitive  form  of  society,  because  "  it  had  no  lawyers, 
or  physicians,  or  parsons."  It  soon  became  evident  that  the  settlers  were  im- 
patient even  of  the  slightest  restraints.  Philip  Carteret  had  been  appointed  go- 
vernor of  the  new  province,  to  the  great  discontent  of  Nichols,  who  protested 
in  vain  against  this  encroachment  upon  his  jurisdiction.  Upon  the  attempt 
of  the  former,  in  1670,  to  collect  the  quit-rents  for  the  proprietaries,  a  general 
discontent,  and  at  length  an  open  insurrection,  broke  out.  The  lands  had  in 
most  cases  been  purchased  from  the  Indians  by  the  actual  tenants,  and  having 
satisfied  this  original  claim,  they  repudiated  the  further  demand  of  a  quit- 
rent  as  unjustifiable.  The  assembly  convened  at  Elizabeth-town  deprived  the 
governor  of  his  functions,  elected  in  his  place  the  young  James  Carteret,  a 
natural  son  of  Sir  George,  who  had  studiously  encouraged  the  agitation,  whilst 
Philip  was  compelled  to  fly  to  England,  to  justify  his  conduct,  and  seek  for  a 
reinforcement  of  his  authority. 

Although  no  advances  towards  a  popular  government  of  his  newly-acquired 
State  were  made  by  the  Duke  of  York,  the  passing  of  a  code  embodying  many 
valuable  privileges  and  customs  derived  from  local  experience,  and  adapted 
to  the  wants  of  the  colonists,  trial  by  jury  being  among  them,  was  one  of  his 

r  2 


1£4 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


X 
A..  D. 1673 


chap,  earnest  measures.  But  that  democratic  spirit  which  had  led  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  colony  to  rebel  against  the  arbitrary  government  of  Stuyvesant, 
and  to  welcome  the  English  rule  as  promising  a  more  liberal  policy,  dissatis- 
fied and  disappointed  with  these  concessions  alone,  vented  itself  in  angry  and 
bitter  remonstrances  against  a  system  no  less  despotic  than  the  former.  The 
merchants  were  oppressed  by  fresh  duties,  which,  to  swell  the  coffers  of  the 
Duke  of  York,  were  levied  upon  their  imports  and  exports.  Thus  at  the 
moment  when,  war  having  been  declared  between  England  and  Holland,  a 
Dutch  fleet  suddenly  appeared  before  the  city,  a  general  disaffection  prevailed 
amongst  the  citizens,  and  Colonel  Manning,  who,  in  the  absence  of  the  go- 
vernor, Lovelace,  held  possession  of  the  fort  with  a  small  body  of  English 
soldiers,  was  compelled  to  surrender  without  resistance.  For  awhile  New 
York  again  became  a  Dutch  city,  and  was  under  a  Dutch  governor ;  but  a 
peace  concluded  the  following  year,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  all  con- 
quests were  to  be  mutually  restored,  it  was  again  replaced  in  the  hands  of  the 
English. 

On  resuming  his  original  possessions,  and  obtaining  a  fresh  grant,  which  in- 
creased his  territorial  pretensions,  and  which  empowered  him  "  to  govern  the 
inhabitants  by  such  ordinances  as  he  and  his  assigns  should  establish,"  the 
Duke  of  York  sent  over  Major  Edmund  Andros,  to  assume  the  office  of  go- 
vernor, to  assert  his  proprietary  rights,  and  consolidate  his  scattered  territories 
under  one  uniform  system  of  administration.  With  this  view,  one  of  the  first 
proceedings  of  Andros  was  an  expedition  to  Fort  Saybrook,  with  a  small  force, 
in  order  to  enforce  the  claim  of  the  Duke  to  all  such  territory  between  the 
Hudson  and  the  Connecticut,  as  had  been  settled  by  the  citizens  of  the  latter 
State.  He  was  astonished  at  the  sturdy  resolution  of  the  Connecticut  men, 
who  refused  even  to  listen  to  the  reading  of  his  commission,  and  without 
violence,  but  by  a  display  of  power  which  he  was  unable  to  resist,  compelled 
him  to  return  disconcerted  to  New  York.  Perhaps  this  first  taste  of  the  spirit 
of  the  provincials  over  whom  he  was  called  upon  to  preside,  together  with 
the  increasing  dissatisfaction  at  taxes  levied  by  irresponsible  authority,  and 
fresh  demands  for  a  system  of  self-government,  may  have  led  him  to  advise 
the  Duke,  his  master,  to  grant  to  the  people  of  New  York  a  charter,  similar 
to  that  enjoyed  by  the  other  American  provinces.  This  boon,  however,  was 
not  for  the  present  conceded  to  them. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  progress  of  affairs  in  New  Jersey. 
The  dissension  that  took  place  in  that  infant  colony  on  the  subject  of  the 
quit-rents,  has  been  already  described.  Cartaret,  the  governor,  had  been 
forced  by  a  mutinous  assembly  to  retire  to  England,  whence  he  shortly  re- 
turned invested  with  fresh  powers  from  the  Duke  of  York.  Soon  after  the 
recovery  of  the  province  from  the  Dutch,  Berkeley,  one  of  the  proprietors, 
disposed  of  his  share  of  New  Jersey  to  a  company  .of  Quakers,  who,  exposed 
in  England  to  the  contempt  and  persecution  of  every  party  in  the  state,  were 
desirous  of  obtaining  a  place  of  refuge  in  the  distant  West.  A  dispute  be- 
tween the  proprietors  was  settled  by  the  arbitration  of  William  Penn,  who 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  125 

now  first  appears  in  connexion  with  the  history  of  America,  and  not  long  after  c  ha  p. 

Cartaret  consented  to  a  formal  partition  of  the  province  into  two  distinct  sec-  — — 

tions,  called  East  and  West  Jersey.  West  New  Jersey  thus  became  a  colony  to  1683. 
of  Friends,  liberty  of  conscience  and  democratic  equality  were  established  by 
them;  sincere  lovers  of  peace,  they  soon  came  to  a  friendly  understanding 
with  the  Delaware  Indians,  large  reinforcements  of  their  persecuted  brethren 
successively  arrived,  and  the  little  Quaker  State  rapidly  assum'ed  an  appear- 
ance of  almost  Utopian  prosperity  and  concord. 

Whilst  in  the  neighbouring  harbour  of  New  York  duties  and  customs 
were  levied  at  the  arbitrary  pleasure  of  the  English  Duke,  freedom  of  trade 
was  established  in  New  Jersey.  Such  an  anomaly  could  not  be  suffered  to 
subsist,  and  Andros,  in  the  spirit  of  his  instructions,  set  himself  to  do  it  away 
with  a  high  hand.  He  prevented  vessels  from  landing  on  the  shore  of  Jersey 
until  the  obnoxious  imposts  had  been  paid ;  asserted  his  jurisdiction  over  that 
province,  seized  and  tried  the  governor,  Cartaret,  who  refused  to  yield  to 
his  pretensions,  and  in  the  face  of  his  acquittal  by  a  jury,  kept  him  in  confine- 
ment until  the  matter  could  be  referred  to  England.  These  aggressions 
aroused  in  both  the  Jerseys  a  determined  spirit  of  resistance  ;  even  the  pacific 
Quakers  asserted  the  constitutional  principles  of  justice  and  the  common  law. 

The  document  containing  their  arguments  in  support  of  the  views  of  the 
colonists,  drawn  up  by  Penn  and  others  of  his  persuasion,  is  well  worthy  of 
being  cited  as  a  fine  specimen  of  the  combined  mildness  and  firmness  in  the 
pursuit  of  liberty,  which  characterize  the  proceedings  of  that  sect  and  their 
associates.  "  To  all  prudent  men,"  says  the  remonstrance,  "  the  government 
of  any  place  is  more  inviting  than  the  soil.  For  what  is  good  land  without 
good  laws  ?  the  better  the  worse.  And  if  we  could  not  assure  people  of  an 
easy,  and  free,  and  safe  government,  both  with  respect  to  their  spiritual  and 
worldly  property — that  is,  an  uninterrupted  liberty  of  conscience,  and  an  in- 
violable possession  of  their  civil  rights  and  freedoms,  by  a  just  and  wise  go- 
vernment— a  mere  wilderness  would  be  no  encouragement ;  for  it  were  a 
madness  to  leave  a  free,  good,  and  improved  country,  to  plant  in  a  wilderness, 
and  there  adventure  many  thousands  of  pounds  to  give  an  absolute  title  to 
another  person  to  tax  us  at  will  and  pleasure.  We  humbly  say,  that  we  have 
lost  none  of  our  liberty  by  leaving  our  country ;  that  the  duty  imposed  upon 
us  is  without  precedent  or  parallel ;  that,  had  we  foreseen  it,  we  should  have 
preferred  any  other  plantation  in  America.  Besides,  there  is  no  limit  to  this 
power  ;  since  we  are,  by  this  precedent,  taxed  without  any  law,  and  thereby 
excluded  from  our  English  right  of  assenting  to  taxes,  what  security  have  we 
of  any  thing  we  possess?  We  can  call  nothing  our  own,  but  are  tenants  at 
will,  not  only  for  the  soil,  but  for  our  personal  estates.  Such  conduct  has  de- 
stroyed governments,  but  never  raised  one  to  any  true  greatness." 

By  the  consent  of  both  parties  the  disputed  question  was  referred  to  the 
decision  of  Sir  William  Jones,  one  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  the  time. 
His  opinion  was  unfavourable  to  the  pretensions  of  the  Duke  of  York,  who 
thereup  >n  by  a  fresh  indenture,  resigned  all  claim  to  both  West  and  East 


1£G  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Jersey,  which,  thus  left  almost  entirely  to  their  own  internal  government,  con- 
■ —  tinued  rapidly  to  increase. 

A  D  1683 

The  cruel  persecution  of  the  Scottish  Presbyterians  also  drove  forth  a  large 
body  of  them,  who  emigrated  to  East  New  Jersey,  and  added  their  national 
characteristics  to  those  of  the  numerous  fugitives  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
who  sought  refuge  from  religious  intolerance  in  the  New  World,  and  con- 
tributed to  build  up  the  majestic  fabric  of  the  great  and  free  republic. 

On  his  first  visit  to  England  Andros  had  endeavoured  to  convince  the  Duke 
of  York  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  concede  a  system  of  self-government  to 
the  discontented  colonists — on  a  subsequent  occasion  his  request  was  power- 
fully seconded  by  symptoms  of  determined  opposition  to  the  arbitrary  levy  of 
taxes  under  the  sole  authority  of  the  Duke.  A  jury  in  New  York  had  by 
their  verdict  declared  that  they  deemed  this  measure  illegal,  and  the  same 
opinion  was  expressed  by  the  lawyers  in  England.  Overwhelmed  with  fresh 
petitions  from  the  council,  court  of  assize,  and  corporation,  praying  that 
they  might  participate  in  the  government,  a  request  reinforced  by  Penn, 
whose  influence  with  him  was  considerable,  the  Duke  of  York  was  at  length 
compelled  to  yield,  and  Dongan  was  sent  out  as  governor,  empowered  to  ac- 
cede to  the  wishes  of  the  colonists,  and  to  summon  the  freeholders  to  choose 
their  representatives.  Accordingly,  on  the  17th  of  October,  1683,  met  the 
first  popular  assembly  in  the  state  of  New  York — consisting  of  the  governor 
and  ten  counsellors,  with  seventeen  deputies  elected  by  the  freeholders.  A  de- 
claration of  rights  was  passed;  trial  by  jury  was  confirmed;  and  taxes  hence- 
forth were  to  be  levied  only  with  the  consent  of  the  assembly.  Every  freeholder 
was  entitled  to  a  vote  for  the  representatives.  Religious  liberty  was  declared. 
Such  was  the  spirit  in  which  the  assembly  proceeded  to  exercise  their  newly- 
acquired  powers.  One  of  their  acts  was  entitled  "  The  Charter  of  Liberties 
and  Privileges  granted  by  his  Poyal  Highness  to  the  Inhabitants  of  New  York 
and  its  Dependencies."  The  following  year  another  session  was  held,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  colonists ;  but  soon  afterwards  the  flattering  prospect 
thus  opened  to  them  of  redressing  their  own  grievances,  and  of  managing 
their  own  affairs,  was  interrupted  by  the  accession  of  the  Duke  of  York  to 
tne  throne  of  England. 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA,  127 


CHAPTER  XI. 


CONTINUATION  OF  HISTORY   OF  VIRGINIA,   FROM   THE   DEATH   OF   JAMES   I.   TO   THE  DEPOSITION  OF 

JAMES   II. 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  people  of  Virginia,  at  the  period  when  the  charter   chap. 

of  the  Company  was  dissolved  by  the   arbitrary  proceedings   of  James  I., — 

who  had  intended  to  frame  a  code  for  their  compulsory  adoption,  were  al- 
ready, under  the  auspices  of  Sir  G.  Yeardley,  in  possession  of  all  the  elements 
of  self-government.  Although,  by  the  dissolution  of  the  charter,  the  right 
of  governing  the  colony  devolved  exclusively  on  Charles  I.,  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  he  either  attempted  or  even  meditated  any  invasion  of  its  popular 
rights.  For  this  indeed  no  motive  existed.  Unlike  Massachusetts,  the 
nursery  of  a  religious  faction  hostile  to  the  court,  Virginia  had  established 
episcopacy  upon  its  soil,  and  its  population  was  known  to  be  loyally  affected 
to  the  crown.  All  that  the  monarch,  pressed  as  he  was  for  money,  seems  to 
have  desired,  was  a  monopoly  of  the  profits  formerly  accruing  to  the  Com- 
pany ;  and  in  order  that  this  might  be  conceded  with  a  good  grace  by  the 
colonists,  he  declared  his  intention  of  not  interfering  with  their  established 
franchises,  and  referred  his  proposal  for  the  monopoly  to  the  consideration  of 
the  assembly.  The  popular  Yeardley  was  appointed  as  successor  to  Wyatt, 
who  desired  to  return  to  England.  Under  his  administration  the  colony  con- 
tinued to  flourish,  but  his  career  of  government,  so  beneficial  to  the  Virginians, 
being  shortly  after  closed  by  death,  the  council,  by  the  power  vested  in  them, 
proceeded  to  elect  West,  and  afterwards  Doctor  Potts,  as  temporary  governors, 
until  the  arrival  of  Sir  John  Harvey  with  the  royal  commission.  The  new 
governor  appears,  from  various  causes,  to  have  been  exceedingly  disliked. 
He  was  the  member  of  a  party  hostile  to  the  liberties  of  the  Virginians,  and 
was  accused  of  consulting  the  interests  of  favourites  more  than  the  welfare  of 
the  colony  itself.  The  general  dislike  magnified  his  delinquencies,  and  when, 
instead  of  sheltering  Clayborne,  whose  quarrel  with  Lord  Baltimore  was 
espoused  by  the  people,  he  sent  him  to  England  for  trial,  the  exasperation 
reached  its  height ;  a  majority  in  the  council  suspended  the  obnoxious  go- 
vernor from  his  office,  and  prepared  articles  of  impeachment  against  him. 
Harvey  repaired  to  England,  together  with  his  accusers,  but  they  were  not 
now  admitted  to  a  hearing  of  their  charges,  and  he  soon  after  reappeared  in 
Virginia  as  governor.  He  was  however  superseded,  in  1639,  by  Sir  Francis 
"Wyatt,  until,  in  1642,  Sir  William  Berkeley  arrived  to  assume  the  adminis- 
tration. The  new  governor  soon  rendered  himself  as  popular  as  Harvey  had 
become  detested.  He  not  only  did  not  interfere  with  the  established  privileges 


128  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  of  the  colonists,  but  assisted  them  in  carrying  out  a  system  of  legislation 

— adapted  to  their    own   expressed  wishes   and  peculiar   local  requirements. 

to  1*658.  The  royal  monopoly  alone,  with  which  the  Virginians  had  been  threatened, 
appeared  as  a  serious  grievance :  they  earnestly  protested  against  its  estab- 
lishment ;  but  as  it  was  not  for  the  present  carried  out,  they  soon  became 
reconciled,  and  even  attached,  to  the  exercise  of  the  regal  authority. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  when,  after  the  struggle  in  England  between 
the  king  and  his  parliament,  the  authority  of  the  latter  became  there  de- 
cisively established.  During  its  progress,  the  Virginians  had  warmly  sympa- 
thized with  the  cause  of  the  monarch,  they  looked  upon  his  execution  with 
horror,  and  boldly  declared  their  allegiance  to  his  son  in  the  face  of  all  the 
•  formidable  power  of  parliament.  This  feeling  of  ardent  loyalty  had  been  in- 
flamed by  the  constant  emigration  of  a  large  body  of  Cavaliers,  who  fled  to 
Virginia  to  sigh  over  their  ruined  fortunes,  or,  haply,  to  nourish  schemes  for 
the  future  restoration  of  the  royal  authority.  The  warm-hearted  governor 
and  the  hospitable  planters  received  them  with  open  arms ;  a  correspondence 
had  been  opened  with  the  fugitive  prince,  who  gratefully  sent  over  his  royal 
reappointment  of  Berkeley  as  governor.  Provoked  at  this  open  renunciation 
of  their  authority,  and  perhaps  apprehensive  that  Virginia  might  become  the 
nucleus  of  some  dangerous  plot,  the  parliament,  with  characteristic  vigour, 
proceeded  to  assert  and  enforce  their  claim  to  her  obedience.  They  fitted  out 
a  squadron,  which,  after  reducing  the  recusant  West  India  colonies,  at  length 
appeared  in  the  waters  of  the  Chesapeake.  Resistance  was  in  vain;  and, 
moreover,  the  parliament  had  adopted  the  wisest  measures,  not  only  to  secure 
the  allegiance,  but  even  to  engage  the  gratitude  of  the  Virginians.  The  late 
king  had  threatened  them  with  his  system  of  commercial  monopoly ;  the  par- 
liamentary commissioners  offered  them  a  perfect  freedom  of  trade.  Not  only 
was  their  representative  system  maintained  in  its  integrity,  but  they  were  al- 
lowed to  choose  their  own  governors,  and  to  acquire  an  absolute  right  of 
control  over  the  levying  and  disposing  of  the  taxes ;  so  that  their  allegiance 
was  rendered  little  more  than  nominal.  The  affections  of  the  Virginians  were 
with  the  "  sainted  "  monarch,  as  he  had  been  called  by  them  and  by  his  banish- 
ed son ;  but  a  wise  regard  to  their  own  liberties,  with  the  liberal  concessions 
of  the  parliament,  led  them  to  accept  its  supremacy.  Berkeley  retired  unmo- 
lested into  private  life,  and  Richard  Bennett,  one  of  the  parliamentary  com- 
missioners, with  the  consent  of  the  assembly,  succeeded  him,  Clayborne  being 
appointed  for  his  secretary :  on  his  retirement  from  office,  Edward  Diggs, 
and  after  him  Samuel  Matthews,  one  of  the  planters,  were  elected  by  the 
people  to  the  vacant  office. 

Virginia  continued  for  several  years  to  enjoy,  under  this  system,  an  almost 
entire  tranquillity  and  a  rapid  development  of  her  internal  resources.  Uni- 
versal suffrage,  freedom  of  trade,  the  choice  of  a  governor,  and  the  control  over 
the  taxes  were  established.  Although  episcopacy  was  rooted  in  the  affections 
of  the  people,  and  established  by  law,  there  was  in  fact,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Quakers,  a  practical  toleration  of  other  sects.    There  was  a  law  against 


A.  D.  1644. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  12D 

Dissenters,  but  it  was  not  put  into  force.  Various  Nonconformists  had  long  c ha p 
enjoyed,  unmolested,  the  liberty  of  worship,  when  the  breaking  out  of  hos- 
tilities between  the  king  and  parliament  led  to  a  revival  of  the  obnoxious 
statutes  and  to  the  banishment  of  Dissenters  by  Berkeley.  The  parliamentary 
commissioners  had  been  particularly  enjoined  to  enforce  the  abolition  of  epis- 
copacy, but  this  they  found  to  be  impossible,  and  though  liberty  for  sectaries 
was  for  a  time  established,  Virginia  remained  at  heart  firmly  attached  both  to 
the  state  religion  and  to  the  royal  family. 

During  the  administration  of  Berkeley  fresh  troubles  had  arisen  with  the 
Indians,  who  had  not  yet  renounced  the  visionary  hope  of  cutting  off  or  starv- 
ing the  colonists.  They  had  sown  what  they  had  reaped,  blood  was  repaid 
with  blood.  After  their  memorable  conspiracy,  it  became  a  standing  law  to  the 
colonists  to  advance  every  year  upon  "their  adjoining  salvages"  and  massacre 
them — a  cruel  reprisal,  which  probably  led  to  another  and  equally  hopeless  at 
tempt  by  the  Indians,  who  cut  off  the  straggling  colonists,  but  fled  as  before  at  the 
aspect  of  determined  resistance.  The  aged  Opechancanough  was  taken  prisoner 
and  put  to  death.  A  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  with  his  successor,  on  condi- 
tion of  a  large  cession  of  territory,  and  the  Indians,  their  power  finally  broken, 
began  to  retreat  from  the  face  of  the  white  men  towards  the  boundless  west. 

The  immense  development  of  the  Dutch  commercial  marine  has  been 
already  noticed.  Their  ships  had  acquired  a  large  proportion  of  the  carrying 
trade  of  the  colonies.  To  check  their  rapid  encroachments,  from  which  the 
English  shipping  interests  were  severely  suffering,  the  parliament  determined 
on  adopting  a  defensive  policy.  Accordingly  an  act  was  passed  against  the 
importation  of  any  merchandise  from  Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  except  in  ves- 
sels English  built,  and  manned  and  owned  either  in  the  mother  country  or 
her  dependent  colonies.  This  act,  intended  solely  for  the  protection  of 
British  shipping,  appeared  unfavourable  to  Virginian  commerce,  yet  it  occa- 
sioned but  little  interruption  to  her  trade  with  Holland,  even  during  the  war 
between  that  country  and  England,  and  generally  appears  to  have  been  practi- 
cally disregarded  or  evaded. 

At  the  death  of  Cromwell  the  succession  of  his  brother  Richard  was  pro- 
claimed without  opposition.  Through  the  troubled  state  of  affairs  in 
England,  an  impending  change  was  not  improbably  foreseen  by  the  Vir- 
ginians, who,  though  secretly  desirous  for  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy, 
were  chiefly  intent  upon  the  maintenance  of  that  increased  measure  of  self- 
government  which  they  had  obtained  from  the  parliament.  The  death  of 
Matthews  happened  during  that  interregnum  between  the  resignation  of 
Richard  Cromwell  and  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  The  royalist  tendencies 
of  the  Virginians  might  now  venture  to  display  themselves,  and  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  who  had  passed  several  years  among  the  colonists  in  honourable 
retirement,  was  restored  by  them  to  his  original  dignity.  In  entering  again 
upon  his  functions  he  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  assembly  which  had 
reappointed  him,  and  agreed  not  to  dissolve  it  without  the  consent  of  the  ma- 
jority of  its  members. 


130 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1669 


chap.  Before  we  pursue  the  narrative  of  the  affairs  of  Virginia  it  is  desirable,  if 
not  essential,  to  form  a  clear  conception  of  the  elements  of  society  existing  in 
that  colony.  Originally  settled  by  offshoots  or  adherents  of  the  English  no- 
bility, it  had  received  a  more  decidedly  aristocratic  cast  from  the  influx  of 
Cavaliers  during  the  civil  war  in  England,  who  carried  with  them  to  the  New 
World  their  hereditary  prejudices  in  favour  of  the  privileges  conferred  by 
birth  and  rank,  and  a  contemptuous  disregard  of  popular  rights  and  preten- 
sions. Underlying  this  class  was  another,  consisting  of  free  descendants  of 
the  first  settlers  of  inferior  rank,  and  also  of  indented  servants  who  had  been 
brought  over  by  the  planters,  and  who,  bound  to  labour  for  a  certain  number 
of  years,  were,  during  that  period,  virtually  in  a  state  of  serfdom.  The  intro- 
duction of  negro  slaves  has  been  already  mentioned ;  they  had  since  that  period 
very  largely  increased,  and  were  destitute,  as  at  the  present  hour,  not  only  of 
the  rights  of  freemen,  but  even  of  those  of  humanity  itself. 

The  aristocratic  class  naturally  acquired  a  great,  and  now  almost  uncon- 
trolled ascendency,  which  was  further  increased  by  the  establishment  of  the 
Anglican  Episcopal  church.  The  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  and  the  arbi- 
trary tendencies  of  the  English  government,  strengthened  still  more  its  power 
and  pretensions,  and  encouraged  it  to  aim  at  the  uncontrolled  direction  of 
affairs.  It  has  been  already  mentioned  that,  in  anticipation  of  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  monarchy,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  deposed  by  parliamentarian 
influence,  had  been  re-elected  as  governor  by  the  royalist  party,  who  pre- 
dominated in  the  assembly.  High-spirited  and  brave,  but  obstinate  and  im- 
patient of  opposition,  he  displayed  in  a  characteristic  degree  both  the  virtues 
and  vices  of  his  order.  Attached  to  the  soil  of  Virginia,  with  which  he  had 
identified  his  interests  and  his  pleasures,  his  views  of  her  requirements  never 
extended  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  a  class  legislation.  His  policy  accorded 
perfectly  with  that  of  the  assembly  by  which  he  had  been  chosen,  and  their 
influence  was  united  to  perpetuate  the  tenure  of  that  power  already  in  their 
hands.  The  term  for  which  they  were  authorized  to  hold  office  was  two  years, 
when  a  fresh  election  should,  according  to  previous  usage,  have  taken  place. 
They  continued,  nevertheless,  quietly  to  retain  possession  of  their  seats,  to 
obtain  the  reappointment  of  Berkeley,  and  to  legislate  in  a  spirit  entirely 
favourable  to  their  own  interests.  Furthermore,  in  order  to  insure  the  con- 
tinuance of  aristocratic  influence,  they  disfranchised,  by  their  own  act,  a 
large  proportion  of  the  people  who  had  chosen  them,  confining  in  future 
the  exercise  of  the  elective  privilege  to  freeholders  and  housekeepers  alone. 
The  taxes  became  exorbitant,  the  governor  and  assembly  were  overpaid,  while 
all  power  of  checking  these  disorders  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people. 

The  discontents  engendered  in  the  minds  of  the  commonalty  by  these  and 
other  encroachments  on  the  part  of  the  assembly,  were  suspended  for  a  while 
by  the  union  of  all  parties  in  a  common  protest  against  the  navigation  act. 
The  opposition  to  this  measure  in  Massachusetts  has  been  already  mentioned. 
It  bore  with  peculiar  severity  upon  the  trade  of  the  Virginians.  Compelled  to 
send  their  tobacco  exclusively  to  England,  their  market  was  at  once  narrowed  and 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  131 

their  prices  reduced,  and  they  even  meditated  a  desperate  attempt  to  raise  it   chap. 

by  leaving  the  land  uncultivated  for  a  year,  thus  producing    an  artificial ! 

scarcity.  Berkeley  was  sent  to  England  at  a  heavy  expense,  with  the  hope  of  AtoDi67o?° 
obtaining  some  relief  for  the  planters ;  but  was  entirely  unsuccessful  in  his 
mission,  although  he  contrived  to  obtain  for  himself  a  share  in  the  newly- 
erected  province  of  Carolina.  Meanwhile  the  proceedings  of  the  Virginia  as- 
sembly were  but  an  echo  of  those  of  the  government  in  England.  Intolerance 
obtained  the  ascendency,  nonconformity  was  rendered  penal,  old  edicts  were 
revived  and  sharpened,  and  fresh  ones  enacted  against  Puritans,  Baptists, 
and  Quakers,  who  were  visited  with  fines  and  banishment.  With  the  re- 
membrance of  what  had  happened  during  the  civil  war,  the  pulpit  itself  was 
dreaded  as  an  engine  for  moving  the  public  mind,  and  Berkeley  expressed 
his  wish  that  even  the  established  ministry  "should  pray  oftener,  and  preach 
less."  Education  was  studiously  discouraged.  "  I  thank  God,"  continues  the 
governor,  "  that  there  are  no  free  schools,  nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall 
not  have  this  hundred  years,  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience,  and 
heresies,  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them,  and  libels 
against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us  from  both  ! "  he  piously  concludes. 
Such  was  the  aim  of  the  party  in  power,  to  maintain  the  domination  of  a  body 
of  wealthy  aristocratic  planters,  over  a  submissive  and  ignorant  commonalty, 
and  an  abject  herd  of  indented  white  servants  and  of  negro  slaves. 

Between  the  two  latter  classes,  indeed,  a  marked  distinction  should  be  ob- 
served. The  white  man  might  and  often  did  break  through  the  trammels  of  a 
temporary  servitude,  and  enrol  himself  among  the  ranks  of  freemen,  though  for 
a  while  deprived  by  an  arbitrary  majority  of  his  legitimate  privilege  of  the 
franchise.  For  the  wretched  negro  there  was  no  such  hope,  and  the  laws 
now  formally  passed  constituted  him  and  his  posterity  the  absolute  property 
of  masters,  who  might  whip,  brand,  torture,  or  even  kill  them,  with  a  restraint 
that  was  little  more  than  nominal.  Even  his  conversion  to  the  faith  of  his 
master  was  declared,  by  a  decision  of  clerical  casuists,  to  involve  no  forfeiture 
of  this  unholy  bond, — Christian  or  heathen,  he  still  remained  a  slave.  It 
would  be  unjust,  however,  to  involve  the  Virginia  assembly  alone  in  the 
guilt  of  thus  establishing  slavery,  since,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  bene- 
volent minds,  whose  clearness  of  moral  vision  no  sophistry  could  cloud,  the 
negro  was  then  universally  regarded  as  being  both  by  nature  and  provi- 
dence destined  to  be  the  bondman  of  the  white ;  and  we  are  shortly  after 
pained  at  discovering  that  the  profound  philosopher  who  probed  the  myste- 
rious laws  of  the  human  understanding,  conferred,  without  misgiving,  the 
sanction  of  his  illustrious  name  upon  this  atrocious  violation  of  human  rights. 

"While  the  popular  discontent  was  rapidly  coming  to  a  head,  fresh  alarm 
was  created  by  the  intelligence  that  the  English  monarch,  with  the  reckless 
prodigality  which  distinguished  him,  had  granted  away  the  entire  colony  to 
the  Lords  Culpepper  and  Arlington,  two  of  his  rapacious  courtiers,  against 
whose  claims  it  was  thought  necessary  at  first  to  enter  a  protest,  and  if  this  were 
unavailing,  to  buy  them  out ;  measures  which  occasioned  the  call  for  a  fresh 

s  2 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  levy  of  taxes,  already  insupportably  severe.  Moryson,  Ludwell,  and  Smith  were 

—  despatched  to  England  on  this  business,  and  the  governor  and  assembly  em- 

'  braced  the  opportunity  of  soliciting  from  the  court  a  royal  charter,  which 
should  confirm  them  in  the  privileges  they  had  recently  assumed.  This  re- 
quest was  conceded ;  but,  before  the  document  had  passed  the  seals,  a  for- 
midable rebellion  had  already  broken  out  in  Virginia. 

Its  immediate  occasion,  or  pretext,  appears  to  have  arisen  out  of  certain 
disputes  with  the  Indians,  in  regard  to  which,  as  in  so  many  similar  instances 
in  American  history,  it  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  the  exact  truth.  Virginia,  it 
must  be  remembered,  had  suffered  too  deeply  from  the  treacherous  outbreaks 
of  the  Indians,  not  to  be  predisposed,  even  after  an  interval  of  thirty  years' 
peace,  to  take  the  worst  view  of  their  character  and  intentions,  which  the  war 
with  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  then  raging  in  Massachusetts,  could  not  fail  to 
strengthen.  The  Senecas  had  attacked  and  driven  the  Susquehannahs  upon 
the  frontiers  of  Maryland,  with  which  state  a  war  had  arisen,  in  which  the 
neighbouring  Virginians  became  involved.  Certain  outrages  of  the  Indians 
had  been  resented  by  a  planter  named  John  Washington,  who  had  emigrated 
some  years  back  from  the  north  of  England,  and  became  the  founder  of  the 
family  from  which  sprung  the  illustrious  hero  of  the  revolution.  He  had  col- 
lected a  body  of  his  neighbours,  besieged  an  Indian  fort,  and  unhappily  put 
to  death  six  envoys,  sent  forth  to  treat  of  a  reconciliation ;  an  outrage  met 
on  the  part  of  the  savages  by  the  usual  retaliation  of  murder,  pillage,  and 
incendiarism.  The  indignation  of  Berkeley  was  excessive  when  he  heard  of 
the  flagrant  violation  of  established  custom,  and  which  had  led  to  such  alarm- 
ing consequences.  "  Though  they  had  killed  my  father  and  mother,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  yet  if  they  had  come  to  treat  of  peace,  they  ought  to  have  gone  in 
peace."  In  the  heated  state  of  the  public  mind,  he  was  accused,  on  account 
of  enjoying  a  sort  of  monopoly  of  the  beaver  trade  with  them,  of  favouring 
the  Indians  ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  attribute  to  sordid  self-interest  an  ex- 
clamation which  appears  to  have  been  exclusively  prompted  by  a  feeling  of 
humanity  and  justice. 

In  this  conjuncture  the  assembly  met,  and  proceeded  to  pass  an  elaborate, 
and  certainly  unsuitable  series  of  "  articles  of  war."  Certain  forts  were  to  be 
established,  and  communications  kept  up  between  them ;  a  system  which  in- 
volved a  ruinous  expense.  The  spontaneous  movements  of  the  colonists  in 
checking  sudden  attacks,  and  their  tendency  to  indulge  in  fierce  and  bloody  re- 
prisals, were  also  restrained  to  a  degree  of  which  they  became  impatient.  The 
bitterest  discontent  prevailed,  the  scheme  proposed  by  government  was  pro- 
nounced ineffective  and  costly,  and  the  more  ardent  declared  their  intention 
of  taking  vengeance  with  their  own  hands,  and  on  their  own  responsibility, 
for  any  hostilities  the  Indians  should  hereafter  dare  to  commit. 

The  chief  of  the  malcontents,  who  numbered  among  them  not  a  few  of  the 
rich  and  influential  planters,  was  a  young  man  named  Nathaniel  Bacon,  but 
recently  arrived  from  England.  Educated  in  the  temple,  eloquent  and  of  good 
address,  and  of  active  and  ardent  temperament,  he  had  rapidly  risen  into  no- 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  133 

tice.     Being  himself  the  owner  of  estates  in  Virginia,  and,  together  with  chap. 

his  uncle,  a  member  of  the  council,  he  was  thus  looked  up  to  by  the  dis — — - 

affected  as  possessing  both  the  qualities  and  influence  required  in  a  popular 
leader.  Whilst  the  public  excitement  was  at  its  utmost  height,  the  news  ar- 
rived that  the  Indians  had  broken  in  upon  his  plantation  and  murdered  some 
of  his  servants  ;  upon  which  he  instantly  flew  to  arms,  and  being  joined  by  a 
large  body  of  people,  set  off  in  pursuit  of  the  marauders.  The  governor,  re- 
garding this  proceeding  as  an  insult  to  his  authority,  proclaimed  Bacon  as  a 
rebel,  deprived  him  of  his  seat  in  the  council,  and  called  upon  all  those  who 
respected  his  own  authority  to  disperse  immediately.  Some  of  the  less  zeal- 
ous of  the  insurgents  obeyed  the  summons  and  returned  to  their  homes  ;  but 
this  defection  did  not  restrain  their  leader,  who  pushed  forward  in  hot  pursuit 
of  the  Indians.  Some  bodies  of  the  latter  were  still  on  a  friendly  footing,  al- 
though suspected ;  and  when  nearly  out  of  provisions,  Bacon  and  his  company 
approached  one  of  their  forts  and  requested  a  supply.  This  being  protracted 
until  their  necessity  became  extreme,  the  English  crossed  the  river  in  order 
to  compel  their  acquiescence :  a  shot  was  discharged  from  the  shore,  which 
induced  Bacon  to  retaliate  by  attacking  thq  fort,  and  putting  a  hundred  and 
fifty  Indians  to  the  sword.  Thus,  as  was  so  often  the  case  in  these  miserable 
quarrels,  did  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty,  and  the  flames  of  mutual  ani- 
mosity become  more  widely  extended. 

The  exasperated  governor,  meanwhile,  had  scarcely  left  James  Town  with 
a  body  of  troops  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  Bacon  and  his  followers,  when  a 
general  explosion  of  popular  discontent  broke  out  in  his  rear.  The  rising  of 
the  young  planter,  and  the  absence  of  the  governor,  emboldened  the  dis- 
affected in  the  lower  counties  to  fly  to  arms,  and  demand  the  dissolution  of  the 
assembly.  Berkeley  was  compelled  to  give  way  before  the  storm  of  popular 
indignation.  The  "  royal "  assembly  was  accordingly  broken  up ;  and  writs  be- 
ing issued  for  a  fresh  election,  a  large  body  of  representatives  were  chosen, 
who  were  bent  upon  redressing  the  grievances  under  which  Virginia  had  so 
long  groaned.  Among  these  newly-elected  burgesses  Bacon  was  returned  in 
triumph ;  but  as  he  repaired  to  James  Town  in  an  armed  sloop,  he  was  inter- 
cepted and  seized  by  order  of  the  governor,  and  compelled,  in  the  presence  of 
the  assembly,  to  beg  pardon  for  his  mutinous  behaviour,  offering  his  estate 
as  a  security  for  future  obedience. 

The  members  of  the  new  assembly  were  not  long  met  before  they  proceeded 
to  restore  their  franchise  to  those  freemen  who  had  been  deprived  of  it  by 
their  predecessors,  and  to  carry  reform  into  every  department  of  the  adminis- 
tration. Bacon,  in  the  mean  time,  perhaps  suspicious  of  treachery  on  the  part 
of  the  governor,  had  secretly  absconded,  and  gathered  together  a  body  of 
four  hundred  of  his  adherents,  who,  before  Berkeley  could  assemble  the  mi- 
litia to  withstand  them,  appeared  in  formidable  array  upon  the  green  at  James 
Town.  The  assembly  being  convoked,  Bacon  himself  soon  after  approached 
with  a  guard  of  soldiery  for  the  purpose  of  stating  his  grievances.  The  go- 
vernor, accompanied  by  several  of  the  members,  went  forth  to  meet  him  in  a 


A.  D. 1676. 


134  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  state  of  the  highest  exasperation — his  cavalier  blood  boiled  within  him  at  find- 
ing himself  thus  outwitted  and  brow-beaten  by  a  rebel,  he  tore  open  his  dress, 
and  exposing  his  breast,  exclaimed,  half  choked  with  passion,  "  Here,  shoot  me  ! 
Fore  God !  fair  mark,  shoot  me  ! "  passionately  reiterating  his  insane  request ; 
to  which  Bacon,  though  also  highly  excited,  replied,  "  No,  may  it  please  your 
honour,  we  will  not  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head,  nor  of  any  other  man's — we 
are  come  for  a  commission  to  save  our  lives  from  the  Indians,  which  you  have 
so  often  promised,  and  now  Ave '11  have  it  before  we  go."  The  insurgents  also 
made  the  same  demand,  accompanied  by  menaces  in  case  of  refusal,  of  the  as- 
sembly itself,  who,  thus  threatened,  and  with  many  among  them  who  were  the 
partisans  of  the  rebel  leader,  were  content  enough  to  give  way  before  the  po- 
pular movement,  and  to  compel  the  governor,  though  sorely  against  his  will,  to 
accede  to  the  demands  of  Bacon,  and  also  to  appoint  him  to  the  command  of  the 
forces  sent  against  the  Indians.  This  point  being  settled,  the  assembly  pro- 
ceeded to  enact  many  salutary  reforms,  popularly  known  as  "  Bacon's  Laws," 
all  tending  to  abate  the  exorbitant  pretensions  of  the  aristocratic  party,  and  to 
restore  to  the  mass  of  the  people  the  privileges  of  which  they  had  been  un- 
justly deprived.  • 

Thus  by  a  sudden  and  well-concerted  movement,  and  without  the  shedding 
of  a  drop  of  blood,  a  most  salutary  reformation  had  been  effected.  But  it  was 
impossible  that  matters  could  thus  rest  without  a  further  struggle  between 
the  hostile  parties.  The  supporters  of  aristocratic  privilege  encouraged 
Berkeley,  whose  adhesion  to  the  new  reforms  had  been  most  reluctantly  con- 
ceded, and  who  was  smarting  under  a  sense  of  his  recent  humiliation,  a  second 
time  to  proclaim  Bacon  as  a  rebel ;  to  which  the  latter  retorted  by  publishing 
his  vindication  and  denouncing  the  tyranny  of  the  governor,  calling  delegates 
to  assemble  and  discuss  the  critical  position  of  the  colony.  The  popular  party, 
among  whom  were  many  of  the  most  influential  citizens,  rallied  at  his  sum- 
mons, and  agreed  that  they  would  defend  him,  even  against  troops  that  might 
be  sent  from  England,  until  a  statement  and  appeal  could  be  forwarded  to 
the  king. 

Thus  overborne  a  second  time,  the  governor  was  compelled  to  retreat  before 
the  storm  he  had  raised.  His  flight  was  regarded  as  an  abdication,  and  writs 
were  issued  by  Bacon  for  the  election  of  a  new  assembly.  Together  with  his 
partisans,  Berkeley  retired  to  Accomac,  where  by  promises  of  pay  and  plunder 
he  collected  a  considerable  force,  with  which  he  soon  returned  in  triumph  to 
the  seat  of  government,  which  had  been  abandoned  on  his  approach;  but  his 
exultation  was  soon  interrupted  by  the  reappearance  of  Bacon,  with  an  arma- 
ment, which,  although  inferior  to  his  own  in  numbers,  was  animated  by  a  far 
more  resolute  and  determined  spirit.  James  Town  immediately  was  invested, 
and  Berkeley,  finding  his  own  ardour  but  indifferently  seconded  by  his  men, 
was  a  second  time  compelled  to  retreat  some  distance  down  the  river.  Bacon 
and  his  followers  then  re-entered  the  little  town ;  the  only  one  which  had  yet 
grown  up  in  a  country  where  the  planters  were  scattered  at  wide  intervals  along 
the  numerous  inlets  and  rivers,  and  consisting  of  but  nineteen  dweliirgs  and  a 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  135 

little  church  and  state  house.     Lawrence,  one  of  the  most  active  among  the    chap. 

XI 

popular  agitators,  set  fire  to  his  own  abode,  and  the  little  capital  of  Virginia '. — 

was  soon  enveloped  in  flames,  which,  seen  to  a  considerable  distance  down  the 
river,  acquainted  Berkeley  and  his  adherents  with  the  fate  of  the  seat  of 
government.  This  sacrifice,  which,  though  painful  to  the  feelings  of  the 
insurgents,  was  deemed  necessary  to  prevent  the  governor's  party  from  making 
a  stronghold  of  the  place,  having  been  made,  Bacon  boldly  marched  against  a 
large  body  who  were  advancing  to  attack  him.  Upon  the  desertion  of  this 
body  their  leaders  speedily  dispersed,  leaving  him  free  to  prosecute  the  struggle 
with  every  prospect  of  a  successful  issue,  when,  to  the  grief  and  consternation 
of  the  popular  party,  he  was  suddenly  cut  off  by  a  disorder  contracted  among 
the  marshy  lowlands  of  James  Town. 

The  death  of  their  leader,  cut  off  in  the  flower  of  his  youth,  and  in 
the  midst  of  a  career  of  success,  utterly  disconcerted  the  measures  and 
broke  the  spirits  of  the  insurgents,  while  it  gave  increased  confidence  and 
activity  to  the  governor  and  his  adherents.  The  greater  part  of  the  popular 
leaders  were  surprised  and  taken,  although  some  few  held  out  with  the 
courage  of  despair.  Lawrence  fled  and  was  never  heard  of  more  ;  Drummond 
and  Horsford  were  made  prisoners.  The  latter  was  first  destined  to  feel  the 
weight  of  the  governor's  vengeance,  and  was  the  first  Virginian  that  ever  suf- 
fered death  by  hanging.  He  met  his  fate  with  intrepidity,  glorying  in  the 
cause  of  popular  liberty  for  which  he  was  called  upon  to  lay  down  his  life. 
Drummond  soon  after  shared  the  same  fate.  The  wife  of  Cheasman,  another 
of  the  leaders,  went  on  her  knees  before  the  governor,  and  pleading  that  her 
husband  had  become  guilty  through  her  instigation,  earnestly  besought  him 
to  allow  her  to  suffer  in  his  stead.  Berkeley  dismissed  the  agonized  sufferer 
with  a  torrent  of  unmanly  insult,  and  refused  to  show  mercy  to  his  victim, 
who  escaped  the  ignominy  of  an  execution  by  dying  in  prison  soon  afterwards, 
outworn  with  grief  and  misery.  The  weak,  irritable  old  Cavalier,  his  pride 
mortified,  and  his  possessions  ravaged,  showed  like  another  JefFery  in 
indiscriminate  slaughter  and  confiscation.  But  his  thirst  for  vengeance  was 
interrupted  by  the  protestations  of  the  assembly,  and  by  the  arrival  of  com- 
missioners from  England,  who  had  been  despatched  upon  the  news  of  the  re- 
bellion, and  bearing  a  royal  proclamation  to  all,  with  the  exception  of  Bacon, 
who  should  submit  within  twenty  days  of  its  publication.  They  brought  over 
with  them  a  body  of  English  soldiers,  the  first  ever  introduced  into  the 
American  colonies.  Even  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners,  although  it 
operated  as  a  check,  did  not  however  immediately  cut  short  the  merciless 
career  of  Berkeley.  Suppressing  the  publication  of  the  king's  pardon,  he  still 
continued  to  execute  and  imprison  the  objects  of  his  vengeance,  who,  brought 
to  trial,  were  convicted  by  partial  or  terrified  jurymen.  Fines  and  confisca- 
tion were  also  resorted  to,  until  the  commissioners  at  length  decisively  inter- 
fered, and  having  declared  their  readiness  to  hear  any  complaints  on  the  part 
of  the  colonists,  so  many  were  poured  in  that  their  report  on  the  causes  of  the 
troubles  was  highly  unfavourable  to  the  governor,  whose  friends  published  a 


XI. 


A.  D. 1G77. 


136  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  protest  against  it,  and  who  himself  soon  after  returned  to  England,  to  appeal  to 
the  king,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  bulk  of  the  colonists.  But  his  ardent 
loyalty  received  a  severe  shock  at  hearing  that  Charles  had  said  of  him,  "  The 
old  fool  has  taken  away  more  lives  in  that  naked  country  than  I  for  the  murder 
of  my  father ;"  and  consumed  with  chagrin  at  such  a  reception,  and  by  the  cen- 
sure upon  his  measures  passed  by  the  commissioners,  he  died  not  long  after 
his  return  to  the  mother  country. 

The  reaction  produced  by  the  disastrous  issue  of  Bacon's  rebellion  was  very 
unfortunate  for  the  colonists.  Some  trifling  concessions  were  indeed  made  to 
their  complaints,  but  the  majority  of  those  abuses  by  which  they  had  been 
provoked  into  a  rising  remained  in  full  force.  The  whole  of  "  Bacon's  Laws" 
enacted  by  the  popular  assembly  were  annulled,  the  franchise,  as  just  be- 
fore, and  not  as  originally,  was  restricted  to  freeholders  alone,  and  the 
assembly  chosen  by  it  was  only  to  meet  once  in  two  years,  nor,  except  on 
special  occasions,  to  remain  in  session  for  more  than  a  fortnight.  Oppressed 
with  the  still  stricter  enforcement  of  the  navigation  laws,  which  ruinously 
reduced  the  price  of  their  staple,  tobacco,  saddled  with  the  additional  burden 
of  supporting  a  body  of  English  soldiers,  forbidden  even  to  set  up  a  printing 
press,  the  Virginians  might  have  seemed  to  be  sunk  into  a  condition  of  abject 
and  hopeless  dependency  on  the  royal  power.  But  a  legitimate  popular 
movement,  even  if  it  fail  of  its  immediate  object,  never  fails  to  awaken  a  spirit 
of  resistance,  which,  though  for  a  while  suppressed,  is  destined  some  day  to 
work  out  its  desired  results. 

The  government  of  the  unfortunate  colony  for  the  next  ten  years  closely 
resembled  that  of  the  mother  country  itself,  in  the  unblushing  profligacy  and 
rapacity  of  those  by  whom  it  was  administered.  The  grant  of  Virginia  to 
Arlington  and  Culpepper  has  been  already  mentioned.  The  latter  nobleman 
had  obtained  the  cession  of  his  partner's  share,  and  had  been  invested  besides 
with  the  office  of  governor  for  life,  as  the  successor  of  Berkeley.  The  spirit 
of  sordid  avarice  which  had  infected  the  English  court  had  alone  dictated  the 
request  of  these  privileges,  and  in  the  same  spirit  was  the  administration  of 
Culpepper  conducted.  Compelled  to  repair  with  reluctance  from  the  delights 
of  the  court  to  the  government  of  a  distant  province,  his  only  indemnification 
was  to  make  the  best  use  of  the  period  of  his  banishment.  He  carried  out 
with  him  a  general  amnesty  for  the  recent  political  offences,  and  an  act  for 
increasing  the  royal  revenue  by  additional  duties.  He  obtained  a  salary 
double  that  of  Berkeley's,  and  still  further  contrived  to  swell  his  emoluments, 
and  to  satisfy  his  greediness  by  means  of  perquisites  and  peculations.  The  pinch 
began  to  be  severely  felt  even  by  the  most  ardent  loyalists,  and  symptoms  of 
opposition  arose  in  the  assembly  itself.  The  misery  of  the  planters  had  led 
them  to  solicit  the  enforcement  of  a  year's  cessation  from  the  planting  of 
tobacco,  the  assembly  could  but  refer  it  to  "  the  pleasure  of  the  king,"  and  in 
the  mean  time  the  exasperated  sufferers  .proceeded  to  cut  up  the  tobacco 
plants.  These  outrages,  dictated  by  despair,  led  to  several  executions,  and 
laws  were  passed  for  their  future  suppression.     After  thus  conducting  his 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  137 

administration  for  a  period  of  three  years,  during  which  he  twice  repaired  to  c  ha  p. 
England,  Culpepper  was  at  length  deprived  of  his  office  for  various  mal-  A 
practices,  while  at  the  same  time  his  claims  over  Virginia  were  commuted    to  i6S3. 
for  a  pension. 

Culpepper  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  who  sur- 
passed even  his  predecessor  in  the  devisal  of  fresh  expedients  for  fleecing 
the  suffering  colonists.  New  fees  were  multiplied,  and  a  court  of  chancery 
established,  of  which  he  constituted  himself  the  sole  judge ;  and  after  thus 
securing  the  lion's  share  for  himself,  participated,  it  is  said,  with  his  own 
clerks  the  perquisites  of  their  offices.  Despotism  was  rapidly  attaining 
its  climax.  A  frigate  was  stationed  to  enforce  the  stricter  observation  of 
the  navigation  laws,  an  additional  excise  duty  in  England  on  the  import  of 
tobacco  still  further  discouraged  trade.  The  conduct  of  the  governor  towards 
the  assembly  became  more  and  more  arbitrary,  until  scarcely  the  shadow  of 
popular  liberty  was  left.  Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Virginia  at  the 
accession  of  the  last  of  the  Stuarts.  Alarming  symptoms  of  insubordination 
having  appeared,  not  only  among  the  body  of  the  people,  but  even  in  the 
assembly  itself,  who  presumed  to  question  the  veto  of  the  governor,  that  body, 
by  order  of  the  arbitrary  monarch,  was  summarily  dissolved.  But  the  same 
spirit  that  was  about  to  hurl  James  II.  from  the  English  throne  was  now  fully 
awakened  also  in  the  breast  of  the  Virginians,  once  so  loyal,  but  whose  loyalty 
had  been  too  cruelly  abused  by  an  infatuated  race  of  kings,  and  the  next 
assembly  was  imbued  with  such  a  determination  to  maintain  its  privileges, 
that  the  governor,  counting  upon  the  royal  support,  determined,  after  a  brief 
experience  of  its  temper,  to  dissolve  it  upon  his  own  authority ;  upon  which 
they  deputed  Ludwell,  formerly  conspicuous  among  the  most  influential 
loyalists,  to  complain  of  this  abuse  of  authority. 

While  Virginia  had  been  agitated  by  rebellion  and  almost  crushed  by 
despotic  encroachment,  Maryland  continued,  with  little  interruption,  her  tran- 
quil and  rapid  progress.  The  broad  and  liberal  basis  upon  which  Cecil,  Lord 
Baltimore,  had  planted  his  colony,  the  peaceful  and  happy  circumstances  of  its 
settlement,  insured,  for  the  period  of  his  own  life-time  at  least,  an  almost  total 
exemption  from  those  disputes  and  revolutions  that  agitated  the  other  American 
colonies,  as  well  as  a  handsome  return  for  the  liberal  expenditure  he  had  been 
put  to.  He  lived  to  see  this  colony  widely  extending  its  boundaries,  and  in- 
creased in  wealth,  population,  and  prosperity.  As  in  Virginia,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  tobacco  was  the  principal  staple,  a  great  impulse  was  given  to  its 
increase  by  the  introduction  of  slave  labour ;  and  as  in  Virginia,  a  proportion- 
able discouragement  by  the  navigation  act. 

The  wise  endeavours  of  Lord  Baltimore  to  secure  an  impartial  toleration  for 
all  religious  sects,  through  which  the  colony  had  so  greatly  prospered,  and 
immigration  from  Europe  so  largely  increased,  were  not  in  harmony  with  the 
bigoted  spirit  nor  with  the  political  tendencies  of  the  times.  The  Catholics, 
by  whom  the  first  settlement  had  been  made,  had  not  increased  in  proportion 
to  the  Protestants.     The  Episcopal  clergy,  unlike  their  brethren  in  Virginia, 


138  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  enjoyed  no  livings,  and  consequently  no  settled  incomes,  and  bitterly  com- 

— ■  plained  to  the  English  bishops  of  what  they  considered  to  be  a  degraded  and 

'  miserable  position.  When,  after  the  death  of  Lord  Baltimore,  his  successor 
repaired  to  England,  earnest  attempts  were  made  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
to  enforce  an  establishment  for  the  Anglican  Church,  a  claim  which  he  was 
enabled  with  some  difficulty  to  resist.  The  prejudices  of  the  times  were, 
however,  so  unfavourable  to  the  Catholics,  both  in  England  and  in  the  colony 
itself,  that  an  order  was  sent  out  by  Charles  II.  to  confine  the  possession  of 
office  to  Protestants  alone,  a  stretch  of  authority  evidently  unauthorized  by 
the  terms  of  the  charter  granted  to  his  father,  which  exempted  the  proprietor 
from  any  control  on  the  part  of  the  crown. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


FOUNDATION   OF   CAROLINA. — LOCKE'S   SYSTEM   OF  LEGISLATION   FOUND   UNSUITABLE.— DIFFICUL- 
TIES  WITH  THE    COLONISTS. — ABROGATION   OF  THE   "  GRAND   MODEL." 


c  h  a  p.  The  discovery  of  Florida  by  Ponce  de  Leon,  and  the  attempt  of  Admiral 

—  Coligny  to  found  upon  its  shores  a  Protestant  colony,  so  tragically  defeated 

by  the  cruelty  of  Melendez,  have  been  already  narrated.  Since  that  period 
Spain  had  never  renounced  her  claims  to  an  indefinite  extent  of  country  com- 
prised under  the  title  of  Florida,  but  had  not  carried  her  settlements  further 
along  the  line  of  coast.  The  early  colonists  sent  out  by  Raleigh  left  few  or  no 
traces  behind  them,  nor  does  a  patent  granted  by  Charles  I.  to  Sir  Robert 
Heath,  his  attorney-general,  for  a  tract  to  the  southward  of  Virginia  to  be 
called  Carolina,  appear  to  have  been  followed  by  any  result  beyond  a  voyage 
of  observation.  Yet  more  than  one  band  of  immigrants  had  established  them- 
selves at  different  points  of  this  fertile  territory.  A  small  party  from  New 
England  had  settled  near  Cape  Fear,  bringing  with  them  their  love  of  self- 
government  and  peculiar  religious  views.  Some  of  the  pioneers  of  discovery 
who  penetrated  the  wilderness  to  the  southward  of  Virginia  had  opened  the 
way  for  more  numerous  adventurers,  some  of  them  bodies  of  emigrant  Dis- 
senters, who  spread  themselves  over  the  vicinity  of  the  river  Chowan,  and  to 
the  north  of  the  neighbouring  Sound. 

Soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  a  body  of  courtiers  of  the  highest 
rank,  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  Monk  Duke  of  Albemarle,  Lords  Berkeley, 
Craven,  and  Ashley,  Sir  George  Cartaret,  Sir  John  Colleton,  and  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  governor  of  Virginia,  "  excited,"  as  they  affirmed,  "  by  a  laudable 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  139 

and  pious  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,"  but  in  reality  by  a  desire  to    c  ha  p. 

obtain  a  rich  and  valuable  territory,  petitioned  the  king  for  a  grant  of  the  vast 

province,  to  be  called  Carolina,  extending  from  Albemarle  Sound  to  the  river  to  ig38. 
St.  John's,  with  a  westward  continuation  to  the  Pacific.  The  charter,  easily 
bestowed  at  their  request  by  the  careless  and  improvident  monarch,  resembled 
that  of  Maryland.  The  proprietors  were  to  govern  with  the  assent  of  a 
popular  assembly  which  was  conceded  to  the  colonists,  and  no  one  might  be 
molested  for  matters  of  religion,  unless  he  disturbed  the  civil  order  and  peace 
of  the  community. 

The  first  object  of  the  proprietaries  was  to  conciliate  the  afore-mentioned 
settlers  from  New  England  and  Virginia.  The  former  body,  on  hearing  of 
the  new  grant,  had  claimed  for  themselves  the  privileges  of  self-government, 
which  the  proprietors,  desirous  of  attracting  fresh  emigrants  from  New  Eng- 
land, were  readily  disposed  to  concede.  But  the  poverty  of  the  soil,  com- 
bined with  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  outweighed  their  liberal  offers ;  the 
greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  returned  to  New  England,  while  those  that 
lingered  behind  were  reduced  to  such  distress  that  contributions  were  levied 
by  that  colony  for  their  relief. 

More  fortunate  was  the  issue  of  an  emigration  of  planters  from  Barbadoes, 
who  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the  proprietaries  to  remove  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Cape  Fear  River,  near  the  neglected  settlement  of  the  New  Eng- 
enders. Sir  John  Yeamans,  one  of  their  number,  was  appointed  governor 
of  the  new  country,  which  received  the  name  of  Clarendon.  He  was  espe- 
cially directed  to  "  make  things  easy  to  the  people  of  New  England,  from 
which  the  greatest  emigrations  were  expected ; "  an  instruction  which  he  car- 
ried out  so  wisely,  as  soon  to  incorporate  the  remains  of  the  old  settlement. 
He  also  opened  a  profitable  trade  in  boards  and  shingles  with  the  island 
whence  he  had  emigrated,  and  arranged  the  general  affairs  of  the  little  colony 
with  great  prudence  and  success. 

Towards  the  Virginia  settlers  on  the  Sound  which,  with  the  surrounding 
district,  now  received  the  name  of  Albemarle,  and  who  were  supposed  by  the 
proprietors  to  be  "  a  more  facile  people  "  than  the  New  Englanders,  Berkeley, 
upon  whom  the  jurisdiction  had  been  conferred,  was  instructed  to  be  some- 
what less  lavish  in  his  concessions.  But  to  a  body,  many  of  whom  had  fled 
malcontent  from  Virginia,  and  with  whose  temper  he  was  well  acquainted,  he 
judged  it  expedient  to  behave  with  caution.  Making  therefore  the  tenure  of 
land  as  easy  as  possible,  and  appointing  as  governor  the  popular  William 
Drummond,  the  same  who  afterwards  shared  and  suffered  death  in  Bacon's 
rebellion,  he  made  no  attempt  at  interference  with  existing  usages. 

The  noble  proprietaries,  meanwhile,  upon  a  further  acquaintance  with  their 
territory,  became  greedy  of  adding  to  it  still  greater,  and  indeed  almost 
boundless,  acquisitions.  They  obtained,  with  little  more  difficulty  than  at- 
tended the  first,  the  grant  of  a  second  patent,  by  which  their  limits  were 
increased  half  a  degree  northward,  and  a  degree  and  a  half  southward,  a 
boundary  which,  being  run  to  the  Pacific,  included  several  of  the  modern 

t  2 


A.  D. 1669 


140  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  States,  and  even  part  of  Mexico  and.  Texas.  The  Bahama  Islands  were  also 
thrown  in.  Over  this  immense  territory,  which,  had  it  been  portioned  out 
among  its  possessors,  would  have  afforded  a  principality  to  each,  the  pro- 
prietors determined  to  establish  a  system  of  legislation,  which  should  exhibit 
the  utmost  refinement  of  political  sagacity.  The  office  of  drawing  up  this 
scheme  devolved  on  Lord  Shaftesbury,  who,  himself  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  of  his  time,  called  in  the  assistance  of  one  far  greater  than  himself, 
the  immortal  author  of  the  "  Essay  upon  the  Human  Understanding."  In 
framing  the  desired  plan,  Locke  appears  to  have  steered  midway  between  the 
democratic  principles,  of  which  he  had  witnessed  the  failure  in  England,  and 
the  royalist  doctrines  of  the  Tories,  and  to  have  lodged  the  principal  power  in 
the  hands  of  an  almost  feudal  aristocracy.  His  pompous  and  elaborate  scheme 
for  the  government  of  a  country  which,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  scattered 
settlers,  was  still  in  a  state  of  nature,  a  scheme  pronounced  to  be  "  incompara- 
ble, fundamental,  and  unalterable,"  never  was  nor  could  be  carried  into  ex- 
ecution, and  after  a  vain  attempt  to  accommodate  its  provisions  to  a  state  of 
things  to  which  it  was  totally  unfitted,  and  much  consequent  hostility  between 
the  proprietaries  and  settlers,  it  was  at  length  abrogated  by  the  consent  of  both 
parties.  A  brief  outline  of  its  provisions,  however,  is  due  to  the  illustrious 
name  of  its  founder. 

"  The  eldest  of  the  eight  proprietors  was  always  to  be  palatine,  and  at  his 
decease  was  to  be  succeeded  by  the  eldest  of  the  seven  survivors.  This  pala- 
tine was  to  sit  as  president  of  the  palatine's  court,  of  which  he  and  three  more 
of  the  proprietors  made  a  quorum,  and  had  the  management  and  execution  of 
all  the  powers  in  their  charter.  This  palatine's  court  was  to  stand  in  room  of 
the  king,  and  give  their  assent  or  dissent  to  all  laws  made  by  the  legislature  of 
the  colony.  The  palatine  was  to  have  power  to  nominate  and  appoint  the  go- 
vernor, who,  after  obtaining  the  royal  approbation,  became  his  representative 
in  Carolina.  Each  of  the  seven  proprietors  was  to  have  the  privilege  of  ap- 
pointing a  deputy,  to  sit  as  his  representative  in  parliament,  and  to  act  agree- 
ably to  his  instructions.  Besides  a  governor,  two  other  branches,  somewhat 
similar  to  the  old  Saxon  constitution,  were  to  be  established,  an  upper  and 
lower  house  of  assembly ;  which  three  branches  were  to  be  called  a  parliament, 
and  to  constitute  the  legislature  of  the  country.  The  parliament  was  to  be 
chosen  every  two  years.  No  act  of  the  legislature  was  to  have  any  force  un- 
less ratified  in  open  parliament  during  the  same  session,  and  even  then  to 
continue  no  longer  in  force  than  the  next  biennial  parliament,  unless  in  the 
mean  time  it  be  ratified  by  the  hands  and  seal  of  the  palatine  and  three  pro- 
prietors. The  upper  house  was  to  consist  of  the  seven  deputies,  seven  of  the 
oldest  landgraves  and  caciques,  and  seven  chosen  by  the  assembly.  As  in  the 
other  provinces,  the  lower  house  was  to  be  composed  of  the  representatives 
from  the  different  counties  and  towns.  Several  officers  were  also  to  be  ap- 
pointed, such  as  an  admiral,  a  secretary,  a  chief  justice,  a  surveyor,  a  trea- 
surer, a  marshal,  and  register ;  and  besides  these  each  county  was  to  have  a 
sheriff,  and  four  justices  of  the  peace.     Three  classes  of  nobility  were  to  be 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  141 

established,  called   barons,  caciques,  and   landgraves;    the   first   to  possess    chap. 

twelve,  the  second  twenty-four,  and  the  third  forty-eight  thousand  acres  of ■ — 

land,  and  their  possessions  were  to  be  unalienable.  Military  officers  were  also 
to  be  nominated,  and  all  inhabitants  from  sixteen  to  sixty  years  of  age,  as  in 
the  times  of  feudal  government,  when  summoned  by  the  governor  and  grand 
council,  were  to  appear  under  arms,  and,  in  time  of  war,  to  take  the  field. 
With  respect  to  religion,  three  terms  of  communion  were  fixed ;  first,  to  be- 
lieve that  there  is  a  God  ;  secondly,  that  he  is  to  be  worshipped  ;  and  thirdly, 
that  it  is  lawful,  and  the  duty  of  every  man,  when  called  upon  by  those  in 
authority,  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth,  without  acknowledging  which  no  man 
was  to  be  permitted  to  be  a  freeman,  or  to  have  any  estate  or  habitation  in 
Carolina.  But  persecution  for  observing  different  modes  and  ways  of  wor- 
ship was  expressly  forbidden,  and  every  man  was  to  be  left  full  liberty  of  con- 
science, and  might  worship  God  in  that  manner  which  he  in  his  private  judg- 
ment thought  most  conformable  to  the  Divine  will  and  revealed  word.  Every 
freeman  of  Carolina  was  declared  to  possess  absolute  power  and  authority  over 
his  negro  slaves,  of  what  opinion  or  religion  soever." 

Before  this  cumbrous  and  unsuitable  code  had  been  sent  over  to  Albemarle, 
the  planters  had  already  organized  a  system  of  legislation  far  simpler  and 
better  adapted  to  their  wants.  When  at  length  "  the  model "  appeared,  it 
was  found,  as  already  stated,  utterly  impossible  to  carry  it  out.  Other  influ- 
ences had  also  been  at  work.  A  few  persecuted  Quakers  had  taken  refuge  in 
the  colony,  whom  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  their  sect,  now  visited.  His 
simple  manners  and  fervent  preaching  made  a  great  impression  on  the  colon- 
ists, and  made  numerous  converts,  who,  it  may  easily  be  supposed,  were  little 
inclined  to  accept  a  code  which  contradicted  the  fundamental  principles  of 
their  belief. 

While  these  scattered  colonists  were  growing  up  in  habits  of  self-reliance 
and  self-government,  and  acquiring  a  corresponding  distaste  for  foreign  con- 
trol, the  proprietaries,  after  a  long  delay,  sent  out  three  vessels,  with  a  body 
of  emigrants,  under  the  command  of  Captain  William  Sayle,  who  had  already 
been  employed  in  a  preliminary  exploration.  An  expense  of  £  12,000  was  in- 
curred in  providing  necessaries  for  the  plantation  of  the  colony.  Touching 
at  Port  Royal,  wrhere  they  found  traces  of  the  fort  erected  by  the  Huguenots, 
they  finally  settled  at  a  spot  between  two  rivers,  which  they  called  the  Ashley 
and  the  Cooper,  the  family  names  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  and  where  they  laid 
the  original  foundations  of  Charleston,  whence  they  removed,  however,  two 
years  afterwards,  in  1672,  to  the  more  commodious  situation  occupied  by  the 
present  city. 

Before  this  removal  took  place,  Sayle  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  John 
Yeamans,  governor  of  Clarendon,  who  introduced  a  body  of  negroes  from 
Barbadoes,  afterwards  recruited  so  largely  that  they  were  twice  as  numerous 
as  the  whites.  Slave  labour  soon  became  thus  established  in  Carolina,  to  the 
soil  and  climate  of  which  it  was  peculiarly  adapted.  During  the  next  ensuing 
years  a  stream  of  emigrants  poured  in  from  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland, 


142 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


XII. 


A.  D.  1672. 


chap,  from  Holland  and  Germany,  and  particularly  of  persecuted  Huguenots  from 
France,  destined  to  meet  with  a  better  welcome  and  a  more  lasting  asylum 
than  had  been  the  lot  of  their  unfortunate  predecessors,  led  out  by  Bibaut, 
and  put  to  death  by  the  Spaniards.  The  latter  indeed  were  not  idle  on  this 
occasion,  they  threatened  an  attack  from  St.  Augustine,  and  excited  the  In- 
dians to  revolt ;  a  domestic  insurrection  also  broke  out ;  but  all  these  troubles 
were  promptly  suppressed  by  the  governor.  On  constituting  their  new  State, 
the  "  grand  model "  was  found  to  be  too  elaborate  to  be  carried  out,  and  a 
provisional  system  was  accordingly  agreed  upon,  by  which  the  government 
was  shared  by  a  council  of  ten,  half  of  whom  were  elected  by  the  proprietors, 
and  half  by  the  colonists,  in  connexion  with  twenty  delegates  chosen  by  the 
people.  Thus  had  already  a  popular  element  grown  up,  which  was  soon 
found  to  be  incompatible  with  the  claims  of  the  proprietaries ;  and  thus  the 
subsequent  career  of  the  colony  displays  everywhere  a  scene  of 'confusion  and 
dissension,  of  which  it  is  as  difficult  to  trace  the  origin  as  it  would  be  tedious 
to  dwell  upon  the  details,  and  in  describing  which  we  shall  accordingly  en- 
deavour to  use  the  utmost  brevity  consistent  with  preserving  the  general 
thread  of  the  narrative  unbroken. 

Turning  first  to  Albemarle  or  North  Carolina,  which  had  by  this  time  made 
considerable  progress,  we  find,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  that  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  "  grand  model "  was  received  with  the  utmost  disgust,  and 
that  bitter  and  acrimonious  disputes  arose  between  the  agents  of  the  proprie- 
taries and  the  people.  After  the  death  of  Stevens,  the  governor,  the  assembly 
elected  their  speaker,  Cartwright,  to  the  vacant  office,  the  limits  of  which  being 
doubtful  under  the  "  grand  model,"  he  sailed  for  England,  accompanied  by 
the  new  speaker,  Eastchurch,  to  submit  the  case  to  the  proprietaries.  Millar, 
a  person  of  eminence  in  the  colony,  had  been  accused  of  sedition,  but  being 
acquitted,  had  also  repaired  to  London  with  complaints,  and  his  treatment 
being  disapproved  of,  he  was  rewarded  for  his  troubles  with  the  office  of  se- 
cretary to  the  colony.  Eastchurch  being  appointed  governor,  was,  on  his  re- 
turn, delayed  in  the  West  Indies  by  a  wealthy  marriage ;  while  Millar  pro- 
ceeded to  execute  his  functions,  and  to  enforce  the  obnoxious  provisions  of  the 
navigation  act,  which  pressed  heavily  upon  the  rising  commerce  of  the 
planters.  The  public  discontent  broke  out  into  an  insurrection,  headed  by 
John  Culpepper;  Millar  was  imprisoned;  a  popular  assembly  established; 
and  when  Eastchurch  appeared  to  assume  his  government,  the  people  refused 
their  submission.  Confident  in  the  justice  of  their  cause,  they  sent  Culpepper, 
who  had  been  appointed  by  them  collector  of  customs,  to  England,  to  obtain 
the  consent  of  the  proprietaries  to  the  recent  changes ;  but  Millar,  having  in 
the  mean  time  made  his  escape,  charged  Culpepper  as  he,  having  effected  his 
object,  was  about  to  embark,  with  "  treason  "  for  collecting  the  revenue  with- 
out the  authority  of  the  king.  Singularly  enough,  he  was  defended  from  this 
unjust  charge  by  no  other  than  Shaftesbury  himself — then  aiming  at  popu- 
larity, on  the  p„lL.ciple  that  the  offence  was  not  towards  the  crown,  but  the 
planters ;  a  plea  so  successfully  urged,  that  Culpepper  was  acquitted  by  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  143 

jury.     The  proprietaries,  finding  it  useless  to  attempt  to  carry  out  their  vi-   chap. 
sionary  "  model "  by  force,  agreed  to  a  compromise  with  the  settlers,  promised 


XII. 


an  amnesty,  and  appointed  a  new  governor,  Seth  Sothel,  a  man  of  sordid  cha-    to  1V.90. 
racter,  who,  during  an  administration  of  five  years,  pillaged  both  the  proprie- 
taries and  the  colonists,  until  the  latter  at  length  arose,  banished  him  for  a 
twelvemonth,  and  compelled  him  finally  to  abjure  the  government, 

In  South  Carolina  the  progress  of  matters  was  hardly  more  satisfactory. 
Th'3  colonists  were  little  disposed  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  laws  totally 
unsuited  for  their  condition.  Large  demands  were  made  upon  the  proprietors 
for  supplies,  while  they  looked  in  vain  for  returns  from  the  settlers.  Yea- 
mans,  the  governor,  was  accused  by  them  of  consulting  his  own  private  in- 
terests rather  than  those  of  his  employers  ;  and  he  was  accordingly  superseded 
by  West,  as  was  West  by  a  rapid  succession  of  others  no  more  fortunate  than 
himself.  Daring  these  fugitive  administrations,  the  buccaneers,  or  pirates,  ap- 
peared at  Charleston  to  purchase  provisions,  and  whether  from  fear  or  in- 
terest, the  people,  and  even  the  governor  himself,  seemed  to  have  connived 
at  and  even  encouraged  their  visits.  This  dreaded  body  of  freebooters  had 
sprung  up  in  the  West  India  seas,  where  the  Spaniards  had  once  destroyed 
their  haunts,  but  during  the  war  with  Spain  they  appeared  anew,  and  obtained 
privateering  commissions  to  harass  the  commerce  and  attack  the  cities  of 
that  country  in  America ;  armed  with  which  power  they  so  increased  their 
numbers  by  desperadoes  from  every  clime,  and  entered  upon  such  daring  and 
successful  enterprises,  that  their  exploits  inspired  an  admiration,  with  which, 
however,  a  feeling  of  terror  was  largely  mingled.  One  of  their  leaders  had 
been  knighted  by  Charles  II.,  and  another  created  governor  of  Jamaica.  But 
the  horrible  abuses  of  such  a  system  of  licensed  outrage  and  plunder  had  sur- 
vived the  occasion  which  led  to  its  permission,  and  the  peace  with  Spain  had 
withdrawn  from  them  the  countenance  of  the  English  government,  who  now 
desired  their  suppression.  The  colonists,  half  dazzled  by  the  ill-got  gains 
which  these  rovers  scattered  so  freely  about  them  in  exchange  for  provisions, 
half  afraid  of  incurring  their  enmity,  and  regarding  them,  moreover,  as  their 
natural  allies  against  the  neighbouring  Spaniards  of  St.  Augustine,  were  but 
little  anxious  to  observe  the  prohibitions  of  the  proprietaries,  who,  finding  at 
length  that  Governor  Quarry  was  conniving  at  the  proceedings  of  the  pirates, 
dismissed  him  from  his  situation,  and  appointed  Morton  in  his  stead.  Nor  was 
this  connivance  at  piracy  the  only  indication  of  a  loose  code  of  morality  among 
the  settlers,  connected  with,  or  produced  by,  the  system  of  slavery.  They 
persisted  in  carrying  on  a  border  warfare  with  the  Indians,  and  selling  the 
captives  in  the  West  Indies,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  proprietors, 
who  found  the  breach  between  themselves  and  the  colonists  becoming  every 
year  wider.  In  circumstances  of  such  perplexity,  placed  between  two  parties, 
the  one  in  favour  of  the  absolute  control  of  the  proprietors,  the  other  con- 
tending for  a  local  and  independent  legislation,  Governor  Morton,  unable  to 
satisfy  either,  was  shortly  superseded  by  Colleton,  under  whose  administration 
the  dispute  broke  out  into  an  open  quarrel.     In  vain  did  he  produce  a  copy 


A.  D. 


144  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  of  the  "grand  model,"  with  its  numerous  titles  and  elaborate  provisions,  for 
-  the  acceptance  of  the  assembly ;  they  insisted  that  they  had  only  accepted  that 
modification  of  it  originally  proposed  to  them,  and  drew  up  another  body  of 
laws  in  substitution.  In  vain  did  he  attempt  to  enforce  the  payment  of  the 
quit-rents  due  to  the  proprietaries,  and  issue,  as  a  last  expedient,  a  proclama- 
tion of  martial  law.  By  a  singular  caprice  of  fortune,  the  fugitive  Sothel,  from 
Albemarle,  suddenly  appeared  at  Charleston,  artfully  assumed  the  leadership 
of  the  opposition,  and  was  installed  by  them  in  the  post  of  Colleton,  who  was 
in  his  turn  deprived  of  his  office,  and  ordered  to  depart  the  colony.  But  the 
popular  candidate,  thus  lifted  by  a  sudden  caprice  of  the  South  Carolinians  to 
a  post  from  which  he  had  been  driven  by  those  of  the  North,  soon  displayed 
the  same  characteristics  of  rapacity  and  dishonesty  which  had  led  to  his  ex- 
pulsion, and  for  the  second  time  was  disgraced  and  banished.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Philip  Ludwell,  who  carried  to  England  the  complaints  of  the  Vir- 
ginians against  the  administration  of  Effingham,  and  was  appointed  by  the 
proprietaries  to  the  government  of  Carolina.  Respected  by  the  colonists,  his 
administration  opened  with  every  appearance  of  promise ;  but  he  soon  found 
it  impossible  to  enforce  the  laws  against  the  pirates,  or  to  obtain  the  passing 
of  an  act  enfranchising  the  Huguenots,  which,  originally  proposed  by  the  as- 
sembly and  rejected  by  the  proprietors,  was  now,  when  brought  forward  by 
the  proprietors,  rejected  by  the  assembly,  and  he  speedily  retired  from  so  un- 
pleasant a  post.  Under  his  successor  an  important  alteration  took  place.  The 
proprietors  passed  a  vote,  "  that  as  the  people  have  declared  they  would  ra- 
ther be  governed  by  the  powers  granted  by  the  charter,  without  regard  to  the 
fundamental  constitutions,  it  will  be  for  their  quiet,  and  for  the  protection  of 
the  well-disposed,  to  grant  their  request ;  "  and  thus  the  "  unalterable  "  system 
of  Locke,  with  its  high-sounding  titles  of  palatines,  landgraves,  and  caciques 
came  to  an  end, 

"  And  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision, 
Left  not  a  wrack  behind  ;  " 

a  notable  instance  of  the  fallacy  of  even  the  wisest  of  constitution-makers,  in 
seeking  to  build  up  an  imposing  edifice  upon  a  foundation  of  sand,  forgetting 
to  adapt  their  elaborate  provisions  to  the  character  and  circumstances  of 
those  with  whom  they  have  to  deal. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  145 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


AFFAIRS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  CHARLES  II.  TO  THE  DEPOSITION  OF 
JAMES  II. — DIFFICULTIES  WITH  THE  ENGLISH  GOVERNMENT. — WAR  WITH  PHILIP  OF  POKA- 
NOKET. — ABROGATION   OF  THE   CHARTER. — AFFAIRS    OF  THE   OTHER   COLONIES. 

The  first  news  of  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  were  brought  to  Boston   chap. 

-                                                                              .   .                                   XIII. 
by  the  ships  in  which  Whalley  and  Goffe,  two  of  the  regicides,  fled  for ~ 

their  lives  from  the  vengeance  of  the  ministry ;  and  the  fact  that  they  were 
courteously  received  and  sheltered,  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  political  bias 
of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  who,  with  their  characteristic  wariness,  re- 
solved to  await  the  progress  of  events  before  committing  themselves  to  any 
open  manifestation  of  adherence  to  the  restored  monarch.  In  a  few  weeks, 
more  decided  accounts  were  received  of  the  confirmation  of  the  king's  power, 
and  of  the  re-establishment  of  Episcopacy;  and  now,  conscious  that  they 
must  be  regarded  with  suspicion  on  account  of  their  sympathy  with  the  re- 
publicans, and  charged,  by  numerous  enemies  created  by  their  intolerant 
policy,  with  a  secret  design  of  throwing  off  their  allegiance  to  the  crown,  a 
general  court  was  convened  to  decide  upon  the  best  measures  for  meeting  the 
emergency.  A  deprecatory  address,  couched  in  Old  Testament  phraseology, 
humbly  excusing  themselves  on  the  convenient  ground  of  distance,  for  not 
having  sooner  sent  in  their  congratulations ;  earnestly  entreating  that  their 
enemies  might  not  be  listened  to,  and  that  their  rights  and  liberties  might 
be  maintained  inviolate;  was  forwarded  to  the  good-natured  monarch,  who 
returned  to  it  a  gracious  reply.  Further  to  parade  their  laggard  loyalty,  a 
treatise  upon  the  Christian  Commonwealth,  originally  drawn  up  by  Eliot  for  his 
converted  Indians,  and  incautiously  published  in  England,  was  publicly  con- 
demned by  the  court,  as  well  as  recanted  by  its  author.  Letters  were  written 
by  influential  friends,  and  the  agent  for  the  colony  instructed  to  use  every 
means  to  counteract  the  machinations  of  its  enemies. 

.  Foreseeing  the  character  of  the  impending  struggle,  the  Massachusetts 
leaders  felt  that  they  must  trust,  under  Providence,  mainly  to  their  own  de- 
termined energies.  Their  first  measure  was  to  draw  up  and  publish  a  declar- 
ation of  their  rights.  These  were  defined  to  be  "  the  power  to  choose  their 
own  governor,  deputy  governor,  magistrates,  and  representatives ;  to  prescribe 
terms  for  the  admission  of  additional  freemen ;  to  set  up  all  sorts  of  officers, 
superior  and  inferior,  with  such  powers  and  duties  as  they  might  appoint;  to 
exercise,  by  their  annually-elected  magistrates  and  deputies,  all  authority,  legis- 
lative, executive,  and  judicial ;  to  defend  themselves  by  force  of  arms  against 
every  aggression ;  and  to  reject  any  and  every  interposition  which  they  might 


A.  D. 1662. 


146  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  judge  prejudicial  to  the  colony."  Charles  II.  was  at  length  proclaimed  with 
punctilious  formality,  but  all  lively  demonstrations  of  rejoicing  on  the  part 
of  his  adherents  were  ingeniously  forbidden,  as  if  "  by  his  own  express 
authority." 

In  fact,  besides  its  enemies  in  England,  the  ruling  party  in  Massachusetts 
had  to  contend  against  others  no  less  active  at  home.  The  liberal  party,  con- 
sisting of  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  and  others,  who  were  excluded  from  a  share 
in  the  government,  had  largely  increased,  and,  encouraged  by  the  posture  of 
affairs,  loudly  demanded  a  relaxation  of  the  unjust  restrictions  under  which 
they  laboured.  Even  among  the  theocratic  freemen  themselves  there  was  a 
division  of  opinion.  The  greater  part  remained  stanch  to  their  original  prin- 
ciples, but  many  finding  them  too  rigorous,  a  ' ( half-way  covenant "  had  been 
adopted,  by  which  those  who  strictly  conformed  to  the  established  worship, 
but  without  professing  themselves  regenerate  and  elect,  were  admitted  to  the 
civil  prerogatives  of  church  membership.  There  were  also  many  who 
deemed  it  the  wisest  policy  to  bend  to  necessity,  and  not  to  risk  the  loss  of 
every  thing  by  refusing  to  make  reasonable  and  timely  concessions.  But  the 
majority  sternly  resolved  to  maintain  their  independence  of  English  supre- 
macy, whatever  might  be  the  issue.  To  avert,  however,  if  possible  the  neces- 
sity of  a  recourse  to  armed  resistance,  Norton  and  Bradstreet,  two  confidential 
envoys,  were  sent  over  to  attempt,  if  possible,  to  amuse  the  English  ministry, 
but  they  were  at  the  same  time  instructed  to  deprecate  its  interference,  or,  if  it 
came  to  the  worst,  openly  to  disclaim  its  authority. 

Such  a  mission  was  justly  regarded  as  rather  hazardous.  A  very  short  period 
had  sufficed  to  develope  the  arbitrary  tendencies  of  the  English  government. 
Weary  of  the  anarchy  of  the  last  days  of  the  republic,  all  classes  had  eagerly 
united  in  welcoming  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy — conditions  were 
never  thought  of;  the  time  required  to  make  them  would  have  been  a 
dangerous,  and  perhaps  a  fatal  delay.  In  the  momentary  gratitude  oc- 
casioned by  his  sudden  restoration,  Charles  had  promised  every  thing,  but 
his  promises  were  as  soon  forgotten.  There  was  besides  a  general  reaction 
against  all  parties  concerned  in  bringing  about  the  late  revolution,  which 
tended  to  fortify  the  prerogative  of  the  monarch  and  to  abet  the  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings of  his  councillors.  The  Church  of  England  was  again  in  the  ascend- 
ant, the  Act  of  Uniformity  had  been  passed,  Presbyterians  and  Independents 
were  crushed  by  severe  enactments,  and  exposed  at  once  to  the  persecution 
of  the  ministry  as  well  as  the  dislike  of  the  people.  The  royalist  party  had 
to  the  utmost  gratified  their  thirst  for  revenge.  Such  of  the  regicides  as  could 
be  taken  were  hung,  drawn,  and  quartered — among  them  Hugh  Peters, 
father-in-law  of  the  younger  Winthrop,  and  formerly  minister  of  Salem.  A 
more  illustrious  victim,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  was  soon  after  conducted  to  the  block. 
Though  opposed  to  the  intolerance  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy,  he  had  ever 
been  a  firm  friend  to  New  England,  and  his  influence  had  procured  a  charter 
for  Rhode  Island  from  the  Long  Parliament.  When  charged  with  treason  he 
was  "  not  afraid  to  bear  his  witness  to  the  glorious  cause"  of  popular  liberty, 


A.  D. 1062. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  147 

nor  to  "  seal  it  with  his  blood,"  and  his  calm  and  heroic  conduct  on  the  chap 
scaffold  won  the  admiration  even  of  his  enemies.  Such  was  the  unpropitious 
aspect  of  affairs  when  the  agents  of  Massachusetts  arrived  in  England  charged 
with  their  important  but  perilous  commission.  With  all  their  tact  and  in- 
fluence, they  were  but  very  partially  successful  in  their  object.  The  confirm- 
ation of  the  charter  was  conceded,  together  with  a  conditional  amnesty  for  all 
recent  offences;  but  the  king  firmly  insisted  upon  the  maintenance  of  his 
prerogative,  he  demanded  the  repeal  of  all  laws  derogatory  to  his  authority, 
the  imposition  of  an  oath  of  allegiance,  and  the  administration  of  justice 
in  his  own  name.  He  also  required  complete  toleration  for  the  Church  of 
England,  and  the  repeal  of  the  law  confining  the  privilege  of  voting  to 
church  members  alone,  admission  of  Episcopalians  to  the  sacrament,  with 
the  concession  of  the  franchise  to  every  inhabitant  possessing  a  certain 
amount  of  property.  In  one  respect,  and  one  alone,  did  he  respond  cor- 
dially to  the  wishes  of  the  Massachusetts  council,  they  were  freely  allowed 
to  enact  the  most  stringent  provisions  against  the  pertinacious  intrusion  of  the 
Quakers. 

Meanwhile  the  people  of  Connecticut,  having  rapidly  increased  their  set- 
tlements and  purchased  a  considerable  tract  from  the  Indians,  became  desirous 
of  consolidating  their  territory  and  fixing  their  institutions  by  means  of  a  royal 
patent.  They  were  singularly  fortunate  both  in  the  timing  of  their  petition 
and  in  the  character  of  their  agent.  Winthrop  the  younger  was  a  man  of 
high  standing  and  influence,  whose  naturally  fine  qualities  had  been  culti- 
vated by  education  and  travel ;  a  lover  of  literature  and  science,  his  enlarged 
and  humane  mind  rose  superior  to  narrow  sectarianism,  and  advocated  an 
impartial  toleration ;  and  while  his  character  was  unblemished  and  his  morals 
pure,  he  displayed  none  of  that  sanctimonious  moroseness  that  characterized 
so  many  of  the  Puritans,  but  could  move  with  unembarrassed  dignity  and 
ease  amidst  the  meretricious  splendour  of  the  courtiers — "  amongst  them,  but 
not  of  them."  His  grandfather  had  received  from  Charles  I.  a  ring  in  token 
of  services  rendered  to  that  monarch;  this,  on  his  audience  with  the  king,  he 
is  said  to  have  produced,  and  with  effect ;  he  had  also  the  good  fortune  to 
obtain  the  personal  favour  of  the  good-natured  monarch,  and  the  good  will  of 
the  minister  Clarendon,  and  other  influential  courtiers.  He  was  thus  en- 
abled to  return  with  a  patent  as  ample  in  territorial  concessions,  as  it  was 
hitherto  unexampled  for  the  power  of  self-government  which  it  conceded,  for 
the  grant  extended  from  the  shores  of  the  Narragansett  to  those  of  the  Pacific, 
including  the  State  of  New  Haven,  which  held  back  for  a  while  its  consent  to 
the  Union,  till  the  apprehension  of  being  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
English  commissioners,  and  of  obtaining  less  favourable  terms,  induced  them 
at  length  to  consent.  The  charter  allowed  the  colonists  to  choose  their  own 
governor  and  officers,  and  to  exercise  legislative  and  judicial  authority  on  the 
sole  condition  of  an  approximation  to  the  laws  of  England,  and  without  any 
reservation  of  interference  by  the  English  government. 

Clarke  too,  .;ho  had  been  left  as  agent  by  Roger  Williams,  was,  through 

u  2 


C  H  A  P. 

XIII. 


A.  D.  1663. 


148  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

the  favour  of  Clarendon,  equally  fortunate,  in  obtaining  the  ratification  of  the 
charter  for  Rhode  Island.  How  this  little  State  was  originated  and  increased 
by  refugees  from  the  intolerance  of  Massachusetts  has  been  already  described. 
Freedom  of  conscience,  and  liberty  of  discussion,  had  only,  upon  further  ex- 
periment, become  more  dear  to  its  citizens ;  they  had  been  exempted  from 
the  theological  disputes  and  bloody  persecutions  that  had  disgraced  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  their  petition  to  Charles  II.  they  declare  "  how  much  it  is  in 
their  hearts  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most  flourishing  civil 
state  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained,  with  a  full  liberty  of  religious  con- 
cernments." The  general  terms  of  the  charter  differed  but  little  from  that  of 
Connecticut,  but  it  contained  the  especial  provision,  that  "  no  person  within 
the  said  colony  shall  be  molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in  question, 
for  any  differences  of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion,  who  does  not  actually 
disturb  the  civil  peace ;  but  that  all  persons  may,  at  all  times,  freely  enjoy 
their  own  consciences  in  matters  of  religious  concernment,  provided  they  be- 
haved themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  did  not  abuse  their  liberty  to 
licentiousness  and  profaneness,  nor  to  the  civil  injury  of  others."  The  arrival 
of  the  charter  under  the  broad  seal  of  England  created  the  greatest  enthu- 
siasm ;  a  public  meeting  was  convened  for  its  exhibition,  and  a  vote  of  thanks 
passed  to  the  monarch  and  his  minister,  by  and  through  whom  it  had  been 
granted,  as  well  as  to  the  disinterested  and  indefatigable  agent  who  had  pro- 
cured it. 

Whilst  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  thus  rejoicing  in  their  newly 
established  privileges,  the  leaders  of  Massachusetts  were  sullenly  preparing 
to  defend  those  they  had  long  enjoyed  against  the  threatened  interference  of 
the  English  ministry.  Among  the  concessions  demanded  by  the  king,  those 
of  an  increase  of  the  franchise,  and  the  toleration  of  Episcopalians,  were  in 
themselves  both  just  and  desirable,  but  they  were  hardly  less  repugnant  to 
the  self-constituted  theocracy  than  was  the  assertion  of  parliamentary  control; 
and  the  more  so,  as  they  were  designed  to  favour  that  party  which  advocated 
and  desired  it  Their  answer  to  the  royal  requisitions  was  accordingly 
couched  in  respectful  but  evasive  language.  "  For  the  repealing  of  all  laws 
here  established  since  the  late  changes  contrary  and  derogatory  to  his  Ma- 
jesty's authority,  we,  having  considered  thereof,  are  not  conscious  to  any  of 
that  tendency ;  concerning  the  oath  of  allegiance,  we  are  ready  to  attend  to  it 
as  formerly,  according  to  the  charter ;  concerning  liberty  to  use  the  Common 
Prayer  Book,  none  as  yet  among  us  have  appeared  to  desire  it;  touching  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments,  this  matter  hath  been  under  consideration  of  a 
synod,  orderly  called,  the  result  whereof  our  last  general  court  commended 
to  the  several  congregations,  and  we  hope  will  have  a  tendency  to  general  sa- 
tisfaction." Such  a  reply,  it  may  be  well  conceived,  gave  but  little  satisfac- 
tion to  the  English  ministry :  and  as  fresh  complaints  against  the  government 
of  Massachusetts  continued  to  pour  in,  the  king  declared  his  intention  of  pre- 
sently sending  out  commissioners,  armed  with  authority  to  inquire  into  and 
decide  upon  the  matters  in  dispute. 


A.D.  1CJ4. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  149 

This  menace  produced  a  wide-spread  feeling  of  excitement  and  alarm.  A  c"*p- 
general  fast  was  proclaimed  to  invoke  the  forgiveness  and  implore  the  protec- 
tion of  God,  in  whose  name  and  for  whose  glory  the  commonwealth  had  been 
built  up.  Every  possible  precaution  was  immediately  taken,  the  charter  was 
intrusted  to  a  committee  of  four  for  concealment  and  safe  keeping,  and,  to 
prevent  surprise,  none  but  small  bodies  of  soldiers  were  allowed  to  be  landed. 
Filled  with  enthusiasm,  yet  calm  and  wary — determined,  if  possible,  to  weary 
out  the  enemy  by  passive  resistance,  but  prepared,  if  needful,  to  contend  unto 
the  death,  the  council  of  Massachusetts  awaited  with  anxiety  the  arrival  of 
the  commissioners  from  England. 

The  situation  of  the  dispute  with  the  English  government  had  become  more 
critical  from  its  being  complicated  with  difficulties  arising  out  of  the  acts  re- 
lating to  trade.  These  had  originated  in  the  reign  of  Charles  L,  were  asserted 
though  not  enforced  by  the  Long  Parliament,  and  had  been  revived  with  still 
more  stringent  conditions  by  that  of  Charles  II.  The  act  of  1651  forbade  any 
importations  into  England  unless  by  ships  built  in  or  owned  by  inhabitants 
of  either  the  mother  country  or  her  colonies.  This  had  been  enacted  princi- 
pally to  protect  the  English  shipowners  against  the  rivalry  of  the  Dutch,  and 
though  it  was  not  seriously  objected  to  by  the  colonists,  had  in  reality  been 
thought  to  be  injurious  to  their  interests,  and  had  consequently  been  evaded. 
But  the  act  of  1663  required  that  articles  of  American  production  should  be 
sent  only  to  the  English  market,  which  was  followed  up  by  another  forbidding 
the  importation  of  European  commodities  into  the  colonies  except  in  English- 
built  ships.  Thus  by  this  double  monopoly  were  the  Massachusetts  merchant- 
men constrained  both  to  sell  their  own  commodities  at  the  cheapest,  and  to  buy 
those  of  foreign  countries  at  the  dearest  rate.  Even  the  intercolonial  trade  was 
hampered  by  a  duty  to  be  levied  at  the  port  of  shipment.  These  restrictions 
were  prompted  chiefly  by  the  cupidity  of  the  English  merchants,  who  were 
jealous  of  the  rapidly  increasing  commerce  of  Massachusetts,  which,  from  the 
energetic  character  of  the  people,  had  become  the  staple  of  North  America, 
and  by  the  desire  to  divert  into  their  own  coffers  the  profits  arising  out  of  it. 
The  authority  of  these  laws  had  never  been  recognised,  and  the  colonists  had 
protested  against  them ;  it  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  they  should  have 
been  frequently  evaded,  if  not  entirely  disregarded.  Loud  complaints,  full 
of  artful  exaggeration,  were  accordingly  made  by  the  English  merchants  and 
manufacturers.  It  was  alleged,  that  "  the  inhabitants  of  New  England  not 
only  traded  to  most  ports  of  Europe,  but  encouraged  foreigners  to  go  and 
traffic  with  them ;  "  that  "  they  supplied  the  other  plantations  with  those  fo- 
reign productions  which  ought  only  to  be  sent  to  England ; "  that  "  having 
thus  made  New  England  the  staple  of  the  colonies,  the  navigation  of  the 
kingdom  is  greatly  prejudiced,  the  national  revenues  impaired,  the  people 
extremely  impoverished ;  "  and  that  "  such  abuses,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
will  entirely  destroy  the  trade  of  England,  will  leave  no  sort  of  dependence 
towards  her  on  the  part  of  the  colonies."  The  remedy  suggested  was  to 
establish  a  royal  custom-house,  with  offices  to  receive  the  duties,  enforce  the 


150  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  it  a  p.  provisions  of  the  act,  and,  should  they  be  contumaciously  resisted  by  Massa- 
chusetts, to  refuse  Mediterranean  passes  to  her  ships,  so  as  to  expose  them  to 
'  capture  by  the  Barbary  corsairs,  while  at  the  same  time  offenders  were  to  be 
transmitted  to  England  for  trial.  This  suggestion  they  followed  up  by  a  re- 
commendation to  his  Majesty  to  appoint  a  governor ;  nor  was  it  long  before  a 
commissioner  was  sent  over,  authorized  to  administer  to  the  New  England 
governors  an  oath  that  they  would  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  navigation  act. 
They  refused  to  acquiesce,  and  came  to  the  memorable  decision,  upon  which 
the  whole  dispute  with  England  afterwards  turned,  that  "  not  being  repre- 
sented in  the  English  parliament,  the  acts  of  navigation,  passed  by  that  body, 
were  an  invasion  of  their  rights  and  privileges."  But  having  thus  saved  the 
vital  question  of  principle,  they  gave  validity  to  the  acts  by  the  exercise  of 
their  oivn  authority,  and  appointed  a  custom-house  to  receive  the  duties. 

The  dreaded  armament  made  its  appearance  at  Boston  about  the  close  of 
July,  consisting,  in  fact,  of  the  vessels  sent  out  to  take  possession  of  New 
Netherlands  for  the  Duke  of  York ;  and  having  on  board  the  commissioners 
appointed  to  examine  into  the  alleged  grievances,  and  redress  them  "  according 
to  the  royal  power,  and  their  own  discretion."  Their  first  demand  was  for  a 
body  of  soldiers  to  accompany  the  expedition,  who,  however,  were  so  long  in 
being  raised,  that  the  ships  at  length  departed  without  them. 

Meanwhile  the  court  at  Boston  was  occupied  in  making  a  trifling  concession 
as  regards  the  franchise,  to  disarm  their  more  active  opponents,  and  in  draw- 
ing up  a  solemn  protest  against  the  authority  of  the  commissioners.  In  this 
document  they  remind  the  king  that,  "  under  a  patent  granting  to  them  full  and 
absolute  power  of  self-government,  and  of  electing  their  own  magistrates, 
they,  had  for  more  than  thirty  years  enjoyed  this  'fundamental  privi- 
lege,' without  dispute ;  that  a  commission  under  the  great  seal,  of  four  per- 
sons, (one  their  avowed  enemy,)  to  receive  and  determine  complaints  at  their 
discretion,  subjects  them  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  strangers,  and  will  be  the 
subversion  of  their  all."  They  declare  that  "  if  these  things  go  on,  they  will 
be  either  forced  to  seek  new  dwellings,  or  sink  under  intolerable  burdens ; 
that  the  king  will  be  a  loser  of  the  wonted  benefit  by  customs,  and  this  hope- 
ful plantation  in  the  end  be  ruined.  That  it  is  a  great  unhappiness  to  have 
no  testimony  of  their  loyalty  offered  but  this,  to  yield  up  their  liberties,  which 
are  far  dearer  than  their  lives,  and  which  they  have  willingly  ventured  their 
lives,  and  passed  through  many  deaths,  to  obtain."  Finally,  in  their  accus- 
tomed phraseology,  they  remind  the  monarch  "  that  it  was  Job's  excellency 
when  he  sat  as  king  among  his  people,  that  he  was  '  a  father  to  the  poor/  and 
that  they,  (  a  poor  people,'  cry  unto  their  lord  the  king."  This  character- 
istic appeal  being  despatched,  they  resolutely  proceeded  to  carry  its  principle 
into  practice  by  issuing  an  order  to  forbid  any  complaints  to  the  commissioners, 
or  any  exercise  of  their  assumed  authority.  By  this  time,  the  latter,  having 
touched  at  Connecticut,  where,  as  their  functions  were  more  welcome  and 
useful,  they  had  been  received  with  greater  consideration,  returned  to  Boston 
with  a  firm  determination  to  carry  out  the  royal  mission. 


H 


- 


pn 


m 


of  rw*. 
VNIVERSITY 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  151 

Their  first  proceeding,  however  harmless,  was  not  calculated  to  undermine  c™J*f- 
the  dogged  resolution  of  the  fathers  of  the  theocracy.  The  commissioners,  — — — 
themselves  Episcopalians,  and  armed  with  the  royal  authority  in  favour  of 
toleration,  set  up  and  attended  the  service  of  the  Anglican  Church.  Each 
party  thus  predisposed  to  regard  the  other  with  dislike,  all  accommodation  was 
of  course  impossible.  The  magistrates  and  ministers,  inflexible  in  resolution, 
animated  the  people  by  prayer-meetings,  and  exhortations  to  stand  firm  for 
the  heritage  given  them  by  God.  They  felt  themselves  besides  the  stronger 
party,  and  the  commissioners,  unsupported  as  they  were  by  any  adequate  force, 
soon  found  the  exercise  of  their  functions  to  be  impracticable,  and  even  ridicu- 
lous. They  made  a  temporary  visit  to  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island,  where 
they  settled  disputed  boundaries,  and  made  offers  of  fresh  charters,  which, 
however,  were  respectfully  declined. 

This  contumacy  of  the  authorities  at  Boston,  of  which  accounts  had  been 
transmitted  to  the  English  ministry,  appeared  to  them  both  groundless  and 
unreasonable.  They  did  not  consider  themselves  to  be  invading  the  liberties 
of  Massachusetts,  nor  had  their  agents  attempted  any  act  that  in  their  judg- 
ment could  be  thus  construed.  To  them  the  assertion  of  the  king's  preroga- 
tive and  the  supreme  power  of  parliament  was  tacitly  involved,  if  not  openly 
expressed,  in  all  charters  granted  to  colonists.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  this 
matter  was  not  very  clearly  defined,  and  was  interpreted  by  each  party  in  ac- 
cordance with  its  own  particular  views.  With  Massachusetts  it  was  a  ques- 
tion of  principle,  although  mingled  with  a  feeling  of  bigotry  and  intolerance. 
They  had  denied  to  Charles  I.,  and  to  the  parliament,  the  right  to  entertain 
appeals  against  their  local  legislation,  and  the  same  right  they  still  continued  to 
deny,  since  their  charter,  while  it  gave  them  unlimited  powers  of  self-govern- 
ment, made  no  express  provision  of  the  kind.  Upon  this  they  accordingly  took 
their  stand,  and  the  matter  at  length  came  to  an  issue.  The  commissioners 
opened  a  court  to  audit  complaints  against  the  magistrates ; — they  refused  to 
admit  its  authority.  The  morning  arrived,  the  plaintiffs  appeared,  when  the 
magistrates  adopted  a  method  of  nullifying  the  proceedings,  which  curiously 
recalled  the  mode  of  resistance  practised  by  the  parliament  towards  Charles  I. 
They  boldly  sent  forth  a  herald  to  proclaim  with  sound  of  trumpet,  in  the 
name  of  God  and  the  king,  that  no  one  might  abet  his  Majesty'*  honourable 
commissioners  in  the  exercise  of  their  illegal  authority.  Baffled  and  pro- 
voked by  the  cool  audacity  of  the  court,  the  commissioners  declared  "  that 
they  would  lose  no  more  of  their  labours  upon  them,  but  would  represent 
their  conduct  to  his  Majesty,"  and,  for  the  second  time,  retreated  from  the  un- 
welcome contest,  to  settle  the  affairs  of  New  Hampshire  and  of  Maine. 
Thither,  however,  they  were  followed  by  the  indefatigable  court,  who  forbade 
the  people  of  New  Hampshire  to  recognise  their  authority.  In  Maine  they 
were  at  first  more  successful,  many  appeared  disposed  to  welcome  their  inter- 
ference, and  they  attempted  to  settle  claims  and  exercise  jurisdiction,  but  as  soon 
as  their  backs  were  turned,  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  entered  the  province 
and  promptly  put  down  the  disaffected  by  force  of  arms.     On  their  return  to 


152  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Boston,  fresh  vexations  and  indignities  were  in  store  for  the  unlucky  com- 
_ — —  missioners.  They  were  accustomed,  to  quote  the  amusing  version  of  Hildreth, 
IJ'  "  to  hold  of  Saturday  nights  a  social  party  at  a  tavern  in  Ann  Street,  kept  by 
one  Robert  Vyal,  vintner.  This  was  contrary  to  the  law,  which  required  the 
strict  observance  of  Saturday  night  as  a  part  of  the  Lord's  day.  A  constable 
went  to  break  them  up,  but  was  beaten  and  driven  off  by  Sir  Robert  Carr 
and  his  servant.  Mason,  another  constable,  bolder  and  more  zealous,  imme- 
diately proceeded  to  VyaPs  tavern ;  but  meanwhile  the  party  had  adjourned 
to  the  house  of  a  merchant  over  the  way.  Mason  went  in,  staff  in  hand,  and 
reproached  them,  king's  officers  as  they  were,  who  ought  to  set  a  better  ex- 
ample, for  being  so  uncivil  as  to  beat  a  constable ;  telling  them  that  it  was 
well  they  had  changed  their  quarters,  as  otherwise  he  should  have  arrested 
them  all.  *  What,'  said  Carr,  '  arrest  the  king's  commissioners  ! '  f  Yes,'  an- 
swered Mason,  '  the  king  himself,  had  he  been  there.'  '  Treason  !  treason!' 
shouted  Maverick ;  '  knave,  thou  shalt  presently  hang  for  this  ! '  and  he 
called  on  the  company  to  take  notice  of  the  words." 

"  The  next  day  Maverick  sent  a  letter  to  the  governor,  accusing  the  consta- 
ble of  treason.  The  governor  also  sent  a  polite  note  to  Carr,  informing  him 
of  a  complaint  for  assault  and  battery  lodged  against  him  by  the  constable  he 
had  beaten.  What  was  done  in  that  case  does  not  appear  ;  but  Mason,  being 
bound  over  to  the  next  court,  the  grand  jury  found  a  bill  against  him.  Ma- 
verick, however,  declined  to  prosecute,  declaring  his  belief  that  the  man  had 
spoken  inconsiderately,  intending  no  harm.  The  magistrates  thought  the 
matter  too  serious  to  be  dropped  in  that  way.  They  did  not  choose  to  expose 
themselves  to  the  charge  of  winking  at  treason.  The  matter  finally  came  be- 
fore the  general  court,  where  Mason  was  acquitted  of  the  most  serious  charge, 
but  was  fined  for  insolence  and  indiscretion,  principally,  no  doubt,  through 
apprehension,  lest  some  handle  might  be  made  of  the  matter  by  the  commis- 
sioners." 

The  commissioners,  being  recalled,  soon  afterwards  returned  to  England, 
where  their  reports  elicited  an  order  upon  Massachusetts  to  send  over  Bel- 
lingham,  the  governor,  and  a  few  others,  to  answer,  for  their  defiance  of  his 
Majesty's  authority,  a  summons  which  created  no  small  excitement.  Many 
thought  that  the  magistrates  had  carried  matters  with  too  high  a  hand,  and 
sent  in  petitions  for  their  compliance.  The  court  was  convened ;  and  after 
several  hours  spent  in  prayer,  the  matter  was  warmly  debated — some  con- 
tending that  the  king's  authority  was  paramount ;  while  others  maintained  that 
it  could  not  be  admitted  without  the  loss  of  their  liberties,  which  would  then 
be  at  the  mercy  of  the  English  court.  The  arguments  of  the  latter  party  pre- 
vailed ;  and  it  was  determined  to  evade  his  Majesty's  demand,  but,  if  possible, 
at  the  same  time  to  conciliate  his  favour.  War  had  lately  broken  out  between 
France  and  England ;  and  Charles  had  suggested  to  Massachusetts  the  con- 
quest of  Canada.  From  this  project  they  excused  themselves,  on  the  ground 
of  distance ;  quietly  evaded  the  summons  to  England,  with  the  most  profuse 
expressions  of  loyalty,  and  softened  their  refusal  by  sending  a  supply  of  pro- 


A.  D. 1674. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  153 

visions  for  the  fleet  in  the  West  Indies,  with  a  present  of  masts  for  the  English  chap 
navy,  which,  through  the  neglect  and  wastefulness  of  the  government,  had 
fallen  into  a  miserable  plight.  By  these  tactics  they  hoped  for  the  present  to 
avert  the  royal  indignation,  and  circumstances  were  happily  in  their  favour ; 
for  though  the  English  government  was  indeed  becoming  more  despotic,  and 
would  willingly  have  punished  the  contumacy  of  the  Puritans,  the  corruption 
of  the  court  paralysed  its  active  energies,  while  the  firm  and  formidable  atti- 
tude of  the  colonists  imposed  respect,  and,  after  a  few  abortive  resolutions, 
Massachusetts  was  forgotten  amidst  the  dissipations  of  the  palace,  and  the 
more  exciting  affairs  that  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  king  and  ministry. 

Scarcely  had  the  colony  recovered  from  this  alarm,  when  it  was  involved 
in  another  and  far  more  formidable  peril.  With  the  exception  of  the  Pequods, 
whose  extermination  has  been  already  described,  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  New 
England  territory  remained  undiminished  in  numbers,  though  greatly  altered 
in  position,  and  in  the  feelings  with  which  they  regarded  the  growing  en- 
croachments of  the  colonists.  Many,  indeed,  under  the  benevolent  exertions 
of  Eliot  and  his  confederates,  had  been  reclaimed  from  the  wild  faith  of  their 
forefathers,  and  formed  into  little  communities  of  so-called  "  praying  Indians  " 
scattered  amongst  the  settlements  of  their  Christian  benefactors ;  while  other 
small  tribes,  looking  up  with  awe  to  the  white  men,  and  acquiring  a  taste  for 
their  habits,  remained  in  peaceful  and  contented  dependence  upon  them.  Not 
so,  however,  with  the  Wampanoags  or  Pokanokets,  and  their  sachem,  Philip. 
His  father,  Massasoit,  has  been  honourably  distinguished  for  his  assistance  of  the 
Plymouth  settlers  in  their  day  of  distress,  but  while  he  had  favoured  the  white 
men,  he  had  looked  with  suspicion  upon  their  attempts  to  convert  his  people 
from  their  ancient  faith,  and  had  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  obtain  from  them 
a  promise  that  such  attempts  should  cease.  Since  the  days  when  the  Pilgrims 
landed  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth,  the  Indians  had  been  gradually,  but  con- 
stantly losing  ground.  With  the  thoughtless  haste  of  savages,  they  had  bartered 
their  lands  for  the  first  trifle  that  had  attracted  their  childish  cupidity ;  in- 
capable of  foresight,  they  looked  not  to  the  hour  when,  by  increasing  numbers, 
their  forests  should  be  replaced  with  fields  and  houses,  until,  upon  the  faith  of 
their  own  treaties,  they  should  be  pushed  from  the  old  hunting-grounds  of 
their  fathers.  Above  all,  they  little  dreamed  that  their  lordship  of  the  forest, 
their  free  movements,  and  their  ancient  customs,  should  be  curtailed  and 
abridged,  that  they  should  find  themselves  feudal  vassals  where  they  were 
before  independent  sovereigns,  and  accustomed  to  a  jurisdiction  of  others, 
when  traditionary  practice  had  so  long  sufficed  them, — These  bitter  vexations 
festered  in  the  proud  bosom  of  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  yet  he  was  too  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  formidable  power  of  the  colonists  to  form  any  deliberate 
conspiracy  against  them ;  but,  as  in  the  Pequod  war,  circumstances  trifling  in 
themselves,  like  a  sudden  spark  lighting  upon  a  prepared  train,  kindled  the 
fierce  passions  that  lay  suppressed  within,  and  hurried  him  into  a  hasty  act 
of  revenge,  by  which  the  whole  of  the  colonists  and  Indians  were  involved  in 
a  bloody  and  desolating  struggle. 


154 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1675. 


°xniP*  Philip  had  been  before  suspected,  though  it  would  appear  without  reason, 
of  a  design  against  the  English,  and  had  been  compelled  by  the  people  of 
Plymouth  to  deliver  up  his  fire-arms,  to  pay  a  tribute,  and  acknowledge  his 
submission  to  the  colony.  Not  improbably  he  might  have  given  vent  to  his 
disgust  in  vague  and  passionate  threats  against  the  settlers;  at  all  events 
he  was  accused  by  an  Indian  informer  of  having  formed  a  conspiracy  to  de- 
stroy them.  This  informer  was  waylaid  and  murdered  by  some  of  Philip's 
adherents,  who,  being  taken,  were  put  upon  their  trial  by  a  half  English,  half 
Indian  jury,  and  hanged.  Philip  hastily  retaliated  by  plundering  the  near- 
est settlements,  while  his  people,  it  is  said,  to  his  great  regret,  murdered 
several  of  the  inhabitants.  Thus  committed  by  an  act  of  hasty  passion  into 
open  defiance  of  the  English,  his  pride  forbade  him  to  recede,  and  he  found 
himself  embarked  in  a  desperate  and  hopeless  struggle  against  a  superior 
power. 

A  body  of  troops  from  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  immediately  hastened 
to  Mount  Hope  to  punish  the  aggressions  of  Philip,  but  found  that  he  had 
fled  with  his  Indians,  leaving  behind  him  the  burned  dwellings  and  mangled 
bodies  of  his  unhappy  victims.  The  colonists,  unable  to  effect  their  principal 
object,  sent  to  the  Narragansetts  to  demand  assurance  of  peace,  and  the  delivery 
of  fugitives.  Forced  into  a  reluctant  consent,  this  powerful  tribe  was  for  the 
present  compelled  to  remain  passive.  In  the  mean  time  news  came  that  the 
fugitive  chief  had  posted  himself  in  a  swamp  at  Pocasset — a  body  of  soldiers 
repaired  thither  and  surrounded  the  place  to  prevent  hi$  'scape,  but  soon 
experienced  the  harassing  perils  of  an  Indian  war.  Entan^ied  in  the  morass, 
and  fired  upon  by  lurking  enemies,  whom  thvy  were  unable  to  discover,  they 
were  compelled  to  retreat  with  the  loss  of  sixteen  of  their  number,  while  Philip, 
breaking  through  the  toils  of  his  pursuers,  escaped  to  the  territory  of  the  Kip- 
mucks,  who  had  already  taken  up  arms.  Passions  long  pent  up  in  the  breasts  of 
the  Indians  now  suddenly  broke  forth ;  which  Philip,  running  from  tribe  to  tribe, 
inflamed  by  an  appeal  to  their  common  grievances  and  fears,  and  in  a  short 
time,  not  one  of  the  exposed  out- settlements  on  the  Connecticut  was  secure. 

Panic  prevailed  throughout  the  colony.  Dismal  portents  of  still  heavier 
calamities  were  fancied  in  the  air  and  sky ;  shadowy  troops  of  careering  horses, 
Indian  scalps,  and  bows  imprinted  upon  the  sun  and  moon,  even  the  sigh  of  the 
wind  through  the  forest,  and  the  dismal  howling  of  wolves,  terrified  the  ex- 
cited imagination  of  the  colonists.  The  out-settlers  fled  for  security  to  the 
the  towns,  where  they  spread  abroad  fearful  accounts  of  the  cruel  atrocities  of 
the  Indians.  Nothing  but  the  sins  of  the  community,  it  was  believed,  could 
have  brought  upon  them  this  alarming  visitation,  the  most  innocent  amuse- 
ments appeared  in  a  heinous  light,  and  the  magistrates  and  clergy  earnestly 
commenced  tightening  those  bonds  of  discipline  which  of  late  had  been  so 
alarmingly  relaxed. 

Meanwhile  the  war  spread  along  the  whole  exposed  frontier  of  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  and  even  of  New  Hampshire.  To  form  any  adequate  concep- 
tion of  its  horrors,  we  must  previously  form  to  ourselves  a  correct  idea  of  its 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  155 

theatre.     Except  in  the  vicinity  of  the  larger  towns,  the  whole  country  was  chap. 

still  overspread  with  a  dense  forest,  the  few  villages  were  almost  isolated,  being 1_ 

connected  only  by  long  miles  of  blind  pathway  through  the  tangled  woods;  toi*67«. 
and  helpless  indeed  was  the  position  of  that  solitary  settler  who  had  erected 
his  rude  hut  in  the  midst  of  a  profound  wilderness,  and  could  see  no  farther 
around  him  than  the  acre  or  two  of  ground  which  he  had  cleared  in  the  im- 
pervious forest.  On  the  other  hand,  every  brake  and  lurking-place  was  inti- 
mately known  to  the  Indians,  and  the  most  watchful  suspicion  could  not 
foretell  the  moment  of  their  sudden  onslaught.  A  circumstance  which  added 
fearfully  to  the  peril  was,  that  they  had  gradually  come  to  obtain  possession  of 
fire-arms,  thus  adding  modes  of  destruction  which  had  been  taught  them 
by  the  white  man  to  those  with  which  they  were  already  familiar.  The  farmer, 
if  he  ventured  forth  to  till  the  fields,  was  picked  off  by  some  lurking  assassin, 
while  the  main  body  of  marauders  would  burst  upon  his  defenceless  dwelling, 
and  scalp  the  helpless  infant  in  the  presence  of  its  frenzied  mother,  or  consume 
them  in  the  flames  of  their  own  homestead.  Unable  to  cultivate  the  fields, 
the  settlers  were  exposed  to  famine,  while  the  convoys  of  provisions  sent  to  their 
assistance  were  waylaid  and  seized,  and  their  escort  cut  off  in  ambush.  Such 
was  the  fate  of  the  brave  Lathrop,  at  the  spot  which  still  retains  the  name  of 
"  Bloody  Brook."  The  cavalcade  proceeding  to  church,  the  marriage  pro- 
cession, if  marriage  could  be  thought  of  in  those  frightful  days,  was  often 
interrupted  by  the  sudden  death-shot  from  some  invisible  enemy.  On  one 
occasion,  at  Hadley,  while  the  people  were  engaged  in  Divine  service,  the 
Indians  burst  in  upon  the  village,  panic  and  confusion  were  at  their  height,  when 
suddenly  there  appeared  a  man  of  very  venerable  aspect,  who  rallied  the  ter- 
rified inhabitants,  formed  them  into  military  order,  led  them  to  the  attack, 
routed  the  Indians,  saved  the  village,  and  then  disappeared  as  marvellously  as 
he  had  come  upon  the  scene.  The  excited  and  grateful  inhabitants,  unable  to 
discover  any  trace  of  their  preserver,  supposed  him  to  be  an  angel  sent  from 
God.  It  was  no  angel,  but  one  of  Cromwell's  generals,  old  Gone  the  regicide, 
who,  compelled  by  the  vigilant  search  made  after  him  by  order  of  the  Eng- 
lish government,  to  fly  from  place  to  place,  had  espied  from  an  elevated 
cavern  in  the  neighbourhood  the  murderous  approach  of  the  savages,  and 
hurried  down  to  effect  the  deliverance  of  his  countrymen. 

During  the  leafy  summer  the  Indians,  enabled  to  conceal  themselves  in 
every  thicket,  carried  on  this  harassing  warfare  to  the  great  disadvantage  of 
the  English,  who  sought  in  vain  to  grapple  with  a  foe  that,  after  spreading 
death  and  devastation  on  all  sides,  vanished  into  the  impenetrable  recesses  of 
the  woods.  But  the  winter  was  come,  the  forests  were  more  open,  and  a  large 
body  of  a  thousand  men  having  been  raised  by  the  united  efforts  of  Plymouth, 
Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts,  it  was  determined  to  strike  a  decisive  blow. 
The  Narragansetts  had  given  shelter  to  the  enemies  of  the  colony,  with  whom 
it  was  resolved  to  anticipate  their  junction.  After  a  long  march  through  the 
snow,  and  a  night  spent  in  the  woods,  the  soldiers  approached  the  strong- 
hold of  the  tribe,  planted   in  the  midst  of  a  morass  accessible  only   by  a 

x  2 


A.  D.  1G76, 


156  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  narrow  and  fortified  pathway,  and  crowded  with  armed  Indians.  The  leaders 
were  all  shot  down  as  they  advanced  to  the  charge ;  but  this  only  excited  to 
the  highest  pitch  the  desperate  determination  of  the  English,  who,  after  having 
once  forced  an  entrance,  and  being  again  repulsed  after  a  fierce  struggle 
protracted  for  two  hours,  burst  infuriated  into  the  Indian  fort.  Revenge  for 
the  blood  of  their  murdered  brethren  was  alone  thought  of;  mercy  was  im- 
plored in  vain  ;  the  fort  was  fired,  and  hundreds  of  Indian  wives  and  children 
perished  in  the  midst  of  the  conflagration ;  while  their  provisions  gathered  to- 
gether for  the  long  winter  being  consumed,  and  their  wigwams  burned,  those 
who  escaped  from  fire  and  sword  wandered  miserably  through  the  forests  to 
perish  with  cold  and  hunger. 

The  losses  of  the  English  had  been  severe,  but  they  were  capable  of  being 
repaired ;  those  of  the  Indians  were  irreparable.  Their  stores  destroyed, 
their  villages  burned,  and  unable  to  cultivate  their  lands  to  obtain  a  fresh 
supply,  they  collected  all  their  energies  for  one  last  despairing  struggle. 
Permanently  to  resist  the  power  of  their  enemies  was  hopeless,  but  they  might 
inflict  upon  them  a  fearful  amount  of  suffering.  Accordingly  they  fell  every 
where  with  fresh  fury  upon  the  exposed  towns,  and  even  approached  within 
twenty  miles  of  Boston  itself.  They  had  threatened,  in  the  insanity  of  their 
hatred,  to  carry  on  the  war  for  many  years.  But  their  strength  was  rapidly 
exhausting  itself;  stronghold  after  stronghold  fell  before  the  settlers,  and  by 
the  approach  of  the  ensuing  autumn  the  Indians  were  completely  broken,  and 
began  to  fade  away  from  the  presence  of  their  exterminating  foe. 

The  Indian  leaders,  amidst  all  the  disasters  of  their  followers,  preserved  an 
inflexible  courage.  Canonchet,  the  chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  being  taken, 
was  offered  his  life  if  he  would  consent  to  negociate  a  peace.  He  firmly  re- 
fused, and  suffered  death  with  stoic  resolution.  The  unhappy  Philip,  the 
author  of  the  war,  had  foreseen  its  fatal  termination  for  his  own  race.  Wan- 
dering from  tribe  to  tribe,  assailed  by  recriminations  and  reproaches  for  the 
misery  he  had  brought  upon  his  brethren,  his  heart  was  full  of  the  bitterest 
anguish.  Compelled  at  length  to  return  to  his  old  haunts,  where  he  was  yet 
sustained  by  Witamo,  a  female  chief  and  relative,  he  was  presently  attacked 
by  the  English,  who  carried  off  his  wife  and  child  as  captives ;  a  loss  which 
filled  up  the  measure  of  his  sufferings,  and  it  was  perhaps  a  merciful  release 
when,  shortly  after,  he  was  treacherously  shot  by  one  of  his  own  adherents 
who  deserted  to  the  English.  Thus  perished  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  who, 
possessed  as  he  was  of  all  the  nobler  qualities  of  the  Indian  chieftain,  was 
worthy  of  a  better  fate.  His  child,  the  last  of  the  princes  of  his  tribe,  was 
sold  into  slavery  at  Bermuda. 

Meanwhile  the  agents  who  had  been  sent  to  England  returned,  and  the  ex- 
treme terms  which  they  were  instructed  to  demand  sufficiently  indicated  the 
king's  intention  of  subverting  the  spirit  of  the  charter,  or,  in  default  of  the 
consent  of  the  colonists,  to  cancel  it.  Church-membership  was  no  longer  to 
be  the  exclusive  condition  of  the  freedom  of  the  colony  ;  a  property  qualifica- 
tion was  to  be  substituted,  an  innovation  justly  deemed  no  less  than  vital. 


A.  D.  1679. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  157 

Randolph  followed  soon  after  with  his  commission,  which  was  very  contemptu-  chap 
ously  ignored  by  the  magistrates,  who  ordered  the  proclamation  of  his  ap- 
pointment to  be  torn  down.  His  pertinacious  endeavours  to  carry  out  his 
appointment  were  all  in  vain,  and  he  went  home  to  England  to  complain  of 
the  contumacy  of  the  colonists,  and  to  return  with  an  order  for  them  to  send 
over  two  agents  empowered  to  negociate  a  modification  of  the  charter — a  de- 
licate mission  at  a  very  critical  period.  The  arbitrary  power  of  the  English 
government  had  reached  its  height,  and  the  complaints  of  the  English  mer- 
chants, and  of  disaffected  persons  in  the  colony  itself,  afforded  a  plausible  pre- 
text for  its  interference.  Principle  forbade  the  fathers  of  the  theocracy  to 
flinch,  but  policy  imperiously  demanded  of  them  to  bend.  The  agents  were 
sent  over,  but  their  powers  of  treating  with  the  government  were  most  care- 
fully restricted ;  they  were  to  make  no  concessions  vital  to  the  liberties  of  the 
commonwealth,  but  were  to  use  every  artifice,  and  even  to  condescend  to 
bribery,  then  universal  at  the  English  court,  could  they  but  succeed  in  mi- 
tigating the  hardness  of  the  ministerial  demands.  All  their  attempts  were 
unavailing ;  the  ministry  would  not  accept  the  offered  concessions  ;  the  agents 
were  compelled  to  go  back,  and  Randolph  returned  in  triumph  to  Boston  with 
a  writ  of  "  quo  warranto,"  accompanied  by  a  promise  of  the  royal  favour  pro- 
vided the  charter  was  peaceably  surrendered  by  the  colonists. 

Every  attempt  to  avert  the  catastrophe  had  been  made,  and  further  resist- 
ance was  hopeless.  The  English  cities,  even  London  itself,  had  been  disfran- 
chised ;  the  liberties  of  the  mother  country  lay  utterly  prostrate.  The  governor 
and  magistrates  were  inclined  to  submission,  and  proposed  to  send  agents  "to 
receive  his  Majesty's  commands."  The  question  proposed  to  the  deputies  was 
warmly  debated  by  them,  and  agitated  the  entire  community.  The  religious 
party  recalled  the  fundamental  principle  upon  which  the  colony  had  been 
founded,  and  under  which  it  had  grown  up  to  its  actual  state  of  prosperity. 
This  being  to  establish  a  commonwealth  for  God,  to  be  governed  exclusively 
by  his  people  and  for  his  glory,  it  was  obvious  that  to  surrender  it  into  the 
hands  of  unregenerated  men — to  divorce  the  civil  and  religious  power — would 
strike  at  the  very  foundation  of  their  Zion,  break  down  the  wall  of  partition 
between  the  church  and  the  world,  and  open  their  beloved  institutions 
and  habits  to  the  inroads  of  profanity,  heresy,  and  vice.  "  Their  fathers 
had  not  bowed  the  neck  to  arbitrary  tyranny,  neither  would  they  betray  the 
sacred  cause  of  Christ,  and  the  civil  liberties  of  their  children.  They  might 
suffer,  but  not  sin ;  their  liberties  might  be  wrested  from  them — they  would 
not  surrender  them.  Submission  would  be  contrary  to  the  unanimous  ad- 
vice of  the  ministers  given  after  a  solemn  day  of  prayer.  The  ministers  of 
God  in  New  England  had  more  of  the  spirit  of  John  the  Baptist  than  now, 
when  a  storm  hath  overtaken  them,  to  be  reeds  shaken  with  the  wind.  The 
priests  were  to  be  the  first  that  should  set  their  foot  in  the  waters,  and  there 
to  stand  till  the  danger  be  past."  With  arguments  at  once  thus  noble  in 
spirit,  but  faulty  in  philosophy,  did  the  pious  fathers  of  the  theocracy  animate 
the  minds  of  the  freemen,  who,  after  a  fortnight's  discussion,  rejected  the 


158  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  royal  mandate,  earnestly  beseeching,  but  in  vain,  the  gracious  forbearance  of 
his  Majesty.     A  scire  facias  was  issued  in  England,  the  charter    declared 


8S'  to  be  forfeited ;  and  thus  the  rights  and  liberties  of  Massachusetts,  so  long 
and  so  dearly  cherished,  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  English  monarch,  who  was 
known  to  meditate  the  most  serious  and  fundamental  innovations,  but  who 
died  before  any  of  them  could  be  carried  into  effect. 

The  reign  of  the  last  of  the  Stuarts,  no  less  in  America  than  in  England, 
was  a  period  of  arbitrary  and  illegal  encroachment.  Scarcely  was  James  II. 
enabled  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  American  colonies,  than  he 
proceeded  to  carry  out  his  long-cherished  design  of  uniting  them  under  the 
administration  of  2.  governor-general,  who  should  be  a  passive  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  despotism,  and  to  enforce  upon  the  unwilling  theocracy  of  Mas- 
sachusetts th<it  general  toleration  of  all  religious  sects,  under  cover  of  which 
he  hoped  to  advance  the  interests  and  insure  the  final  supremacy  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  These  designs,  although  illegally  carried  out,  had 
yet  many  important  and  salutary  results.  The  consolidation  of  the  northern 
colonies  tended  to  give  them  the  sense  of  their  own  power,  and  to  unite  them 
in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the  French,  while  the  enforcement  of  toler- 
ation gave  the  death-blow  to  that  exclusive  system  of  religious  bigotry,  the 
mischievous  results  of  which  have  been  developed  in  the  preceding  pages. 

In  tracing  the  results  of  this  policy  it  may  be  well  to  depart  from  our  usual 
arrangement,  and,  in  order  to  insure  the  unity  of  the  narrative,  to  glance 
from  one  colony  to  another,  placed  as  they  were  under  one  general  administra- 
tion, and  subjected  to  causes  which  every  where  produced  the  same  results. 

Let  us  first  continue  our  attention  to  the  affairs  of  Massachusetts.  The  an- 
nulling of  their  charter  by  the  late  king,  had  left  the  members  of  the  government 
as  well  as  the  whole  population  in  a  state  of  great  anxiety.  The  theocratic 
leaders  who,  by  their  courageous  defiance  of  arbitrary  encroachment,  had 
precipitated  the  catastrophe,  found  themselves  deprived  of  political  power,  if 
not  of  moral  influence.  Even  the  more  moderate  party  looked  forward  with 
great  uneasiness  to  what  might  befall  the  colony,  now  prostrate  and  helpless  at 
the  feet  of  the  throne,  and  the  general  alarm  was  increased  by  the  report  that 
the  government  of  the  colony  was  to  be  conferred  on  Colonel  Kirk,  a  man  of 
savage  and  ferocious  temper,  who  had  commanded  an  English  regiment  at 
Tangier  in  Africa,  and  who  afterwards  became  infamous  for  his  cruelties  on 
the  occasion  of  Monmouth's  rebellion.  This  report  turned  out  to  be  un- 
founded, and  Joseph  Dudley,  a  native  of  the  colony,  was  appointed  to  a  tem- 
porary administration.  Dudley  was  one  of  the  party  in  favour  of  the  king's 
prerogative ;  he  had  been  colonial  agent  in  England,  and  disposed  to  become 
a  complaisant  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  power  that  had  appointed  him.  He 
presented  ins  credentials  to  the  assembly,  who,  after  giving  vent  to  their  dis- 
satisfaction in  a  protest,  were  compelled  to  break  up  their  sittings. 

Shortly  after  arrived  the  new  governor,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  fully  pre- 
pared and  authorized  to  carry  out  the  system  marked  out  for  him  by  James. 
He  came  out  in  a  royal  frigate  to  enforce  the  navigation  acts,  and  brought 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  159 

with  him  two  companies  of  English  troops  to  overawe  the  stubborn  spirits  of  cha v. 
the  colonists.     He  was  empowered  to  remove  and  appoint  the  members  of ^— 

AD  1687 

the  council  at  his  pleasure,  and,  with  the  consent  of  a  body  thus  under  his 
control,  to  levy  tax^es,  make  laws,  and  call  out  the  militia.  His  subordinates 
were  entirely  devoted  to  him.  Dudley,  the  late  governor,  was  made 
chief  justice,  and  Randolph,  that  old  antagonist  of  the  theocracy,  who  had 
spent  years  of  persevering  hostility,  and  put  in  practice  every  artifice  to  hum- 
ble the  pride  of  his  enemies,  was  appointed  as  colonial  secretary.  The  press, 
previously  placed  under  his  control,  had  already  been  thoroughly  gagged ;  it 
was  now  entirely  suppressed. 

The  first  rude  shock  to  the  feelings  if  the  majority  of  the  people  was  the 
demand  of  a  meeting-house,  in  which  to  set  up  the  ceremonial  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  The  proprietors  of  the  building  expostulated,  the  sexton  re- 
fused to  toll  the  bell ;  but  all  was  in  vain,  and  the  surpliced  clergyman  went 
through  the  hated  ritual,  protected  by  a  force  against  which  it  was  in  vain  to 
contend.  The  different  sects  which  had  been  so  long  engaged  in  a  restless 
struggle  for  toleration,  Baptists,  Quakers,  and  Episcopalians,  enjoyed  their 
hour  of  triumph,  but  alloyed  with  the  reflection  that  what  should  have  been 
granted  them  as  a  natural  right,  was  but  the  result  of  the  designing  policy  of 
a  hated  despot.  Having  established  his  government  in  Massachusetts,  Andros 
now  turned  his  attention  to  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  against  which 
writs  of  quo  warranto  had  been  prepared.  He  summoned  the  council  of  the 
first-mentioned  State  to  give  up  their  charter,  and  upon  their  demurring,  re- 
paired thither  himself,  and  at  once  dissolved  the  then  existing  government, 
appointing  an  irresponsible  commission.  In  the  autumn,  protected  by  a  guard, 
he  proceeded  to  Hartford,  and  made  the  same  demand  of  the  assembly  of 
Connecticut,  who  were  at  that  time  in  session.  Treat,  the  governor,  earnestly 
pleaded  with  Andros  in  favour  of  the  beloved  charter  of  their  liberties  ;  the 
debate,  protracted  until  night,  was  warmly  supported,  and  the  feelings  of  the 
people  highly  excited.  The  disputed  document  lay  upon  the  table,  on  a  sud- 
den the  lights  were  extinguished,  and  when  they  were  kindled  again  the 
charter  had  disappeared.  A  faithful  citizen  had  snatched  it  up  and  fled  with 
it,  concealing  it  in  the  hollow  of  an  old  oak,  till  the  time  of  this  tyranny 
should  be  overpast.  Andros  declared  the  charter  forfeited,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  records  inscribed  the  ominous  word — FINIS. 

In  the  same  summary  manner  had  the  charters  of  East  and  West  Jersey 
been  revoked.  The  assembly  of  New  York  had  not  again  been  summoned. 
The  king  had  determined  to  rule  without  assemblies.  Andros  repaired 
thither  to  assert  his  authority  and  to  appoint  Nicholson  as  his  deputy. 

Over  the  extensive  territory  thus  subjected  to  his  government,  Andros, 
secure  of  the  sympathy  and  approval  of  the  king,  proceeded  to  establish  a 
system  of  grinding  despotism,  and  to  pillage  the  colonists  by  the  imposition 
of  fresh  fees  and  taxes.  The  most  notable  and  shameless  expedient  was  the 
issuing  of  "  writs  of  intrusion,"  as  they  were  called,  against  great  numbers 
of  people,  on  the  ground  that  their  original  titles  to  the  land  were  defective, 


160  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  and  that  they  must  take  out  fresh  ones  from  his  Majesty,  for  which  prepos- 

terous  privilege  the  most  extravagant  sums  were  extorted.     Every  possible 

device,  in  short,  was  adopted  by  the  agents  of  the  government  for  swelling 
their  own  coffers  at  the  expense  of  the  people.  Their  emoluments  were  vastly 
increased,  and  fees  for  the  probate  of  wills  multiplied  almost  twenty-fold. 
"While  the  property  of  the  colonists  was  thus  scandalously  pillaged,  the 
liberties  to  which  they  had  been  so  long  accustomed  were,  one  by  one,  torn 
from  them,  until  not  even  the  shadow  of  self-government  was  left.  The  old 
town  meetings,  first  established  by  the  Plymouth  settlers,  and  the  very  basis 
of  their  polity,  were  declared  illegal,  unless  for  the  election  of  town 
officers.  No  person  was  allowed  to  leave  the  colony  without  a  permit.  The 
government  openly  asserted  their  intention  to  subvert  the  privileges  of  the 
people,  and  to  substitute  for  them  the  exercise  of  the  royal  prerogative  alone. 
They  denied  that  the  "  Habeas  Corpus  "  act  extended  to  the  colonies,  and 
even  refused  an  appeal  to  the  common  law  of  England.  They  irritated  the 
religious  feelings  of  the  bulk  of  the  people,  and  aroused  the  animosity  of  the 
theocratic  clergy,  by  encouraging  Dissenters  to  refuse  the  taxes  levied  by  the 
towns  for  their  support.  Oaths  were  required  to  be  taken  by  laying  the  hand 
on  the  Bible,  a  custom  deemed  superstitious  by  the  Puritans ;  and  marriages, 
which  were  before  registered  by  the  civil  magistrate,  could  now  be  celebrated 
at  Boston  only  by  the  Anglican  clergy,  and  according  to  the  ritual  of  the 
Prayer  Book.  Against  oppressions  so  intolerable,  and  vexations  so  galling, 
the  proud,  stern  New  Englanders  revolted  ;  and  a  spirit  was  gathering,  which, 
though  for  a  while  suppressed,  was  ready  to  burst  forth  into  open  insurrection. 
Meanwhile,  Increase  Mather,  one  of  the  principal  clergy,  fled  to  England, 
on  the  almost  hopeless  errand  of  laying  before  James  the  grievances  and  suf- 
ferings inflicted  by  his  unprincipled  agents.  The  king,  whose  policy  just  then 
was  to  conciliate  the  Dissenters,  received  him  civilly,  but  all  his  endeavours 
to  procure  redress  were  utterly  abortive. 

But  the  career  of  that  infatuated  monarch  was  rapidly  hurrying  to  a  close. 
James  had  succeeded  in  alienating  every  party  and  every  sect  in  the  blind 
endeavour  to  build  up  the  Roman  Catholics  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  His  insidious  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  ostensibly  for  the 
relief  of  oppressed  sectarians,  but  in  reality  to  advance  the  interests  of  his 
party,  enraged  the  clergy  of  the  Establishment,  and  alarmed  the  Dissenters 
themselves,  who  made  common  cause  with  the  former  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  Popery.  He  had  offended  the  great  lords  by  depriving  them  of  their 
places,  because  they  refused  to  fill  up  the  subordinate  offices  with  his  creatures. 
His  bringing  over  an  Irish  army  to  supply  the  place  of  the  disaffected  Eng- 
ish  soldiers  was  regarded  by  the  people  with  disgust  and  horror.  His  illegal 
violation  of  the  privileges  of  the  universities,  and  his  forcing  upon  them  pa- 
pistical officers, — but,  above  all,  his  impeachment  of  the  seven  bishops  for  re- 
fusing to  lend  themselves  to  his  arbitrary  designs, — had  inflamed  the  popular 
disaffection  to  the  very  highest  pitch.  On  the  very  day  that  all  London  rang 
with  acclamation,  and  blazed  with  bonfires  and  illuminations,  at  the  issue  of 


A.  D.  1639. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  161 

this  memorable  trial,  a  messenger  had  been  despatched  to  William  of  Orange,  chap. 
who  had  long  been  in  treaty  with  the  Whig  nobility  of  England,  to  entreat 
him  to  hasten  his  arrival.  His  appearance  on  the  English  soil,  with  a  power- 
ful and  veteran  army,  was  the  signal  for  the  defection  of  Churchill  with  the 
best  part  of  the  troops,  and  of  the  flight  of  the  Princess  Anne,  in  com- 
pany with  his  artful  wife,  her  friendship  for  whom  exceeded  the  love  she 
bore  to  her  father.  Unmanned  by  the  universal  defection,  the  weak  and 
wretched  monarch  fled  even  while  the  more  devoted  of  his  adherents  were 
endeavouring  to  effect  a  compromise  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  but  was 
seized  and  detained  by  the  populace,  and  brought  back  again  to  his  me- 
tropolis. Not  a  blow  was  struck.  A  second  flight  of  the  king's  justified 
the  convention  parliament,  called  together  by  the  prince  to  settle  the 
affairs  of  the  government,  in  pronouncing  the  deposition  of  James,  and  in 
offering  the  crown  to  the  Protestant  William  of  Orange.  The  intelligence 
of  these  events,  as  welcome  as  it  was  surprising  to  the  people,  reached 
Boston  on  the  4th  of  April,  1689,  and  instantly  produced  a  fermenta- 
tion alarming  to  those  in  power.  Andros  affected  to  disbelieve  the  news, 
and  imprisoned  those  who  brought  it.  But  the  New  England  sagacity  and 
spirit  were  fully  vigilant  and  alive.  On  the  18th,  as  the  commander  of  the 
frigate  stepped  on  shore,  he  was  surrounded  and  made  prisoner  by  the  popu- 
lace. The  sheriff,  who  hastened  to  quell  the  disturbance,  was  similarly  treat- 
ed. The  whole  town  was  in  commotion.  The  militia  gathered  together  and 
formed  under  their  old  leaders ;  the  ship's  barge  was  intercepted,  as  it  came 
off  to  rescue  Andros,  who  had  fled  for  safety  to  the  fort,  against  which  the 
guns  of'the  battery  were  turned  by  the  people.  Andros,  obliged  to  submit, 
was  forthwith  conducted  to  prison.  Simon  Bradstreet,  venerable  alike  for 
years  and  character,  and  who  had  already  honourably  distinguished  himself 
in  office,  happening  to  appear  at  this  conjuncture,  was  pronounced  governor 
by  general  acclamation.  This  sudden  movement,  by  which  the  castle  and 
frigate  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents,  was  fully  sustained  by  the  popu- 
lation of  the  surrounding  country,  who  rapidly  flocked  into  Boston  to  the  as- 
sistance of  their  brethren  in  the  city.  The  news  flew  rapidly  to  Plymouth, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  where  similar  insurrections  took  place.  Every 
where  the  old  charters  were  brought  forth  or  their  authority  asserted,  and  the 
administration  of  affairs  for  the  most  part  fell,  provisionally,  into  the  hands  of 
the  former  magistrates,  until  a  new  arrangement  could  be  entered  into  with 
the  English  government. 

In  New  York  the  news  of  the  English  revolution  produced  also  a  move- 
ment, but  by  no  means  so  unanimous  as  that  of  New  England,  and  destined, 
unhappily,  to  lead  to  a  tragical  result.  In  that  colony,  among  inhabitants 
partly  English  and  partly  Dutch,  and  unaccustomed  to  those  popular  privi- 
leges which  had  fused  together  all  classes  in  the  New  England  States,  the 
spirit  of  party  and  the  feelings  of  caste  ran  high.  The  same  appointment  of 
Papists  to  office  which  had  given  such  bitter  offence  in  England  was  also 
practised  at  New  York,  where  it  created  even  greater  excitement,  and  where 


XIII 

A.  T .  ]r-90 


162  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

cm?.  »he  most  sinister  suspicions  were  entertained  of  the  designs  of  the  king. 
Upon  the  news  of  the  deposition  of  James,  the  populace  flew  to  arms,  and  sur- 
rounded the  house  of  Jacob  Leisler,  a  merchant  of  Dutch  origin,  and  senior 
captain  of  the  companies  of  militia,  who  was  thus  induced  to  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  movement  exclusively  designed  to  insure  the  triumph  of  Pro- 
testantism, and  of  William  of  Orange.  As  the  militia  sided  with  the  people, 
Leisler  had  no  difficulty  in  seizing  the  fort,  and  in  taking  possession  of  the 
public  money.  The  insurgents  put  forth  a  proclamation,  in  which  they  avowed 
that  their  sole  design  was  to  hold  possession  of  the  province  until  the  arrival 
of  orders  from  the  Prince  of  Orange,  to  which  they  promised  to  pay  implicit 
obedience.  A  committee  of  safety  was  organized,  who  invested  Leisler  with 
the  provisional  administration  of  the  province.  An  address  accompanied  by 
a  letter  from  Leisler  were  immediately  forwarded  to  the  English  monarch. 

This  movement  of  the  popular  party,  together  with  the  prerogatives  con- 
ferred upon  their  leader,  were  highly  offensive  to  the  council  and  aristocratic 
party,  who,  although  they  professed  loyalty  to  the  new  monarch,  refused  to 
acknowledge  an  authority  rightly  judged  by  them  to  be  illegal,  and  by  which 
their  own  was  cast  into  the  shade.  Unable,  however,  to  cope  with  their  ad- 
versaries, they  retired  to  Albany,  where  they  continued  their  sessions,  whilst 
Nicholson,  the  deputy  of  Andros  the  late  governor,  took  his  departure  for 
England. 

Thus  did  the  colony  present  the  singular  spectacle  of  two  factions,  alike 
professing  their  zealous  allegiance  to  the  lawful  monarch,  and  only  intent  upon 
humbling  each  other's  pretensions  ;  and  this  opportunity  was  quickly  furnished 
to  Leisler,  by  the  arrival,  soon  after  the  departure  of  Nicholson,  of  letters  from 
the  government  confirming  the  latter  in  his  post,  and  addressed  to  those  who 
"  for  the  time  being  hold  the  administration  of  affairs."  In  the  absence  of 
Nicholson,  Leisler,  conceiving  that  the  authority  with  which  he  had  been  invest- 
ed by  the  people  was  valid,  assumed  the  title  of  lieutenant-governor,  and  even 
issued  warrants  to  arrest  his  opponents,  a  stretch  of  authority  which  inflamed 
their  exasperation  to  the  highest  pitch.  During  their  sittings  at  Albany,  they 
had  been  threatened  with  an  attack  from  the  Indians,  and  had  demanded 
succour.  Leisler  sent  to  their  assistance  his  son-in-law  Milbourne,  to  whom 
they  refused  possession  of  the  fort,  upon  which  he  returned  to  New  York. 
In  the  mean  time  Leisler  continued  his  preparations  for  prosecuting  the  hos- 
tilities pending  with  Canada. 

While  the  colony  was  thus  a  prey  to  internal  anarchy,  William  had  confer- 
red the  government  of  the  province  upon  Colonel  Henry  Sloughter ;  who  was 
accompanied  by  Captain  Ingoldsby,  in  another  vessel,  with  a  troop  of  soldiers 
raised  for  the  Canadian  war.  The  ships  were  separated  by  a  storm,  and  the 
captain  with  his  band  of  soldiers  happened  to  arrive  some  weeks  before  the 
governor.  As  soon  as  Ingoldsby  had  landed  he  demanded  possession  of  the 
fort,  but  as  he  could  show  no  order  either  from  the  king  or  Sloughter,  Leisler 
refused  to  give  it  up  to  him,  although  he  issued  an  order  that  the  troops 
should  be  quartered  in  the  city,  and  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  recognised 


A.  D.  1691. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  163 

the  authority  of  Sloughter.  Meanwhile  a  new  assembly  had  been  convened,  chap 
who,  the  opponents  of  Leisler,  inflamed  to  the  utmost  the  irritation  of 
Ingoldsby,  already  galled  at  the  refusal  of  the  fort ;  and  thus,  at  the  moment 
when  the  new  governor  arrived,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  faction  composed 
of  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  unfortunate  Leisler,  whose  conduct  was  misre- 
presented as  nothing  short  of  factious  rebellion  against  the  royal  authority. 

His  fate  was  hurried  on  with  the  indecent  precipitation  of  party  revenge. 
Disregarding  his  offer  to  surrender  the  fort,  Sloughter  ordered  that  Leisler 
and  his  council  should  be  arrested  for  high  treason.  A  special  court  of  eight 
persons  was  packed  to  try  him,  and  on  refusing  to  plead  before  so  unjust  a 
tribunal,  he  was  pronounced  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  death,  his  estate  and  those 
of  his  adherents  being  also  confiscated  to  the  crown.  The  assembly,  then  newly 
convoked,  and  composed  of  the  party  thoroughly  subservient  to  despotic  rule, 
refused  to  recommend  a  reprieve,  and  although  the  governor  desired  to  await 
the  result  of  instructions  from  England,  the  council  urged  the  instant  execu- 
tion of  the  prisoners  as  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  colony.  It  is  even  said 
that  the  fatal  mandate  was  procured  from  the  heated  governor  in  the  midst  of 
a  banquet  artfully  given  for  the  purpose,  and  protracted  until  it  was  too  late 
to  recall  it.  It  was  a  cold  and  rainy  morning  when  Leisler  and  Milbourne 
were  dragged  from  their  weeping  families  and  hurried  to  the  gallows.  The 
populace,  with  tears  and  execrations,  crowded  to  its  foot  to  behold  the  doom  of 
their  favourites,  and  some  of  their  enemies  also  repaired  thither  to  gratify 
a  hellish  vengeance  by  the  sight  of  their  expiring  agonies.  To  one  of 
these  Milbourne  cried  out  with  the  last  wild  energy  of  a  voice  soon  to  be 
hushed  in  the  silence  of  death, — "  Robert  Livingston,  for  this  I  will  implead 
thee  at  the  bar  of  God ! "  The  integrity  of  Leisler  was  evident  in  his  dying 
address  to  the  people  ;  he  acknowledged  that  he  might  have  committed  errors, 
"  through  ignorance  and  jealous  fear,  through  rashness  and  passion,  through 
misinformation  and  misconstruction,"  while,  together  with  Milbourne,  he  pro- 
tested his  loyalty  with  his  latest  breath,  and  commended  his  parting  spirit  into 
the  hands  of  God.  The  people  rushed  around  to  procure  some  memento  of 
his  judicial  murder,  the  impression  made  by  it  sunk  deep  into  their  hearts, 
and,  transmitted  to  their  children,  greatly  fortified  those  popular  principles,  in 
his  zealous  assertion  of  which  their  unhappy  martyr  had  incautiously  over- 
stepped the  doubtful  limits  of  legitimate  resistance. 

An  appeal  to  the  king  was  afterwards  made  by  the  son  of  Leisler,  and  the 
result  sufficiently  indicated  the  opinion  entertained  of  the  transaction  by  the 
English  government.  "While  they  admitted  that  the  forms  of  law  had  not  been 
broken,  they  recommended  that  the  estates  of  the  deceased  should  be  restored 
to  their  families.  At  a  later  period  the  iniquitous  attainder  was  completely 
reversed. 


y  2 


164  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


FOUNDATION   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. — LIFE   OF  FENN. — GRANT  FROM   CHARLES   II. — ESTABLISHMENT 
OF  THE   COLONY. — DISPUTES   WITH   THE   SETTLERS. 


chap.  Whilst,  during  the  reigns  of  Charles  and  James  II.,  the  northern  states  were 
thus  oppressed  by  foreign  tyranny  or  torn  by  domestic  dissensions,  another 


A.  D.  1660. 


colony  had  been  peacefully  planted  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  and,  undis- 
turbed by  interference  from  abroad,  had  grown  up  with  unprecedented 
rapidity,  owing,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  wise  and  benevolent  policy  adopted 
by  its  founder.  This,  remarkable  person  was  William  Penn,  the  son  of 
Admiral  Penn,  distinguished  during  the  protectorate  of  Cromwell  by  the  con- 
quest of  the  island  of  Jamaica,  and  afterwards  by  his  conduct  and  courage 
during  the  war  with  Holland,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  with  whom  and  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  he  was  a  great  favourite.  Young  Penn  was 
entered  as  a  gentleman  commoner  at  Oxford  at  the  period  when  the  Quakers, 
in  the  midst  of  abhorrence  and  persecution  from  all  sects  and  parties,  persisted 
in  the  propagation  of  their  offensive  tenets.  Through  the  earnestness  of  one 
of  their  itinerant  preachers,  the  son  of  the  courtier  became  converted  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  New  Light,  and  it  is  said,  though  the  truth  of  the  allegation  is 
disputed,  even  went  so  far  as  to  drag  from  the  backs  of  the  students  their 
academical  vestments,  which  he  regarded  as  badges  of  the  Popish  superstition. 
Persisting  in  an  enthusiastic  advocacy  of  his  new  views,  he  was  -fined  and 
expelled  the  university.  The  exasperated  old  admiral,  his  father,  at  first  beat 
him  and  turned  him  out  of  doors,  but  afterwards  sent  him  to  make  the  tour 
of  Europe,  in  the  hope  that  mingling  more  freely  with  the  great  world  might 
effect  the  cure  of  his  eccentric  enthusiasm.  His  travels  undoubtedly  tended 
both  to  enlarge  his  mind  and  to  give  additional  suavity  to  his  manners,  and 
perhaps  also  to  check  for  a  while  the  revolution  which  was  taking  place  in  his 
moral  nature.  On  his  return  to  London  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  law 
at  Lincoln's  Inn,  he  was  considered  quite  "a  modish  fine  gentleman."  "  The 
glory  of  the  world,"  he  says,  "  overtook  me,  and  I  was  even  ready  to  give  up 
myself  unto  it;"  but  his  deep  sense  of  the  vanity  of  the  world,  and  the  "  irre- 
ligiousness  of  its  religions,"  which  the  preaching  of  the  itinerant  Quaker  had 
produced,  were  aroused  from  temporary  slumber  by  his  providential  en- 
counter with  the  same  individual  on  the  occasion  of  a  journey  to  Ireland, 
and  he  determined  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  persecuted  advocates  of  brotherly 
love  and  impartial  toleration.  "  God  in  his  everlasting  kindness,"  thus  he 
declares,  "  guided  my  feet  into  this  path  in  the  flower  of  my  youth,  when 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  165 

about  two  and  twenty  years  of  age."     At  once  he  entered  upon  that  career  of  chap. 

preaching  his  beloved  doctrines,  which  in  the  face  of  persecution  he  long 

continued  to  follow  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Imprisoned  in  Ireland,  he  was  to  i67o. ' 
only  enlarged  to  be  received  on  his  return  to  England  with  the  animosity  of 
the  clergy,  the  derision  of  the  courtiers,  and  a  fresh  ebullition  of  fury  from  his 
indignant  father,  who,  for  the  second  time,  expelled  him  from  his  home.  But 
the  spirit  of  Penn  was  too  high  and  calm  to  be  intimidated  or  exasperated. 
He  boldly  repaired  to  court,  and  while  he  refused  to  take  off  his  hat  to  those 
in  power,  pleaded  with  them  the  cause  of  the  persecuted  sectaries.  He  was 
a  convert  of  a  grade  too  high,  and  of  an  influence  too  extensive,  to  be  re- 
pelled by  ordinary  penalties  :  and  thus,  by  the  influence  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  he  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  and  menaced  with  imprisonment 
for  life.  The  king  sent  Archbishop  Stillingfleet  to  reason  with  him,  but  the 
apostle  of  liberty  of  conscience  was  not  to  be  convinced  by  the  sophistries 
of  despotism  ;  menaces  and  promises  were  alike  employed  in  vain.  "  Tell  my 
father,"  he  said,  "  that  my  prison  shall  be  my  grave  before  I  will  budge  a  jot, 
for  I  owe  my  conscience  to  no  mortal  man.  I  have  no  need  to  fear.  God 
will  make  amends  for  all."  He  remained  many  months  in  confinement,  from 
which  he  was  at  length  released  through  the  influence  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
the  friend  of  his  father  the  admiral,  who,  as  a  brave  man  himself,  could  not 
but  feel  respect  for  the  unflinching  courage  of  his  son. 

Again  taken  preaching  in  the  street,  he  was  brought  up,  under  the  con- 
venticle act,  to  stand  his  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey,  where  he  defended  his  cause 
with  such  energy  that  the  jury,  in  spite  of  the  intimidation  of  the  judges, 
declared  him  innocent.  The  judge  imperiously  demanded  another  verdict 
of  the  jurors,  while  Penn  exhorted  them  to  stand  up  nobly  for  the  liberties 
of  their  country.  After  a  confinement  of  two  days  and  nights,  they  still 
persisted  in  declaring  the  prisoner  "  not  guilty."  They  were  fined  for  their 
contumacy,  while  Penn  was  sent  back  to  prison ;  but  the  moral  influence  of 
so  noble  a  stand,  at  a  period  of  servility  and  corruption,  was  at  the  time  in- 
valuable, and  ultimately  became  irresistible. 

We  cannot  follow  in  detail  the  incidents  of  that  career,  the  consistent  tenor 
of  which  may  be  inferred  from  what  has  been  already  unfolded.  The  father  of 
Penn  died,  fully  reconciled  to  his  noble  son,  whom,  on  his  death-bed,  he  com- 
mitted to  the  protection  of  the  Duke  of  York,  his  old  and  intimate  friend, 
through  whose  influence  he  afterwards  obtained  that  grant  in  America  of 
which  a  more  detailed  mention  will  presently  be  made.  Again  imprisoned  for 
several  months,  he  put  forth  a  Plea  for  Universal  Toleration,  in  which,  look- 
ing through  the  clouds  of  hostile  factions  and  religious  animosities,  by  which 
the  prospect  around  him  was  darkened,  he  clearly  foresaw  the  future  tri- 
umph of  the  principles  of  religious  liberty,  and  expressed  himself,  "  resolved 
by  patience  to  outweary  persecution,  and,  by  constant  sufferings,  to  obtain  a 
victory  more  glorious  than  his  adversaries  could  achieve  by  their  cruelties." 

The  accession  of  James  II.  to  the  throne  of  England  worked  an  entire 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  Quakers,  and  of  Penn,  who  had  long  enjoyed 


A.  D. 1670 
to  1680. 


166  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  his  friendship,  and  had  already  been  indebted  to  him  for  many  import- 
ant services.  His  worth  and  integrity,  together  with  his  well-known  prin- 
ciple of  non-resistance,  rendered  him  at  once  a  valuable  confidant,  and  it 
has  been  also  insinuated,  a  convenient  ally  of  the  new  sovereign.  His 
reputation  for  favour  at  court,  and  his  benevolent  character,  caused  him 
to  be  encircled  by  a  crowd  of  suppliants,  whose  suits  he  not  only  forwarded 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  but  the  contingent  expenses  of  which  he  often  dis- 
charged. It  is  far  from  improbable,  that  his  good-nature  may  have  been 
abused  by  the  designing,  while  his  motives  were*  misrepresented  by  the 
envious  and  malicious.  The  first  use  made  of  his  influence  was  to  procure 
the  liberation  of  his  imprisoned  brethren,  fourteen  hundred  of  whom  were 
at  that  time  languishing  in  the  prisons  of  England.  Can  it  excite  sur- 
prise, that  when  the  well-known  declaration  of  indulgence  was  promulgated 
by  the  designing  monarch,  it  should  have  been  well  received  by  Penn  and 
the  Quakers  ?  They  had  been  exposed  to  the  persecution  of  Episcopalians 
and  Puritans  alike,  and  the  toleration  now  demanded  by  James,  however 
intended  to  cover  his  own  artful  designs,  was  welcomed  by  them  as  a  boon 
and  a  deliverance.  It  was  their  hope  that  what  had  been  introduced,  al- 
though illegally,  by  James,  would  be  ratified  by  an  act  of  the  parliament. 
It  has  been  recently  insinuated,  that  bound  as  he  was  by  gratitude  to  the 
monarch,  or  corrupted  by  courtly  smiles,  Penn  was  henceforth  induced  to 
become  an  agent  in  promoting  the  success  of  his  designs  against  the  Pro- 
testant religion,  and  upon  the  liberties  of  England;  but  this  accusation 
appears  to  be  wholly  mistaken.  That  he  did  not  join  with  the  Church  and 
the  Dissenters  in  opposing  the  projects  of  James,  that  he  was  willing  to 
consent  to  the  toleration  of  the  Catholics,  that,  grateful  to  the  despotic 
monarch,  he  should  not  have  openly  sided  with  his  enemies,  but  continued 
to  be  his  personal  adherent,  even  after  his  expulsion  from  the  throne,  can 
scarcely  be  charged  to  his  discredit.  But  it  is  abundantly  evident,  that  far 
from  becoming  a  willing  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  king,  he  uniformly  endea- 
voured to  deter  him  from  those  arbitrary  and  illegal  courses  which  led  to  his 
eventual  downfal ;  and  that  while  he  could  see  no  objection  to  allow  the  Ca- 
tholics the  same  liberty  which  he  demanded  for  the  Quakers,  it  is  undeniable, 
both  from  the  evidence  of  Clarendon,  and  the  Dutch  ambassador,  Van  Citters, 
that  he  laboured  in  private  to  thwart  the  Jesuitical  influence  which  pre- 
dominated in  James's  cabinet.  Unhappily,  the  king  was  as  deaf  to  Penn's 
advice,  as  the  parliament  and  the  nation,  at  that  time  divided  by  the  spirit  of 
party,  were  to  his  plea  for  universal  and  impartial  toleration.  While,  therefore, 
his  far-reaching  mind  looked  to  future  ages  for  the  realization  of  his  hopes 
as  to  his  native  land,  he  resolved  attempting  to  carry  out  his  noble  and  pa- 
cific principles  upon  the  distant  shores  of  the  New  World,  and  to  set  up 
"  an  example  and  standard  to  the  nations."  "  TJiere  we  may  find  room,  al- 
though not  here!"  (thus  he  writes  to  a  friend,)  "for  the  holy  experiment." 

Penn  had  taken  an  early  interest  in  the  concerns  of  America,  which  had  been 
greatly  increased  by  his  transactions  with  the  Quakers  of  New  Jersey.     His 


A.  D. 1681. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  167 

father  had  bequeathed  him  a  claim  against  the  government  for  sixteen  thou-  chap. 
sand  pounds.  As  it  was  almost  hopeless  to  expect  the  liquidation  of  this  debt 
from  an  embarrassed  and  extravagant  sovereign,  Penn  became  desirous  of  ob- 
taining in  lieu  of  it  a  grant  of  American  territory ;  a  wish  that  his  influence 
with  the  Duke  of  York  and  the  leading  courtiers  at  length  enabled  him  to 
realize.  "  This  day,"  he  observes  in  a  letter  dated  Jan.  5th,  1681,  "  after 
many  waitings,  watchings,  solicitings,  and  disputes,  my  country  was  confirm- 
ed to  me  under  the  great  seal  of  England,  with  large  powers  and  privi- 
leges, by  the  name  of  Pennsylvania,  a  name  the  king  gave  it  in  honour  of 
my  father.  I  chose  New  Wales,  being  a  hilly  country,  and  when  the  secretary, 
a  Welshman,  refused  to  call  it  New  Wales,  I  proposed  Sylvania,  and  they 
added  Penn  to  it,  though  I  much  opposed  him,  and  went  to  the  king  to  have 
it  struck  out.  He  said  'twas  past,  and  he  would  take  it  upon  him ;  nor  could 
twenty  guineas  move  the  under  secretary  to  alter  the  name,  for  I  feared  it 
should  be  looked  on  as  a  vanity  in  me,  and  not  as  a  respect  in  the  king  to  my 
father,  as  it  really  was.  Thou  mayst  communicate  my  grant,"  he  adds,  "  to  my 
friends,  and  expect  shortly  my  proposals.  'Tis  a  dear  and  just  thing,  and  my 
God,  that  has  given  it  me  through  many  difficulties,  will,  I  believe,  bless  and 
make  it  the  seed  of  a  nation.  I  shall  have  a  tender  care  to  the  government, 
that  it  be  well  laid  at  first." 

The  charter  thus  obtained  differed  little  from  that  of  Lord  Baltimore,  creat- 
ing Penn  absolute  lord  and  proprietor,  with  the  reservation  of  allegiance  to  the 
crown ;  and  it  invested  in  him  and  his  heirs  the  power  of  making  laws  with 
"the  advice  and  consent  of  the  freemen,"  and  subject  to  be  annulled  by  the 
king  and  council,  if  contrary  to  English  legislation.  The  right  of  levying 
duties  and  taxes  was  also  reserved  to  the  parliament. 

As  there  were  already  within  the  limits  of  Penn's  grant  numerous  English, 
Dutch,  and  Swedish  settlers,  he  sent  out  the  royal  proclamation,  constituting 
him  lord  proprietor,  by  the  hands  of  his  kinsman,  William  Markham ;  and  to 
engage  the  good  will  of  these,  he  tells  them  "  that  they  are  now  fixed  at  the 
mercy  of  no  governor  that  comes  to  make  his  fortune  great,  that  they  shall  be 
governed  by  laws  of  their  own  making,  and  live  free,  and,  if  they  will,  a  sober 
and  industrious  people.  I  shall  not  usurp  the  right  of  any,"  he  continues, "  nor 
oppress  his  person.  God  has  furnished  me  with  a  better  resolution,  and  has 
given  me  his  grace  to  keep  it."  Markham  was  also  deputed  to  arrange  the 
question  of  boundaries  with  Lord  Baltimore. 

The  next  measure  was  to  issue  proposals  for  the  sale  of  the  lands,  which 
were  disposed  of  at  the  rate  of  twenty  pounds  for  every  thousand  acres, 
subject  to  a  perpetual  quit-rent  of  one  shilling  for  every  hundred  acres.  A 
company  was  formed,  and  three  vessels  set  sail  with  a  body  of  emigrants  for 
the  shores  of  the  Delaware — carrying  out  instructions  for  building  the  new 
city,  which  Penn  desired  might  resemble  a  green  and  open  country  town. 
For  the  first  time,  perhaps,  the  Indians  found  themselves  addressed  in  the  lan- 
guage of  genuine  philanthropy  and  good  will.  "  The  great  God,"  thus  he 
wrote  to  their  sachems,  "had  been  pleased  to  make  him  concerned  in  their  part 


A.  D. 1682. 


1GS  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  of  the  world,  and  the  king  of  the  country  where  he  lived  had  given  him  a 
great  province  therein,  but  he  did  not  desire  to  enjoy  it  without  their  con- 
sent ;  he  was  a  man  of  peace,  and  the  people  whom  he  sent  were  of  the  same 
disposition,  and  if  any  difference  should  happen  between  them,  it  might  be 
adjusted  by  an  equal  number  of  men  chosen  on  both  sides." 

What  form  of  government  it  would  be  best  to  adopt,  next  engaged  the  anx- 
ious consideration  of  the  Quaker  sovereign.  He  determined  to  legislate  in  the 
most  liberal  spirit,  "  to  leave  to  himself  and  his  successors  no  power  of  doing 
mischief,"  "  that  the  will  of  one  man  may  not  hinder  the  good  of  a  whole 
country — for  liberty  without  obedience  is  confusion,  and  obedience  without 
liberty  is  slavery."  The  assembly,  to  consist,  first,  of  all  the  freemen,  af- 
terwards, of  delegates,  never  more  than  five  hundred  nor  less  than  two  hun- 
dred freemen,  were  to  elect  a  council  of  seventy-two  members,  one  third  to  go 
out  and  be  replaced  annually,  over  whom  the  proprietor  was  to  preside  and 
enjoy  a  triple  vote.  This  council  was  not  only  invested  with  the  executive  power, 
but  was  also  authorized  to  prepare  bills  for  presentation  to  the  assembly.  In 
addition,  a  body  of  forty  fundamental  laws  was  agreed  upon  by  Penn  and  the 
emigrants. 

Every  preliminary  arrangement  being  concluded,  Penn  prepared  to  set  sail, 
accompanied  by  a  hundred  settlers,  chiefly  of  his  own  persuasion.  His  voyage 
was  long  and  disastrous  ;  the  small  pox  broke  out  on  board,  and  cut  off  thirty 
of  the  passengers.  At  length  the  ship  entered  the  broad  and  majestic  Delaware, 
and  came  to  an  anchor  at  Newcastle.  As  soon  as  the  news  of  Penn's  arrival  was 
spread  abroad,  the  magistrates  and  settlers  flocked  together,  to  greet  him  at  the 
court-house  ;  his  title-dee  ;,s  were  produced  ;  and  he  conciliated  the  assembled 
multitude  with  promises  of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Continuing  his  ascent 
of  the  river,  he  landed  at  Chester,  where  he  found  a  plain,  simple,  industrious 
population,  composed  of  Swedish  Lutherans  and  Quakers,  who  had  established 
themselves  in  a  country  with  which,  from  the  purity  of  the  air  and  water,  the 
freshness  and  beauty  of  the  landscape,  and  the  rich  abundance  of  all  sorts  of 
provisions,  he  declared,  in  his  enthusiasm,  that  "  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob 
would  be  well  contented  with."  Hence  his  journey  up  the  river  is  tradition- 
ally said  to  have  been  prosecuted  in  an  open  boat,  when,  in  the  company  of  a 
few  friends,  he  visited  and  marked  the  spot  upon  which  he  determined  to 
found  his  capital  city.  At  some  distance  further  up  the  stream,  opposite  to 
Burlington,  his  kinsman  Markham  had  already  commenced  the  erection  of  a 
mansion-house  for  his  residence. 

After  a  visit  to  Quaker  friends  in  New  Jersey  and  Long  Island,  and  a 
glance  at  his  friend  the  Duke's  capital  of  New  York,  Penn  returned  to  watch 
over  the  progress  of  his  colonists ;  the  affairs  that  required  his  earliest  atten- 
tion being — to  settle  the  form  of  government,  to  arrange  the  question  of 
boundaries,  and  to  propitiate  the  lasting  amity  of  the  Indian  tribes. 

An  assembly  of  the  whole  body  of  freemen  was  convened  at  Chester ;  but, 
as  they  were  unaccustomed  to  the  exercise  of  legislative  power,  they  preferred 
to  send  their  delegates.     This  circumstance  somewhat  modified  the  form  of 


A.  D. 1682. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  169 

both  the  assembly  and  the  council,  the  numbers  of  both  being  considerably  c5rV' 
reduced,  and  the  power  of  the  proprietary  enlarged, — an  alteration  made,  how- 
ever, as  Penn  declared,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  freemen  themselves.  The 
three  lower  countries  were  now  incorporated  with  Pennsylvania.  A  code  of 
laws  was  enacted  nearly  resembling  those  already  agreed  upon  in  England 
between  the  emigrants  and  Penn.  Its  broad  outlines  were  worthy  of  his 
philanthropic  professions.  Universal  toleration  was  proclaimed,  each  sect 
was  to  support  itself.  Every  freeman  had  the  right  of  voting  and  holding 
office — the  only  reservation  being  the  necessity  of  a  belief  in  God  and  absti- 
nence from  labour  on  the  sabbath.  Trial  by  jury  was  established.  Murder 
alone  was  punishable  with  death.  Oaths  were  abolished.  Primogeniture, 
with  a  trifling  reservation,  was  abrogated.  Marriage  was  regarded  as  a  civil 
contract.  Two  wise  and  important  provisions,  far  beyond  the  legislation  of 
the  times,  must  not  be  overlooked — every  child  was  to  be  taught  some  useful 
trade,  thus  tending  to  prevent  future  vagabondage  and  crime, — while  the 
prisons  were  to  be  also  workhouses,  where  the  offender  might  be  not  only 
punished,  but  fortified  in  industrious  habits,  and  reclaimed  again  to  the  com- 
munity. What  a  contrast  to  the  horrors  of  those  dens  of  cruelty,  indolence, 
and  vice,  in  the  mother  country,  which  the  benevolent  Howard  was  the  first 
to  expose  to  the  world  ! 

The  arrangement  of  boundaries  with  Lord  Baltimore  proved  to  be  more  dif- 
ficult than  the  work  of  legislation.  Many  of  the  charters  had  been  granted 
in  ignorance  of  the  geography  of  the  country,  an  ambiguity  which  occasioned 
serious  disputes.  Such  was  partly  the  case  with  that  of  Penn's,  who  earnestly 
contended  for  his  desired  line  of  boundary,  as  being  of  the  last  importance  to 
the  future  welfare  of  his  colonists.  "  It  was  not  the  love  of  the  land,  but  the 
water,"  and  the  facility  of  access  and  harbouring,  that  induced  him  to  press  his 
claims,  and,  as  Lord  Baltimore  affirmed,  to  encroach  within  the  limits  of  his 
own  grant.  Of  the  merits  of  this  dispute,  which  is  in  truth  somewhat  obscure, 
different  views  have,  as  might  naturally  have  been  expected,  been  taken  by 
different  historians.  Doubtless  both  parties  believed  themselves  to  be  in  the 
right,  and  although,  after  a  warm  and  unsatisfactory  debate,  the  negotiation 
was  for  the  present  broken  off,  it  was  afterwards  resumed  in  England  with 
considerable  acrimony,  and  terminated  in  the  assignment  to  Penn  of  half  the 
territory  between  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake. 

The  memorable  interview  of  Penn  with  the  Indians  presents  a  very  differ- 
ent and  far  more  agreeable  picture.  At  Shackamaxon,  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
newly-founded  capital,  and  near  the  margin  of  the  beautiful  river,  stood  an 
ancient  elm  tree  of  huge  girth  and  spreading  branches, — a  venerable  relic 
of  the  primeval  forest — which  remained  till  the  year  1810,  when  it  was 
blown  down  during  a  storm.  Under  its  broad  shadow  were  assembled,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  grave  sachems  of  the  Delaware  tribes,  arrayed  in  their  pic- 
turesquely barbaric  costume,  and  armed  with  the  bow,  the  club,  and  the 
tomahawk ;  on  the  other,  the  simple-hearted  progenitors  of  the  state  of  Penn- 
sylvania, clothed  in  their  ordinary,  although  quaint,  vestments,  and  showing 


170  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  their  confidence  by  coming  to  the  interview  entirely  unarmed.     Spread  in 
—  the  midst  were  the  presents  intended  for  the  Indian  chieftains.     Penn,  dis- 

A   D   1682 

'  1683.  '  tinguished  from  his  brethren  by  a  simple  sash  of  blue  silk,  and  holding  in  his 
hand  the  treaty  of  amity,  addressed  the  sachems,  through  an  interpreter,  in  a 
language  which  appealed  to  the  common  feelings  of  the  children  of  men, 
whatever  may  be  their  colour  or  their  clime.  His  whole  soul  spoke  out  in 
his  words.  "  We  meet,"  said  he,  "  on  the  common  pathway  of  good  faith  and 
good  will,  no  advantage  shall  be  taken  on  either  side,  but  all  shall  be  open- 
ness and  love.  I  will  not  call  you  children,  for  parents  sometimes  chide  their 
children  too  severely ;  nor  brothers  only,  for  brothers  differ.  The  friendship 
between  you  and  me  I  will  not  compare  to  a  chain,  for  that  the  rains  might 
rust,  or  the  falling  tree  might  break.  We  are  the  same  as  if  one  man's  body 
were  to  be  divided  into  two  parts :  we  are  all  one  flesh  and  blood."  Such  an 
appeal,  backed  as  it  was  by  the  evident  confidence  and  sincerity  of  him  who 
made  it,  by  the  absence  of  even  a  single  weapon  of  defence,  was  new  to  the 
children  of  the  forest,  who  had  been  taught  by  many  an  act  of  hasty  revenge, 
and  many  a  bloody  and  exterminating  encounter,  to  regard  the  white  men 
with  a  deep-seated  feeling  of  suspicion  and  of  hate.  It  has  been  argued,  and 
with  reason,  that  the  Delawares  were  a  peaceful  and  a  feeble  tribe,  and  that 
the  older  States,  who  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  first  struggle  with  the  wilder- 
ness and  its  tenants,  afforded  a  shelter  to  the  newly-founded  colony.  But  in- 
dependently of  this  consideration,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  had  a  similar 
policy  been  adopted  and  honestly  carried  out  by  the  predecessors  of  Penn, 
much  bloodshed  might  and  would  have  been  avoided,  and  it  is  certain  that 
Pennsylvania  enjoys  the  honourable  and  gratifying  reflection,  that  her  early 
settlement  was  never  distracted  by  murderous  conflicts  between  its  founders 
and  the  Indians.  The  desired  purchases  were  peacefully  effected,  the  vendors 
religiously  kept  up  the  memory  of  the  transaction  on  pieces  of  bark  and  strings 
of  wampum  beads,  and  pledged  themselves  to  remain  in  friendship  with 
Penn  and  his  descendants  "  while  the  sun  and  moon  should  endure."  On  the 
part  of  Penn  and  his  friends  no  show  of  armed  force  ever  provoked  the  sus- 
picions or  aroused  the  hostility  of  the  savages,  and  thus  not  a  drop  of  Quaker 
blood  was  ever  shed  in  quarrels  with  the  original  possessors  of  the  soil. 

The  good  understanding  produced  by  this  interview  was  carefully  kept  up. 
During  his  stay  in  the  country  Penn  often  met  the  Indians  in  friendly  inter- 
course, reasoned  with  them  on  matters  of  religion,  and  drew  forth  from  amidst 
their  clouded  and  superstitious  apprehensions  the  admission  of  the  same 
fundamental  truths  of  the  existence  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  the  immortality 
of  man.  He  partook  of  their  simple  fare  and  mingled  in  their  athletic  games. 
On  one  occasion,  as  he  himself  informed  Oldmixon,  his  familiarity  involved 
him  in  a  dilemma,  which  he  parried  with  his  characteristic  prudence.  Hav- 
ing visited  an  Indian  sachem,  he  had  retired  for  the  night,  when  he  was 
startled  by  the  entry  of  the  daughter  of  his  host,  who,  thus  instructed  by  her 
father,  came  and  placed  herself  by  his  side,  in  compliance  with,  certain  ideas  of 
hospitality  found  also  among  other  uncivilized  tribes.     Shocked  and  embar- 


XIV. 


A.  D. 1683. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  171 

rassed  as  he  was,  Perm  wisely  refrained  from  openly  rebuking  what  he  knew  to  c  hap. 
be  intended  as  a  mark  of  respect,  but  contented  himself  with  taking  no  notice 
whatever  of  nis  visitor,  till  at  length  she  arose  and  returned  to  her  own  couch. 

During  these  events,  Penn  had  already  laid  the  foundations  of  his  capital. 
A  spot  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Schuylkill,  then  occupied  by  some 
Swedish  settlers,  had  appeared  to  him  a  most  favourable  site,  unsurpassed  by 
any  in  the  old  world ;  and  having  purchased  the  ground  of  them,  he  had 
proceeded  to  draw  on  it  the  rude  outlines  of  a  city,  which  he  called  Phila- 
delphia, in  reference  to  that  spirit  of  brotherly  love  which  is  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  his  sect.  Its  streets  still  retain  the  names  of  the  "  pine," 
"  chestnut,"  or  "  walnut "  trees,  upon  which  their  direction  was  marked ; 
and  its  open  and  rectilinear  avenues,  laid  out  by  Penn  himself,  its  decorous 
and  comfortable  aspect,  and  its  remarkable  cleanliness,  have  merited  the  half- 
sarcastic,  half-laudatory  epithet  of  "  the  Paradise  of  Quakers."  Its  buildings 
rapidly  increased;  and  during  the  year  numerous  vessels  arrived  with  a  suc- 
cession of  fresh  emigrants,  many  of  whom  took  up  their  temporary  abode  in 
sandy  caverns  by  the  river's  bank,  while  they  erected  more  permanent  habit- 
ations. In  the  midst  of  this  scene  of  activity,  Penn  convened  his  newly-cre- 
ated assembly,  and  submitted  to  them  the  plan  of  a  legislation  already  agreed 
upon,  with  power  to  alter  or  amend  it  at  their  discretion.  The  result  of  the 
deliberations  was  a  charter  of  liberties  established  as  legislative  council,  and 
a  more  numerous  assembly  than  the  preceding.  The  laws  proposed  by  the 
governor  and  council  were  to  be  ratified  by  the  people  at  large.  The  go- 
vernor was,  however,  to  possess  a  right  to  negative  any  proposed  law,  a  re- 
servation absolutely  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  his  rights.  This  charter 
was  gratefully  received,  and  acknowledged  as  conceding  an  unusual  degree 
of  popular  liberty,  which  Penn  declared  his  readiness,  if  called  upon,  still 
further  to  increase. 

During  his  stay  in  the  colony  Penn  resided  at  the  mansion  on  Pennsbury 
manor,  built  by  Markham,  in  a  beautiful  situation,  about  twenty  miles  above 
Philadelphia,  and  where  he  enjoyed  the  tranquillity  and  beauty  of  virgin 
nature,  and  the  gratification  of  beholding  the  unexampled  increase  of  his 
colony.  The  news  of  its  prosperity  had  been  carried  to  Europe,  and  many 
settlers  from  Germany  and  Holland,  of  whom  he  had  made  converts  during 
his  tour  in  those  countries,  arrived  to  seek  an  asylum  from  the  storms  of  Eu- 
rope, while  numerous  Quakers  continued  to  pour  in  from  England.  He 
might  well  boast  that  he  "  had  led  the  greatest  colony  into  America  that  ever 
any  man  did  upon  a  private  credit,  and  the  most  prosperous  beginnings  that 
ever  were  in  it,  are  to  be  found  among  us."  Indeed  all  concurred  to  promote 
the  rapid  settlement  of  Pennsylvania — the  mildness  of  the  climate,  the  fertility 
of  the  soil — the  favour  of  the  Indians — the  resources  of  the  proprietor — the  ab- 
sence of  civil  or  religious  dissension.  After  a  considerable  stay,  Penn  prepared 
for  his  departure  to  England,  having  firmly  planted  and  organized  his  pro- 
vince ;  leaving  the  judicial  administration  in  the  hands  of  five  judges  chosen 
from  the  council,  to  which  body  was  committed  the  executive  functions  of  the 

z  2 


172  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  state.  So  rapid  had  been  the  increase  of  his  colony,  that  when  he  quitted  it  it 
contained  already  twenty  settlements,  and  seven  thousand   inhabitants,  of 


A    V)    1  fi  8  *? 

to  less.  '  which  two  thousand  belonged  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia  alone. 

Nevertheless,  although  he  never  despaired  that  "  all  things  would  work  to- 
gether for  good,"  he  was  doomed,  during  his  absence,  to  experience  no  ordinary 
measure  of  vexation  and  disappointment.  The  same  scene  of  contention  was  re- 
newed in  Pennsylvania  that  had  so  often  taken  place  where  distant  proprieta- 
ries claimed  privileges  which  it  was  almost  impossible  to  maintain,  and  popular 
bodies  were  dissatisfied  with  the  limited  authority  that  they  were  constantly 
aiming  to  enlarge.  Disputed  questions  arose  between  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil on  one  hand,  and  the  popular  assembly  on  the  other,  in  which  Penn  ne- 
cessarily became  involved.  Besides  being  subject  to  continual  encroachments 
upon  his  authority,  he  might  also  complain  with  reason,  that  the  quit-rents  to 
which  he  looked  as  a  return  for  his  heavy  outlays  in  founding  the  colony, 
were  appropriated  in  part  to  the  public  service,  for  which  the  assembly 
refused  to  vote  a  suitable  provision.  He  was  also  dissatisfied  with  the  con- 
duct of  the  council,  which  he  superseded  by  five  commissioners,  charged 
with  executive  functions,  but  soon  after  sent  out  Blackwell,  an  old  officer  of- 
Cromwell,  who  sternly  insisted  upon  the  maintenance  of  proprietary  rights ; 
yet  to  so  little  purpose,  that  after  another  period  of  dissension,  Penn,  anxious, 
to  use  his  own  words, "  to  settle  the  government  so  as  to  please  the  generality," 
determined  "  to  throw  all  into  their  hands,  that  they  might  see  the  confidence 
he  had  in  them,  and  his  desire  to  give  them  'all  possible  contentment."  Thus 
did  the  council,  at  that  time  entirely  popular  in  its  constitution,  become  in- 
vested with  the  chief  authority,  subject  to  the  sole  proviso  of  a  veto  on  the 
part  of  the  proprietor. 

A  territorial  schism  had  also  taken  place.  The  old  settlers  on  the  Delaware 
became  jealous  of  the  newly-created  colony,  dissensions  and  quarrels  arose, 
and  ended  in  the  establishment  of  the  old  states,  by  Penn's  consent,  under  a 
separate  government  of  their  own,  of  which  Markham  became  the  head.  Such 
was  the  state  of  matters  in  Pennsylvania  about  the  period  of  the  revolution  in 
England. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


PROGRESS   OP  NEW   FRANCE. — THE   JESUITS. — THEIR  DISCOVERIES. — DESCENT   OP    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

EXPEDITION   OF  LA  SALLE. 

chap.  While  thus  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  from  Maine  to  Florida,  a  series  of  co- 
lonies had  been  planted  and  grown  up  to  maturity,  without  penetrating  to  the 
mountains  which  divide  the  waters  flowing  directly  into  the  Atlantic  from  those 


A.  D. 1615. 


A.  D. 1615. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  173 

which  pour  into  the  Mississippi,  the  French,  pushing  their  explorations  far  be-  chap. 
yond,had  navigated  the  great  lakes,  descended  the  mighty  river,  and  established 
a  post  at  its  mouth  ;  thus  girdling  the  whole  of  the  British  colonies  with  an 
outer  circle  of  settlements,  and,  by  their,  claims  to  the  newly-discovered  terri- 
tory, exposing  a  barrier  to  the  onward  progress  of  the  English,  whose  grants 
extended  westward  on  a  right  line  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  those  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  principal  agents  in  this  work  of  discovery  were  the  missionaries  of  the 
order  of  Jesus.  Upon  this  celebrated  society  have  been  lavished  every  term 
of  reproach,  and,  unfortunately,  not  without  too  much  occasion.  All  Christen- 
dom has  been  embroiled  by  their  intrigues,  and  they  have  been  expelled  with 
indignation  from  state  after  state  as  enemies  of  the  public  peace.  Their 
fundamental  maxim,  that  the  end  will  justify  the  means,  with  which  their 
practice  too  well  coincided,  has  been  stigmatized  with  deserved  abhorrence. 
Their  name  has  become  a  by-word.  Yet,  as  observed  by  Macaulay,  "good 
as  well  as  evil  was  strongly  intermixed  in  their  character,  and  the  intermix- 
ture was  the  secret  of  their  gigantic  power.  That  power  could  never  have 
belonged  to  mere  hypocrites.  It  could  never  have  belonged  to  rigid  moral- 
ists. It  was  to  be  attained  only  by  men  sincerely  enthusiastic  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  great  end,  and  at  the  same  time  unscrupulous  as  to  the  choice  of  means." 
That  end,  in  the  purest  votaries  of  the  order,  was  the  establishment  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith,  which  they  devoutly  believed  to  be  the  only  salvation  for 
the  souls  of  men  ;  while  in  minds  less  elevated,  the  animating  motive  was  rather 
the  temporal  influence  of  the  see  of  Rome,  and  the  extension  of  their  own 
privileges  and  possessions.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  traits  of  the  Jesuits 
was  their  wonderful  spirit  of  discipline,  and  their  implicit  obedience  to  the 
will  of  their  superior.  Whether  commanded  to  use  every  refinement  of  in- 
genuity, and  descend  to  every  dishonest  artifice,  to  insinuate  themselves  into 
the  councils  of  princes  and  of  statesmen,  or,  with  the  devotedness  of  apostles, 
carry  the  religion  of  the  cross  to  distant  barbarians  among  whom  their  lives 
would  be  in  continual  peril,  and  where  they  often  had  to  seal  their  testimony 
with  their  blood,  they  obeyed  with  the  same  unhesitating  simplicity.  Of  the  lat- 
ter class  were  the  men  who  followed  in  the  track  of  the  first  French  discoverers. 
Never  was  perseverance  more  indomitable  or  fortitude  more  heroic  than  theirs. 
Never  did  lives  more  ascetic  or  self-denying,  or  a  more  cheerful  endurance  of 
tortures  and  of  death,  adorn  the  roll  of  Catholic  or  Christian  saints  and  martyrs. 
Exposed  to  every  hardship  and  privation,  cut  off  in  a  horrible  wilderness  from 
all  intercourse  with  their  civilized  brethren,  they  endured  their  lot  without  a 
murmur.  Some  perished  under  the  tomahawk  of  the  savage,  others  were 
burned  and  tortured  at  the  stake,  or,  wandering  alone  in  the  trackless  forests, 
experienced  the  lingering  agonies  of  starvation.  But  neither  peril  nor  death 
itself  could  damp  the  cheerful  ardour  of  those  devoted  spirits ;  if  one  fell  in 
the  breach,  another  was  ready  to  fill  his  place,  and  to  carry  on  the  conflict 
until  the  strongholds  of  superstition  and  barbarism  were  won.  Their  success 
was  commensurate  with  their  indefatigable  zeal.     It  may  be  urged  indeed 


174  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  that  their  conversions  were  more  apparent  than  real,  that  their  savage  neo- 

: —  phytes  only  exchanged  one  form  of  superstition  for  another,  that  few,  if  any, 

'  comprehended  the  doctrines  to  which  they  gave  their  assent,  and  that  the 
missionaries  contented  themselves  with  an  outward  profession  of  their  converts, 
and  dazzling  their  senses  with  a  display  of  pompous  rites  and  ceremonies.  It  was 
indeed  another  characteristic  of  the  Jesuits,  and  another  secret  of  their  won- 
derful influence,  that  they  knew  how  to  adapt  themselves  to  every  class 
of  character,  and  to  suit  their  instructions  to  the  mental  calibre  and  the 
social  condition  of  those  with  whom  they  had  to  deal.  They  made  it  their 
business  to  civilize,  as  well  as  to  Christianize,  the  savage  nations  to  whom  they 
were  sent.  They  winked  at  rooted  habits,  which  time  and  culture  alone  could 
eradicate ;  in  fact,  they  treated  their  semi-barbarous  converts  as  children  who 
were  to  be  amused  and  led  gradually  forward  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  to  be 
fed  with  milk  for  babes,  until  able  to  digest  the  strong  meat  suited  only  for  full- 
grown  men.  But  their  influence  was  invaluable  in  taming  the  rude  breast  of 
the  savage,  substituting  to  some  extent  the  tenderness  of  Christian  charity 
and  the  love  of  settled  industry,  for  the  pride  of  the  warrior  and  the  desolat- 
ing ravages  of  sanguinary  warfare.  The  peaceful  cross  with  its  touching 
emblems  replaced  the  post  covered  with  human  scalps,  the  humble  chapel 
arose  amidst  the  gloomy  depths  of  the  woods,  and  happy  had  it  been  if  the 
political  animosities  and  sectarian  jealousies  of  Europe  had  never  aroused 
again  into  fierce  activity  the  ferocious  passions  which  it  had  been  the  first 
and  holiest  object  of  these  missionaries  to  allay.     ' 

It  has  been  stated  in  one  of  the  earliest  chapters,  that  the  Jesuits  had  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  Cartier  and  Champlain,  the  discoverers  of  Canada  and 
the  founders  of  New  France,  that  they  had  endeavoured  to  form  a  settlement 
upon  Mount  Desert  Island,  and  had  planted  the  Catholic  religion  on  the 
shores  of  Maine.  Le  Caron,  a  Franciscan  monk,  who  accompanied  Champlain, 
explored  the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  in  1615  advanced  as  far  as 
the  rivers  flowing  into  Lake  Huron,  where  with  his  companions  he  established 
missions  among  the  Huron  tribes. 

These  were  followed  up  by  Fathers  Brebeuf  and  Daniel,  who,  guided  by  a 
party  of  Huron  Indians,  set  out  for  the  far-distant  wigwams  of  their  tribe. 
Paddling  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  they  ascended  its  great  tributary,  the  Ottawa, 
surmounting  its  numerous  falls  and  rapids,  and  by  carrying  their  canoes  through 
tangled  pathways  in  the  forest,  as  do  the  "  voyageurs"  of  the  present  day, 
and  enduring  every  species  of  hardship,  they  reached,  after  a  journey  of  three 
hundred  miles,  the  shores  of  Lake  Huron,  converted  one  of  the  leading  chicfa, 
and  succeeded  in  establishing  their  missions  among  the  rude  but  impressil  le 
savages  on  its  borders.  The  news  of  these  remarkable  successes  being  trans- 
mitted to  France,  created  the  greatest  excitement,  and  led  to  the  permanent 
plantation  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  Canada.  Wealthy  nobles  and  delicate 
women  devoted  themselves  to  this  pious  enterprise.  A  mission  college  was 
established,  as  was  soon  after  a  hospital  for  the  benefit  of  both  French  and 
Indians,  and  a  convent  of  Ursuline  nuns.    The  island  of  Montreal,  first  visited 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  175 

by  Cartier  at  the  junction  of  the  Ottawa  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  in  the   c1*ap. 
highway  to  the  newly-established  missions,  solemnly  consecrated  to  the  Virgin  — 

•  !••  •  i    i  i  i  /»        j»  A.  D.  1C42. 

Mary,  grew  up  into  a  religious  station  and  became  the  nucleus  ot  a  future 
city.  Fresh  bodies  of  Jesuit  missionaries  continued  to  arrive,  and  emulate  the 
zeal  of  their  predecessors.  Among  these  Raymbault,  and  his  companion 
Jogues,  crossed  Lake  Huron,  and  advanced  to  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Superior, 
conciliating  the  chieftains  of  the  Indian  tribes.  Worn  out  with  hardships, 
Raymbault  again  reached  Quebec,  but  only  to  die ;  while  his  companion,  de- 
scending the  St.  Lawrence  with  his  Huron  converts,  was  beset  by  a  party  of  the 
hostile  Mohawks,  and  forced  to  run  the  gauntlet  between  rows  of  tormentors, 
his  Indian  companions  perishing  in  his  sight  by  the  tomahawk  or  the  names. 
Jogues,  being  spared,  made  his  way  to  the  Mohawk  Valley,  where  he  was 
hospitably  received  by  the  Dutch  settlers.  Similar  sufferings  were  inflicted 
upon  such  of  the  missionaries  as  fell  into  the  power  of  this  savage  tribe.  The 
same  success  that  had  followed  the  missions  to  the  Hurons,  attended  those  to 
the  tribes  in  Maine,  which,  as  before  said,  had  at  a  very  early  period  been  visited 
by  the  Jesuits  ;  and  thus  these  indefatigable  and  devoted  missionaries  had  estab- 
lished the  Catholic  religion,  and  with  it  the  political  influence  of  France,  from 
the  northern  boundary  of  New  England  to  the  great  lakes  of  the  Far  West. 

With  one  powerful  confederacy,  however,  they  were  destined  to  be  alto- 
gether as  unfortunate.  The  Five  Nations,  comprising  the  Senecas,  Onondagas, 
Oneidas,  Cayugas,  and  Mohawks,  occupied  the  country  intervening  between 
the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Hudson.  Against  these  warlike  tribes, 
soon  after  his  arrival  in  Canada,  Champlain  had  joined  the  Algonquins  and 
Hurons  in  that  expedition  already  mentioned  in  an  early  chapter,  an  impolitic 
interference,  which  was  punished  by  these  proud  warriors  with  an  inveterate 
hostility  to  his  country  and  their  allies,  but  yet  with  Avhich  was  mingled  a 
superstitious  dread  of  their  religion  and  influence.  They  menaced  the  infant 
settlement  of  Quebec,  and  waylaid,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  un- 
til the  French  were  compelled  to  sue  for  peace.  Nothing  therefore  was  so  much 
desired  as  their  conversion.  During  a  temporary  pacification,  Jogues  set  out 
again  on  this  perilous  mission,  from  which,  as  had  been  his  presentiment,  he 
never  again  returned,  being  put  to  death  soon  after  his  arrival  at  the  fort  of 
the  Mohawks. 

The  flames  of  war  burst  forth  fiercer  than  ever,  and  the  scattered  missions 
were  the  especial  objects  of  Indian  vengeance.  The  missionaries  met  their  fate 
with  the  most  heroic  constancy  Daniel,  surprised  by  a  party  of  the  Mohawks, 
spent  his  last  moments  in  administering  the  consolations  of  religion  to  his 
flock,  and  serenely  advanced  to  meet  his  infuriated  executioners.  To  Bre- 
beuf  and  Lallemand  was  reserved  a  more  severe  ordeal  and  a  more  glorious 
triumph  ;  they  sustained  for  hours  all  the  refinements  of  cruelty  with  a  heroism 
which  transcended  the  vaunted  courage  of  the  Indian  brave,  but  they  died 
forgiving,  and  not  cursing,  their  pitiless  tormentors.  The  Huron  settlements 
were  broken  up,  while  the  forts  and  intrenchments  of  the  French  hardly  pro- 
tected them  against  their  insulting  enemies,  and  they  were  driven  to  implore 


A.  D.  1673. 


176  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  the  succour  of  the  New  Englanders,  which,  however,  was  not  afforded  them. 
At  length  another  truce  took  place;  which  was  embraced  as  an  occasion  for  fresh 
efforts  by  the  Jesuits  to  plant  the  cross  among  their  implacable  adversaries 
and  this  time,  happily,  with  somewhat  better  success.  Some  Christian  Hurons, 
who  had  become  captives  to  the  Mohawks,  paved  the  way  for  the  reception  of 
Le  Moyne,  while  Mesnard  repaired  to  the  Cayugas,  and  Chaumont  and  Dablon 
visited  the  other  tribes.  They  were  enraptured  at  their  first  success,  but  soon 
discovered  that  they  had  but  lulled,  not  tamed,  the  passions  of  these  ferocious 
warriors,  and  that  their  lives  hung  by  a  single  thread.  Some  of  the  French 
had  ventured  to  follow  the  missionaries,  collisions  took  place  with  the  Indians, 
and  a  third  time  the  war  again  burst  forth.  The  distress  was  now  so  extreme 
that  the  Company  of  New  France,  reduced  to  a  mere  handful,  resigned  to 
the  king  a  colony  which  they  were  unable  to  defend,  by  whom  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  West  India  Company,  then  forming  by  Colbert.  The 
protection  implored  by  the  Jesuits  was  immediately  afforded,  and  a  French 
regiment  commanded  by  Tracy,  who  was  appointed  viceroy,  repaired  to 
Quebec,  a  measure  which  at  length  effectually  restrained  the  persevering 
hostility  of  the  Five  Nations. 

New  missions  were  now  set  on  foot.  In  1665,  Claude  Allouez  explored 
Lake  Superior,  fell  in  with  the  tribes  of  the  Chippewa  and  the  Sioux,  spread- 
ing every  where  the  dominion  of  Catholicism  and  of  France ;  and  while 
thus  engaged,  first  heard  rumours  from  the  Indians  of  the  existence  of  a 
Great  River  of  the  West.  He  returned  to  Quebec,  and  with  Dablon  and 
Marquette,  two  fresh  associates,  repaired  again  to  the  scene  of  his  former  la- 
bours to  found  a  permanent  mission,  while  at  the  same  time  French  influence 
was  still  to  be  further  extended  by  envoys  from  Quebec,  a  plan  which  proved 
entirely  successful.  During  the  succeeding  years,  the  idea  of  exploring  the 
Great  River  was  renewed,  and  Marquette,  who  had  long  meditated  the  enter- 
prise, accompanied  by  Joliet,  a  Quebec  trader,  with  five  Frenchmen,  and  two  Al- 
gonquin guides,  ascended  on  the  10th  of  June,  1673,  to  the  head  of  Fox  River, 
and  carrying  their  canoes  across  the  intervening  ground  which  separates  the 
eastern  from  the  western  streams,  launched  them  again  upon  the  waters  of 
the  Wisconsin,  where  their  Indian  conductors,  fearful  of  advancing  any 
farther,  left  them  to  the  guidance  of  Providence  alone.  For  seven  days  they 
floated  down  the  stream  through  a  wilderness  of  which  the  stillness  and  re- 
moteness overawed  their  spirits,  when  at  length,  to  their  inexpressible  joy, 
their  tiny  canoes  emerged  upon  the  mighty  waters  of  the  Mississippi, 
rolling  through  vast  verdant  prairies  dotted  with  herds  of  buffalo,  and  its 
banks  overhung  with  primitive  forests.  With  the  feelings  of  men  who  have 
discovered  a  new  world,  they  passed  the  mouth  of  many  a  noble  tributary,  and 
landed  to  visit  the  astonished  Indians  upon  the  shores,  who  received  them  with 
hospitality,  and  invited  them  to  form  a  permanent  settlement.  As  they  floated 
on  day  after  day,  they  were  greeted  by  richer  scenery  and  by  a  different  climate; 
they  were  fanned  by  the  soft  breezes  and  delighted  by  the  luxuriant  vegeta- 
tion of  the  south ;  the  sombre  pines  of  the  Canadian  forests  were  exchanged 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  177 

for  the  cotton  wood  and  the  palmetto  of  the  tropics,  and  they  began  to  suffer   chap. 

from  the  oppressive  heat,  and  the  legions  of  musquitoes  which  haunt  the — 

swampy  borders  of  the  rivers.  Passing  through  the  region  discovered  two 
centuries  before  by  the  ill-fated  Soto  and  his  companions,  they  descended  be- 
low the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  and  being  satisfied  that  the  Great  River  must 
discharge  itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  not  into  the  Pacific  or  the  eastern 
Atlantic,  resolved  to  retrace  their  course.  Slowly  paddling  against  the  power- 
ful current  of  the  Mississippi  until  they,  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois, 
they  ascended  to  the  upper  waters  of  that  river,  whence  they  crossed  over  to 
Lake  Michigan,  and  after  an  absence  of  less  than  four  months,  regained  the 
spot  from  whence  they  started  on  their  romantic  and  surprising  expedition. 

The  news  of  this  discovery  created  great  and  general  excitement,  but  by 
no  one  was  this  felt  more  than  by  Robert  Cavalier  de  la  Salle,  an  adventurer 
of  good  family,  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  and  afterwards  engaged  in  the  fur 
trade  with  the  Indians,  in  prosecuting  which  he  had  explored  Lakes  Ontario 
and  Erie.  Frontenac,  the  French  governor,  had  determined  to  establish  a 
post  called  after  his  own  name,  at  that  spot  where  the  citadel  of  Kingston  now 
overlooks,  from  its  bold  eminence,  the  vast  expanse  of  Ontario,  and  the  outlet 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  studded  with  its  "  thousand  isles."  The  energy  and 
ability  of  La  Salle  had  attracted  the  notice  and  won  the  favour  of  the  new  go- 
vernor ;  a  brilliant  career  seemed  opened  to  him ;  he  repaired  to  France,  and 
by  the  assistance  of  Frontenac,  obtained  a  patent  of  nobility,  an  exclusive  right 
of  trade  with  the  Iroquois,  and  an  extensive  tract  of  territory  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  fort,  on  the  condition  of  his  keeping  it  in  an  effective  state. 
Around  this  stronghold  soon  clustered  the  huts  of  the  Indians  and  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  French  traders ;  their  flocks  and  herds  increased  apace  ;  the  wil- 
derness began  to  smile  with  corn-covered  clearings  opened  in  the  forest ; 
canoes  multiplied  upon  the  borders  of  the  lake ;  and  La  Salle,  but  yester- 
day a  poor  adventurer,  found  himself  suddenly  invested  with  all  the  power 
and  rustic  opulence  belonging  to  a  feudal  sovereign  of  the  wilderness.  But 
his  restless  and  ambitious  spirit  was  excited  by  the  accounts  of  the  discovery 
of  the  Great  River,  to  attempt  a  bolder  career  of  enterprise,  and  he  hurried 
over  to  France  with  the  object  of  proposing  to  Colbert  the  colonization 
of  the  Mississippi,  a  commission  still  further  to  explore  which  he  soon  re- 
ceived. Accompanied  by  Tonti,  a  veteran  Italian,  as  his  lieutenant,  he  re- 
turned to  Frontenac,  built  a  small  bark,  with  which  he  ascended  the  Niagara 
river  to  the  foot  of  the  rapids,  below  the  great  fall ;  and  above  them,  near  the 
shore  of  Lake  Erie,  began  the  construction  of  the  first  rigged  vessel  that  ever 
sailed  upon  the  western  waters.  In  this  little  bark  of  sixty  tons,  called  the 
Griffin,  accompanied  by  Tonti  and  a  band  of  missionaries  and  fur  traders, 
La  Salle  traversed  Lake  Erie,  and  passed  through  the  "  Detroit,"  or  strait 
which  separates  it  from  the  limpid  sheet  to  which  he  gave  the  appropriate 
name  of  St.  Clair,  and  sailing  across  Lake  Huron,  and  by  the  straits  of  Mac- 
kinaw, into  Lake  Michigan,  at  length  came  to  an  anchor  in  Green  Bay. 

From  this  point,  after  sending  back  the  vessel  for  fresh  supplies,  La  Salle 

2  a 


A.  D.  1685. 


178  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  and  his  associates  proceeded  in  canoes  up  Lake  Michigan  to  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Joseph,  where  the  missionary,  Allouez,  had  established  a  station,  and  to 
which  was  now  added  a  trading  post,  called  the  Fort  of  the  Miamis.  Await- 
ing in  vain  the  return  of  the  "  Griffin,"  which  had  been  wrecked  on  her  way 
back,  La  Salle  and  Tonti,  with  a  body  of  their  followers,  crossed  over  to  the 
Illinois  river,  where,  some  distance  below  Peoria,  he  erected  another  fort. 
There  were  still  no  tidings  of  the  missing  vessel,  and  to  proceed  without  sup- 
plies was  impossible ;  murmurs  arose  among  his  disheartened  followers,  and 
detaching  Tontin  and  the  Jesuit  Hennepin  to  continue  their  explorations,  and 
having  named  his  new  fort  "  Crevecceur,"  in  memory  of  his  deep  and  bitter 
vexation,  La  Salle  set  out  with  only  three  followers,  making  his  way  back 
across  the  vast  wilderness,  which  spread  between  him  and  Frontenac,  to  ga- 
ther fresh  materials  for  the  prosecution  of  his  enterprise.  His  agents,  mean- 
while, were  engaged  in  carrying  out  his  instructions.  Hennepin  explored 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and  returning  afterwards  to 
France,  published  there  an  account  of  his  travels.  Tonti,  less  fortunate,  who 
had  been  directed  to  establish  himself  among  the  Illinois,  was  driven  thence 
by  the  hostility  of  the  Iroquois,  and  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  at  Green  Bay. 
Their  indefatigable  leader  at  length  returned  with  provisions  and  reinforce- 
ments, collected  his  scattered  men,  constructed  a  capacious  barge,  in  which 
he  descended  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  building  on  his  way 
a  fort  called  St.  Louis,  set  up  the  arms  of  France,  and  claimed  possession  for 
her  of  the  newly-discovered  territory,  to  which  he  gave  the  title  of  Louisiana. 
La  Salle  now  returned  in  triumph  to  France,  with  glowing  accounts  of  the 
rich  soil  and  genial  climate  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  His  plans  for  coloniza- 
tion were  warmly  seconded  by  the  ministry,  and  four  vessels,  having  on  board 
two  hundred  and  eighty  persons,  ecclesiastics,  soldiers,  mechanics,  and  emi- 
grants, soon  left  La  Rochelle  for  the  shores  of  the  new  settlement.  Among 
this  ill-assorted  company  arose  jealousies  and  dissensions,  which  were  aggra- 
vated by  a  succession  of  cruel  disasters.  Unfortunately  they  sailed  past  the 
entrance  of  the  river  and  landed  to  the  westward,  on  the  coast  of  Texas,  and 
while  La  Salle  explored  the  neighbourhood  in  a  vain  attempt  to  discover  the 
object  of  their  research,  the  store-ship,  upon  the  safety  of  which  the  whole 
enterprise  depended,  was  wrecked,  and  the  number  of  the  unfortunate  ad- 
venturers was  rapidly  thinned  by  privation,  misery,  and  exposure,  until  there 
remained  a  mere  handful  of  desperate  and  disappointed  wretches.  La  Salle 
alone,  amidst  the  ruin  of  all  his  prospects,  but  lately  so  proud  and  flourishing, 
remained  alone  undaunted,  he  determined  to  traverse  again  the  immense  space 
that  separated  him  from  his  feudal  domain  of  Frontenac,  and  to  bring  fresh 
reinforcements  to  the  help  of  his  perishing  colony.  On  this  forlorn  enterprise 
he  set  out,  with  a  band  of  sixteen  men,  two  of  whom,  maddened  by  disap- 
pointment and  suffering,  having  already  picked  a  quarrel  with  and  killed  his 
nephew,  Moranget,  who  was  one  of  the  party,  now  lay  in  wait  for  his  own  life. 
As  the  unhappy  man  approached  them  to  inquire  after  his  missing  relative, 
the  death-shot  passed  through  his  own  heart,  and  his  unburied  corpse  was  left 


A.  D. 108G. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  179 

to  be  devoured  by  the  wild  beasts  of  the  prairie.  His  murderers,  quarrelling  c  ha  p. 
over  the  spoils  of  their  leader,  met  themselves  with  the  same  retributive  fate 
at  the  hands  of  some  of  their  associates,  of  whom  Joutel,  the  narrator  of  these 
dismal  events,  with  no  more  than  five  others,  made  their  way  to  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  where  they  fell  in  with  two  Frenchmen,  left  there  by  Tonti, 
on  his  return  from  a  vain  research  after  his  old  confederate.  A  handful  who 
had  been  left  behind  at  Fort  St.  Louis  also  perished ;  and  thus,  after  the  most 
indefatigable  efforts,  and  the  most  brilliant  prospects  of  success,  came  to  an 
end  the  projected  colony  of  La  Salle,  who  bequeathed  to  his  country  a 
claim  to  another  empire,  to  the  moralist  another  and  a  mournful  instance  of 
the  vanity  of  ambitious  designs,  and  to  posterity  the  imperishable  recollection 
of  his  gallant  though  unsuccessful  career  of  enterprise. 

The  affairs  of  Canada,  meanwhile,  were  far  from  being  in  a  flourishing  con- 
dition. The  Dutch  settlers  on  the  Hudson  had  formed  an  alliance  with  the 
Five  Nations,  whom  the  English  had  been  careful  to  cultivate  from  religious 
and  commercial  jealousy  of  the  French,  who  resented  the  encroachment  of  the 
English  on  the  fur  trade  with  the  North.  Dongan,  the  governor  of  New 
York,  although  charged  by  James  II.  to  maintain  a  good  feeling  with  the 
French,  was  guilty  of  using  his  influence  secretly  to  inflame  the  dissensions 
between  them  and  their  enemies.  De  La  Barre,  the  governor  of  New  France, 
after  convoking  an  assembly  to  take  into  consideration  the  perilous  condition 
of  the  province,  and  after  making  some  abortive  attempts  at  negociation, 
marched  to  attack  the  Iroquois  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  force ;  but  on 
the  way  his  troops  were  so  reduced  and  weakened  by  sickness,  arising  from 
the  miasma  of  the  marshes  and  forests,  that  he  was  compelled  to  negociate  a 
humiliating  peace  with  the  foes  over  whom  he  had  anticipated  a  signal  tri- 
umph. At  his  desire  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations  repaired  to  his  camp,  but 
his  endeavour  to  overawe  them  was  met  by  a  strain  of  contemptuous  invective, 
which  must  have  sorely  galled  the  military  pride  of  a  veteran  French  com- 
mander. One  of  their  chieftains  addressed  to  him  the  following  spirited  ora- 
tion, in  which  he  personifies  him  as  Onondio,  and  the  English  governor  as 
Corlear. — "  Hear,  Onondio,  I  am  not  asleep,  my  eyes  are  open,  and  the  sun 
which  enlightens  me  discloses  to  me  a  great  captain  who  speaks  as  if  he  were 
dreaming.  He  says,  that  he  only  came  to  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  with  the 
Onondagas.  But  Garrangula  says  that  he  sees  the  contrary,  that  it  was  to 
knock  them  on  the  head,  if  sickness  had  not  weakened  the  arms  of  the  French. 
We  carried  the  English  to  our  lakes  to  trade  with  the  Utawawas,  as  the  Adir- 
ondacks  brought  the  French  to  our  forts  to  carry  on  a  trade  which  the  Eng- 
lish say  is  theirs.  We  are  born  free;  we  neither  depend  on  Onondio  nor 
Corlear.  We  may  go  where  we  please,  and  buy  and  sell  what  we  please.  If 
your  allies  are  your  slaves,  use  the™  **s  such — command  them  to  receive  no 
other  than  your  people.  Hear,  Onondio ! — what  I  say  is  the  voice  of  all  the 
Five  Nations.  When  they  buried  the  hatchet  in  the  middle  of  the  fort,  they 
planted  the  tree  of  peace  in  the  same  place,  that  instead  of  a  retreat  for  sol- 
diers, it  might  be  a  meeting-place  for  merchants.  Take  care  that  your  soldiers 

2  a  2 


180  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  do  not  choke  the  tree  of  peace,  and  prevent  it  from  covering  your  country 
—  and  ours  with  its  branches.     I  tell  you  that  our  warriors  shall  dance  under  its 

A  D   1685 

'  leaves,  and  never  dig  up  the  hatchet  to  cut  it  down,  till  their  brother  Onon- 
dio  or  Corlear  shall  invade  the  country  which  the  Great  Spirit  has  given 
to  our  ancestors." 

De  la  Barre  was  compelled  to  submit  to  a  disgraceful  treaty,  and  was  soon 
after  superseded  by  Denonville,  who  built  a  fort  at  Niagara  to  cover  the  route 
to  the  Lakes,  and  also  as  a  check  upon  the  incursions  of  the  Iroquois,  a  mea- 
sure which  still  further  increased  the  jealousy  of  the  English.  An  incursion 
into  the  country  of  the  Senecas  followed,  but  though  the  Indians  retired 
before  their  pursuers,  no  permanent  impression  could  be  made,  and  the  French 
were  driven  to  solicit  the  mediation  of  the  English,  at  the  expense  of  abandon- 
ing their  fort,  and  restoring  their  captives  and  spoils.  Thus  was  New  France 
almost  at  its  lowest  ebb  and  struggling  for  mere  existence.  Possessing  a  vast  ex- 
panse of  country  studded  with  a  few  feeble  settlements  and  forts,  separated 
by  immense  regions  of  uncleared  wilderness,  a  military  government,  a  feudal 
proprietary,  and  no  shadow  of  popular  liberty  to  awaken  the  spirit  of  energy 
or  enterprise,  nothing  could  present  a  more  striking  contrast  to  the  English 
colonies,  which  occupying  a  smaller  but  more  compact  territory,  and  in- 
habited by  a  population  who  had  already  acquired  the  habit  of  self-govern- 
ment, who  had  entirely  subjugated  or  overawed  the  Indians,  and  whose 
position  on  the  sea-board  had  stimulated  to  commercial  enterprise  and  facili- 
tated continual  immigrations,  were  rapidly  growing  up  into  a  powerful  and 
wealthy  confederacy.  Such  was  the  position  of  the  rival  colonies  at  the 
period  when  the  accession  of  William  III.  involved  North  America  in  the 
hostilities  that  broke  out  between  France  and  England. 


BOOK  II. 


FROM    THE    FIRST   INTERCOLONIAL   WAR  TO    THE   DECLARATION   OF    INDEPENDENCE. 


I. — Incidents  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  Intercolonial  Wars. — Witchcraft  delu* 
sion  in  New  England. — Foundation  of  Georgia. 

II.— General  progress  of  the  Colonies  during  the  period  of  the  Intercolonial  Wars. 
— Massachusetts.— New  York.— Pennsylvania. — Virginia.  —  The  Carolinas.— Georgia. 
— Louisiana. 

III. —  General  view  of  the  Colonies  before  the  Revolution. — Religion. — Education. — 
The  Press.  —  Slavery.  —  State  of  the  Towns  and  Country.  — Militia. — Currency.— 
Post  Office,  etc. 

IV.— Final  struggle  between  the  French  and  English,  terminating  in  the  Conquest 
of  Canada,  and  the  Cession  of  North  America  to  the  British  Crown. 

V.— From  the  Conquest  of  Canada  to  the  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

VI— From  the  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  to  the  passing  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill. 

VII.— From  the  passing  of  the  Boston  Poet  Bill  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  183 


CHAPTER  I. 


A.  D. 1688. 


INCIDENTS   OP  THE   FIRST,    SECOND,   AND   THIRD   INTERCOLONIAL  WARS. — WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION 
IN  NEW  ENGLAND.— FOUNDATION   OF   GEORGIA. 


In  the  former  portion  of  our  narrative  we  have  recorded  the  bloody  struggles  chap. 
between  the  settlers  and  the  aborigines,  of  which  every  frontier  village  and 
lonely  farm  could  tell  some  dismal  story  rife  Avith  massacre  and  incendiarism. 
A  darker  and  more  humiliating  spectacle  now  opens  before  us — revolting  to 
contemplate,  but  fraught  with  a  weighty  and  momentous  lesson  to  posterity. 
We  behold  two  Christian  powers,  animated  by  traditional  hatred,  by  com- 
mercial jealousy,  and,  more  melancholy  still,  by  theological  rancour,  not  only 
arming  against  each  other's  life,  but  urging  on  the  barbarous  savages,  whom 
it  was  their  duty  to  convert  and  civilize,  to  take  part  in  the  unnatural  strug- 
gle. The  devoted  missionary,  whom  we  have  so  lately  admired  for  his  heroic 
fortitude  in  planting  religion  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life  among  these  savage 
tribes,  is  now  seen  blessing  his  converts,  and  signing  them  with  the  cross  as 
they  go  forth  on  their  bloody  errand :  the  chivalrous  gentleman  and  soldier, 
the  mirror  of  politeness  and  the  ornament  of  courts,  encouraging  his  savage 
allies  at  the  stake  of  the  tortured  captive.  Such  are  the  fearful  influences  of 
religious  fanaticism  and  international  antipathy  in  perverting  even  the  best 
and  bravest  of  mankind  ! 

The  objects  sought  to  be  obtained  by  France  were,  the  maintenance  of  her 
supremacy,  over  that  vast  region,  from  Acadia  to  the  Mississippi,  which  had 
been  discovered  by  the  enterprise  of  her  sons,  and  the  monopoly  of  that  fur 
trade  which  had  there  grown  up  into  great  importance,  and  still  constitutes  a 
considerable  branch  of  commerce.  The  "  Coureurs  des  Bois,"  and  "  voy- 
ageurs,"  a  mongrel  race,  half  French,  half  Indian,  with  whose  picturesque 
costume  every  Canadian  traveller  must  have  been  struck,  had  already  ascend- 
ed the  great  western  rivers  and  lakes  in  their  canoes,  in  the  prosecution 
of  this  lucrative  traffic,  of  which  Montreal  was  then,  as  now,  the  principal 
depot.  To  keep  open  this  important  communication  they  had  erected  Forts 
Frontenac  and  Niagara,  to  overawe  and  eventually  subdue  their  inveterate 
enemies,  the  Iroquois.  In  spite  of  these  forts,  however,  the  English  had  con- 
trived to  penetrate  the  region,  and  participate  in  the  profits  of  the  fur  trade. 
The  French  also  desired  the  exclusive  possession  of  Newfoundland,  which 
from  the  earliest  times  of  American  discovery  had  been  frequented  in  com- 
mon by  the  fishing  boats  of  the  European  nations,  and  particularly  by 
those  of  the  New  England  states,  to  whom  the  cod  fishery  was  indeed  a  prin- 


184  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  cipal  source  of  wealth.     To  carry  out  designs  so  vast  and  ambitious,  the  means 

of  the  French  were  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  vastness  of  their  territory — 

'  their  entire  population  being  but  a  tenth  of  that  of  the  English  colonists 
bordering  upon  the  frontiers,  and  but  a  twentieth  of  the  entire  population  of 
English  North  America.  "When  to  this  we  add  the  continued  hostility  of  the 
Five  Nations,  an  alliance  with  whom  was  carefully  kept  up  by  the  English, 
nothing  but  the  utmost  skill  and  energy,  it  was  evident,  could  enable  the  Cana- 
dians to  stand  their  ground  against  such  an  overwhelming  superiority.  Urged 
by  these  considerations,  the  French  king  had  made  an  offer  to  William  III. 
that  his  own  colonies,  and  the  British,  should  remain  neutral  during  the 
war.  This  however  was  rejected,  and  thus  the  French  and  English  colonies 
became  involved  in  bloodshed,  not  by  disputes  of  their  own,  but  by  the  hos- 
tilities of  their  parent  states,  who  infused  into  them  their  own  political  pas- 
sions and  national  animosities,  which  fell  unhappily  upon  a  soil  already  too 
well  prepared  to  receive  them. 

As  soon  as  war  was  openly  proclaimed,  the  Baron  Castin,  whose  house  had 
been  plundered  by  Governor  Andros,  found  it  an  easy  task  to  urge  the  In- 
dians of  the  eastern  states  to  hostilities.  At  the  close  of  the  war  with  Philip 
of  Pokanoket  some  thirteen  years  before,  a  body  of  three  hundred  Indians  had 
been  treacherously  seized  and  sold  into  slavery,  after  they  had  agreed  to 
peace.  This  transaction  took  place  at  the  house  of  Major  Waldron,  at  Dover, 
and  a  deep  scheme  was  now  laid  by  the  Indians  to  avenge  it.  The  few  houses 
of  that  village,  exposed  as  they  were  in  the  midst  of  a  frontier  wilderness  to 
sudden  surprise,  were  surrounded  by  wooden  walls,  the  gates  through  which 
were  sedulously  barred  and  bolted,  but,  owing  to  long  security,  no  watch  was 
kept.  Suspicions  of  some  sinister  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  had 
been  thrown  out  to  Waldron,  which  however  he  only  derided,  merely  telling 
those  who  suggested  them  "  to  go  and  plant  their  pumpkins,  for  he  would 
tell  them  when  the  Indians  would  break  out.  On  the  very  eve  of  the  attack, 
being  told  with  uneasiness  that  the  town  was  full  of  them,  he  replied,  "  that 
he  knew  the  Indians  very  well,  and  there  was  no  danger  whatever." 

It  was  a  common  practice  during  times  of  peace  for  the  Indians,  who  traded 
with  the  inhabitants,  to  seek  for  and  obtain  a  night's  lodging.  On  this  even- 
ing two  squaws  applied  for  leave  to  sleep  by  the  hearth,  which  was  readily 
granted  at  Waldron's  and  all  the  other  houses  save  one.  When  the  house- 
hold was  sunk  in  sleep  they  arose,  unbarred  the  gates,  and  giving  an  appointed 
signal,  the  Indians  quietly  stole  in,  set  a  guard  at  the  door,  and  rushed  into  an 
inner  room  in  which  the  Major  slept.  The  old  man,  now  aged  eighty,  aroused 
by  the  noise,  started  up,  and  seizing  his  sword  bravely  drove  his  assailants 
back  through  one  or  two  apartments,  until  stunned  by  a  blow  from  a  hatchet, 
he  was  secured  and  dragged  out,  and  seated  in  an  arm-chair  upon  the  hall 
table.  Who  shall  judge  Indians  now  ?  insultingly  asked  his  captors ;  and  then 
each  man  drawing  his  knife,  and  scoring  deep  gashes  across  his  naked  breast, 
exclaimed —  "  Thus  I  cross  out  my  account."  His  person  was  then  cruelly 
mangled,  and  as,  spent  with  agony  and  loss  of  blood,  he  rolled  heavily'from  the 


A.  D. Ioo9. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  185 

table,  one  of  his  tormentors  held  his  own  sword  under  him  as  he  fell,  which  c  ha  p. 
terminated  his  cruel  agonies.     They  also  killed  his  son-in-law  and  twenty 
other  persons,  set  the  village  on  fire,  and  carried  off  a  body  of  prisoners. 

Even  amidst  this  scene  of  Indian  revenge  occurred  a  singular  instance  of 
their  gratitude.  The  very  night  of  the  murder,  an  English  woman  wae  re- 
turning with  her  children  to  the  village  in  a  boat,  and  knocked  at  Waldron's 
house  for  shelter.  No  answer  being  returned,  one  of  the  party  climbed  the 
wall  and  found  that  the  place  had  been  surprised  by  the  Indians.  The  poor 
woman,  transfixed  with  terror,  was  unable  to  fly,  but  desired  her  children  to 
make  their  escape  ;  and  at  last  found  strength  to  crawl  into  a  covert  of  bushes. 
In  this  situation  she  saw  an  Indian  coming  towards  her  with  a  pistol,  who, 
struck  with  her  appearance,  scanned  her  still  more  closely,  and  then  suddenly 
returned  to  his  comrades.  She  watched  the  burning  of  the  village,  and  waited 
until  the  Indians  had  retired,  when  at  length  venturing  forth,  what  was  her 
astonishment  to  find  her  own  house  had  been  spared  amidst  the  general  con- 
flagration. Upon  that  seizure  of  the  Indians,  which  had  now  been  so  dearly 
avenged,  she  had  concealed  one  of  the  fugitives  in  her  house,  a  service  which 
he  had  promised  never  to  forget.  And  he  was  one  of  that  very  party  who  sur- 
prised the  place,  and  through  him  she  had  become  known  to  the  greater  part 
of  his  companions. 

Some  time  previously  to  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  the  French  and 
English  colonies,  the  Marquis  de  Denonville  was  governor  of  Canada.  His 
efforts' to  reduce  the  Iroquois  had  been  entirely  abortive,  and  by  an  act  of 
treachery,  no  less  a  blunder  than  a  crime,  he  had  inflamed  still  further  their 
already  bitter  hostility.  He  had  employed  two  influential  missionaries  to 
induce  the  principal  Iroquois  chiefs  to  agree  to  a  peaceful  interview,  when  he 
ordered  them  to  be  seized  and  transported  to  France  as  galley  slaves.  The 
poor  missionaries,  who  had-been  unwitting  agents  in  this  nefarious  plot,  were 
exposed  to  the  greatest  danger,  but  the  magnanimity  of  the  Indians  refused 
to  make  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty.  The  sachems  called  the  mis- 
sionary Lamberville  into  their  presence,  and  after  eloquently  setting  forth 
their  wrongs,  addressed  him  in  these  words : 

"  Thou  art  now  our  enemy,  thou  and  thy  race.  We  have  held  counsel,  and 
cannot  resolve  to  treat  thee  as  an  enemy.  We  know  thy  heart  had  no  share 
m  this  treason,  though  thou  wast  its  tool.  We  are  not  unjust :  we  will  not 
punish  thee  being  innocent,  and  hating  the  crime  as  much  as  we  do  ourselves. 
But  depart  from  among  us :  there  are  some  who  might  seek  thy  blood,  and 
when  our  young  men  sing  the  war  song,  we  may  be  no  longer  able  to  protect 
thee."  They  then  dismissed  him,  with  guides  who  conducted  him  to  a  place 
of  safety.  Hostilities  continued  with  unabated  fury,  but  the  handful  of  French, 
unable  to  contend  with  the  hosts  of  their  Indian  enemies,  were  compelled  to  a 
humiliating  and  uncertain  peace,  and  to  restore  the  captives  whom  he  had  so 
treacherously  entrapped.  Such  was  the  posture  of  affairs  when  the  war 
commenced  between  France  and  England,  and  a  body  of  twelve  hundred 
Iroquois  burst  suddenly  like  a  cloud  of  locusts  upon  the  island  of  Montreal. 


A.  D. 1C90. 


186   i  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  Their  first  attack  was  made  at  La  Chine,  where  they  massacred  two  hundred 
people,  and  burned  the  village  ;  and  thence  advancing  to  Montreal  itself,  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  forts,  and  after  marking  their  destructive  inroad 
with  fire  and  blood,  at  length,  re-embarked  with  their  canoes  laden  with 
plunder,  and  carrying  off  two  hundred  captives.  In  the  panic  of  the  moment 
Forts  Niagara  and  Frontenac  were  abandoned  and  razed,  and  the  western 
lakes  were  entirely  abandoned  to  the  Iroquois  and  their  allies. 

At  this  critical  period  Denonville  was  recalled,  and  Count  Frontenac  re- 
turned from  France  with  the  reappointment  of  Governor,  and  considerable 
reinforcements  and  supplies,  together  with  the  Indians  who  had  been  so  trea- 
cherously seized  by  his  predecessor,  whose  good-will  he  had  acquired,  and 
through  whose  influence  he  hoped  to  obtain  a  favourable  negotiation  with  their 
brethren.  His  measures  savoured  rather  of  the  vigour  and  elasticity  of 
youth,  than  of  a  man  nearly  seventy,  and  he  alarmed  the  English  by  a  plan 
for  invading  New  York  by  land  and  sea.  Finding  Montreal  in  ashes  upon 
his  arrival,  and  the  power  of  the  Iroquois,  instigated  and  supported  by  the 
English,  in  the  ascendant,  he  promptly  determined  upon  a  bold  though  cruel 
diversion  of  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  forthwith  organized  three 
separate  expeditions  to  penetrate  and  ravage  the  English  territory  at  as  many 
different  points. 

The  first  expedition,  against  Schenectady,  started  from  Cagnawaga,  nearly 
opposite  to  Montreal.  It  numbered  one  hundred  and  ten  men,  consisting  of  a 
body  of  Frenchmen  with  a  number  of  Mohawk  Indians  who  had  been  converted 
by  the  Jesuits,  and  who,  as  being  acquainted  with  the  Dutch  settlements,  were 
now  sent  forth  under  their  auspices,  as  guides  and  agents  in  the  work  of  de- 
struction. The  party  was  commanded  by  French  officers.  They  set  out  in 
the  depth  of  winter,  to  penetrate  the  long  and  dreary  wilderness  intervening 
between  them  and  their  destined  victims,  toiling  through  the  heavy  snows  in 
which  the  forests  were  buried,  wading  through  icy  streams,  and  enduring 
every  hardship  for  two  and  twenty  days,  until  they  reached  the  vicinity  of 
the  Mohawk  valley.  Spies  were  now  sent  forward  to  reconnoitre  the  devoted 
village,  who  returned  in  safety,  and  after  an  harangue  from  their  chiefs  urging 
them  to  a  deep  vengeance  upon  "  the  enemies  of  God,"  for  the  wrongs  they 
had  suffered  from  the  English  and  their  allies,  nursing  their  fell  purpose,  they 
awaited  the  approach  of  darkness. 

Schenectady  was  then  a  small  village,  in  form  an  oblong  square,  surrounded 
by  a  stockade  and  entered  by  two  gates.  Their  distance  from  the  French  fron- 
tier, and  the  severity  of  the  season,  had  lulled  the  suspicion  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  they  were  buried  in  the  sweet  and  deep  sleep  of  a  winter's  night,  when 
the  horrid  war-whoop  of  their  enemies  thrilled  through  every  heart.  It  was 
too  late  to  think  of  concerted  resistance.  The  French  and  Indians  had  stolen 
into  the  town  in  several  bodies,  the  door  of  every  dwelling  was  instantly  be- 
set and  burst  open,  and  amidst  the  shrieks  of  women  and  children  every 
atrocity  was  perpetrated  that  the  vengeful  cruelty  of  the  Indian  savage  could 
suggest.     Men,  women,  and  children  fell  under  the  tomahawk  in  a  promis- 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  187 

cuous  massacre,  the  village  was  set  on  fire,  and  by  the  flames  of  their  own  homes,  c  h^a  p. 

a  small  body  of  miserable  half-naked  fugitives  hurried  away,  in  the  midst  — 

of  a  driving  snow-storm,  to  Albany,  spreading  terror  and  confusion  among 
the  exposed  frontiers  of  New  York. 

Another  party,  led  by  Hertel  de  Rouville,  consisting  of  but  fifty  men,  made 
their  way  by  the  St.  Francis  and  the  Connecticut  valley  to  Salmon  Falls  in  the 
Piscataqua,  which  they  surprised  and  burned,  killing  most  of  the  male  inha- 
bitants, and  driving  before  them  into  the  wilderness  a  crowd  of  unhappy  pri- 
soners. Wretched  women,  dropping  from  fatigue,  had  their  sufferings  ended 
by  the  tomahawk ;  while  others,  still  more  miserable,  saw  their  children  mur- 
dered before  their  face. — But  who  save  a  mother  can  tell  a  mother's  sufferings  ? 
Let  one  dark  page  from  the  journal  of  a  captive  suffice  to  show  the  unutterable 
miseries  of  this  border  warfare. 

"  The  Indians,"  says  this  poor  woman,  "  when  they  had  flogged  me  away 
along  with  them,  took  my  oldest  boy,  a  lad  of  about  five  years  of  age,  along 
with  them,  for  he  was  still  at  the  door  by  my  side.  My  middle  little  boy,  who 
was  about  three  years  of  age,  had  by  this  time  obtained  a  situation  by  the  fire 
in  the  house,  and  was  crying  bitterly  to  me  not  to  go,  and  making  bitter  com- 
plaints of  the  depredations  of  the  savages. 

"  But  these  monsters  were  not  willing  to  let  the  child  remain  behind  them; 
they  took  him  by  the  hand  to  drag  him  along  with  them,  but  he  was  so  very 
unwilling  to  go,  and  made  such  a  noise  by  crying,  that  they  took  him  up  by 
the  feet,  and  dashed  his  brains  out  against  the  threshold  of  the  door.  They 
then  scalped  and  stabbed  him,  and  left  him  for  dead.  When  I  witnessed  this 
inhuman  butchery  of  my  own  child,  I  gave  a  most  indescribable  and  terrific 
scream,  and  felt  a  dimness  come  over  my  eyes  next  to  blindness,  and  my  senses 
were  nearly  gone.  The  savage  then  gave  me  a  blow  across  my  head  and  face, 
and  brought  me  to  my  sight  and  recollection  again.  During  the  whole  of  this 
agonizing  scene,  I  kept  my  infant  in  my  arms. 

"  As  soon  as  their  murder  was  effected,  they  marched  me  along  to  the  top  of 
the  bank.  Here  I  beheld  another  hard  scene,  for  as  soon  as  we  had  landed, 
my  little  boy,  who  was  still  mourning  and  lamenting  about  his  little  brother, 
and  who  complained  that  he  was  injured  by  the  fall  in  descending  the  bank, 
was  murdered. 

"  One  of  the  Indians  ordered  me  along,  probably  that  I  should  not  see  the 
horrid  deed  about  to  be  perpetrated.  The  other  then  took  his  tomahawk 
from  his  side,  and  with  this  instrument  of  death  killed  and  scalped  him. 
When  I  beheld  this  second  scene  of  inhuman  butchery,  I  fell  to  the  ground 
senseless,  with  my  infant  in  my  arms,  it  being  under,  and  its  little  hands  in 
the  hair  of  my  head.  How  long  I  remained  in  this  state  of  insensibility,  I 
know  not. 

"  The  first  thing  I  remember  was  my  raising  my  head  from  the  ground, 
and  my  feeling  myself  exceedingly  overcome  with  sleep.  I  cast  my  eyes 
around,  and  saw  the  scalp  of  my  dear  little  boy,  fresh  bleeding  from  his  head, 
in  the  hand  of  one  of  the  savages,  and  sunk  down  to  the  earth  again,  upon 

2*2 


188  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  my  infant  child.     The  first  thing  I  remember  after  witnessing  this  spectacle 

■ —  of  woe,  was  the  severe  blows  I  was  receiving  from  the  hands  of  the  savages, 

'  though  at  this  time  I  was  unconscious  of  the  injury  I  was  sustaining.    After  a 
severe  castigation,  they  assisted  me  in  getting  up,  and  supported  me  when  up. 

"  In  the  morning  one  of  them  left  us,  to  watch  the  trail  or  path  we  had 
come,  to  see  if  any  white  people  were  pursuing  us.  During  the  absence  of 
the  Indian  who  was  the  one  that  claimed  me,  the  other,  who  remained  with 
me,  and  who  was  the  murderer  of  my  last  boy,  took  from  his  bosom  his  scalp 
and  prepared  a  hoop,  and  stretched  the  scalp  upon  it.  Those  mothers  who 
have  not  seen  the  like  done  by  one  of  the  scalps  of  their  own  children,  (and 
few,  if  any,  ever  had  so  much  misery  to  endure,)  will  be  able  to  form  but  faint 
ideas  of  the  feelings  which  then  harrowed  up  my  soul !  " 

Such  are  the  horrors  of  a  successful  foray !  Hertel,  having  entirely  carried 
out  his  work  of  destruction,  soon  after  fell  in  with  a  third  party  of  his  con- 
federates, in  concert  with  whom  he  made  an  attack  on  Casco,  the  garrison  of 
which  were  obliged  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war. 

These  daring  and  successful  inroads  led  the  English  colonies  for  the  first  time 
to  summon  a  congress,  and  concert  a  plan  of  offensive  operations.  Massachu- 
setts, the  nearest  to  the  scene  of  action,  issued  circulars  to  all  the  other  States 
as  far  as  Maryland,  inviting  them  to  send  deputies  to  New  York,  then  under 
the  provisional  government  of  the  unfortunate  Leisler.  At  this  congress  two 
plans  were  formed  for  the  invasion  of  Canada.  The  first  was  originated  by 
the  successes  of  Sir  William  Phipps,  a  native  of  Pemaquid,  who  by  his  enter- 
prise and  good  fortune  had  obtained,  together  with  considerable  wealth,  the 
honour  of  knighthood  from  King  James  II.  At  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  he 
had  invaded  the  French  province  of  Acadia  with  a  small  fleet,  and  made  him- 
self master  of  Port  Royal,  which,  as  already  narrated,  had  been  discovered 
and  founded  by  Poutrincourt.  He  was  now  invested  with  the  command  of  a 
squadron  of  thirty-two  vessels  and  two  thousand  men,  destined  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  Quebec,  while  Winthrop,  son  of  the  late  governor  of  Connecticut,  was 
to  advance  on  Montreal  by  land.  • 

Both  operations  were  destined  to  prove  entirely  abortive.  The  land  forces, 
divided  into  three  bodies,  were  all  defeated  in  detail  by  Frontenac.  Scarcely 
had  he  repulsed  this  formidable  attack,  than  he  received  the  information, 
brought  across  the  wilderness  by  an  Indian  runner,  of  the  meditated  attack 
upon  Quebec,  and  with  surprising  energy  reached  that  stronghold  just  three 
days  before  the  fleet,  under  Phipps,  which  had  been  nine  weeks  on  the  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  passage,  made  its  appearance  before  the  walls.  He  had 
calculated  on  surprising  the  place,  and  found  it,  almost  impregnable  by  nature, 
already  placed  in  a  posture  of  defence  by  the  vigour  and  activity  of  the 
veteran  Frenchman.  Chagrined  as  he  was,  he  determined  to  put  a  bold  front 
upon  the  business,  and  imperiously  summoned  Frontenac  to  surrender  in  the 
name  of  King  William  of  England,  demanding  his  positive  answer  within 
an  hour.  The  British  officer  who  bore  the  summons  was  ushered  blind- 
fold into  the  presence  of  Frontenac  and  his  fellow  nobles  in  the  council-room 


A.  D.  16<u>. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  189 

of  the  castle  of  Quebec.  Read  your  message,  said  the  old  Frenchman,  chap. 
Having  obeyed,  the  Englishman  laid  his  watch  on  the  table  with  these  words — 
"  It  is  now  ten :  I  await  your  answer  for  an  hour."  The  council  started  from 
their  seats  in  wrath,  while  the  old  nobleman,  scarcely  able  to  speak  for  the 
indignation  that  choked  him,  replied,  I  do  not  acknowledge  King  William, 
and  I  well  know  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  is  an  usurper,  who  has  violated  the 
more  sacred  rights  of  blood  and  religion. — The  British  officer  requested  that 
this  answer  should  be  put  in  writing. — "  I  will  answer  your  master  at  the  can- 
non's mouth,"  replied  the  irritated  Frenchman,  "  that  he  may  learn  that  a  man 
of  my  rank  is  not  to  be  summoned  in  this  manner."  The  veteran  commandant 
proved  as  good  as  his  word,  and  gallantly  repulsed  the  repeated  and  daring- 
attacks  of  Phipps,  who  was  at  length  compelled  to  retire  with  shame  and  dis- 
appointment ;  and  after  losing  several  of  his  ships  among  the  dangerous  shoals 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  arrived  at  Boston  with  his  damaged  fleet.  On  his  arrival 
the  treasury  was  empty,  and  as  the  troops  threatened  a  riot,  the  colonial  govern- 
ment found  it  necessary  to  meet  the  emergency  by  issuing  the  first  paper  money 
ever  used  in  America.  Frontenac  wrote  home  to  France  in  triumph,  and  to 
commemorate  his  brave  defence  of  Canada,  the  king  ordered  a  medal  to  be 
struck  with  this  inscription  :  "  Francia  in  novo  orbe  victrix  :  Kebeca  Liberata. 
— A.  D.  m.d.c.x.c,"  while  a  church  was  built  in  the  lower  town,  and  dedicated 
to  "  Notre  Dame  de  la  Victoire."  Shortly  after,  a  French  fleet  retook  Port 
Royal,  and  thus  regained  possession  of  Acadia. 

While  the  New  England  colonies  were  involved  in  this  desolating  struggle, 
they  were  at  the  same  time  convulsed  with  internal  miseries.  The  belief  in 
witchcraft  was  at  that  time  almost  universal  in  England,  and  is  by  no  means 
extinct  there  even  in  the  present  day,  as  any  one  knows  who  has  penetrated 
the  remoter  nooks  and  corners  of  the  island,  into  which  the  progress  of  edu- 
cation is  slow  to  make  its  way.  This  infernal  art  was  rendered  a  capital  offence, 
particularly  by  a  statute  of  James  I.,  who  had  himself  written  a  treatise  on  the 
art  of  detecting  witches.  During  the  Long  Parliament  a  vast  number  of  per- 
sons fell  victims  to  the  popular  ctelusion.  Shortly  after  the  restoration  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  revered  no  less  in  the  colonies  than  the  mother  country  for 
piety  and  wisdom,  had  adjudged  to  death  two  poor  old  women  in  Suffolk,  for 
this  imaginary  crime.  Witch  stories  and  printed  narratives  were  universally 
current.  It  cannot  excite  surprise  then  that  a  people  like  that  of  New  Eng- 
land, whose  temperament  was  naturally  serious,  to  whom  every  incident  of 
life  was  a  special  providence,  and  who  were  filled  with  an  undoubting  faith 
in  every  letter  of  Scripture,  should  have  been  predisposed  to  enter  deeply 
into  so  congenial  an  illusion. 

For  some  years  previously  instances  of  supposed  witchcraft  had  occurred, 
and  one  or  two  persons  had  been  executed.  For  nearly  thirty  years,  however, 
no  one  had  suffered  death,  when  in  1685  the  excitement  was  suddenly  re- 
vived by  a  very  circumstantial  account  of  all  the  previous  cases.  In  1687, 
four  of  the  children  of  John  Goodwin,  a  grave  man  and  a  good  liver,  to  the 
great  consternation  of  the  neighbourhood,  became  suddenly  bewitched.     The 


A.  D.  1688. 


190  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ch^ap.  eldest  had  accused  a  laundress  of  stealing  the  family  linen ;  her  mother,  a 
wild  Irishwoman,  resented  the  accusation;  and  thereupon  the  girl  with  her 
sisters  fell  into  fits,  purred  like  cats,  affected  to  be  deaf  and  blind,  made  strange 
contortions,  and  uttered  fearful  screams.  Whether  the  imagination  of  these 
children  had  been  affected  by  hearing  of  diabolical  possession,  or  whether  they 
were  guilty  of  a  wilful  fraud,  has  been  disputed ;  we  are  inclined  to  lean 
to  the  former  supposition.  Cotton  Mather,  one  of  the  leading  ministers,  a 
learned  and  good  man,  but  of  fanatical  temperament,  a  narrow  understanding, 
and  immeasurable  vanity,  went  to  prayer  with  others  of  his  brethren  by  their 
side,  when  they  became  deaf  and  blind,  and  unable  to  read  the  Assembly's  Cate- 
chism and  Cotton's  Milk  for  Babes,  but  could  read  the  Oxford  Jests,  popish  and 
quaker  books,  and  the  Common  Prayer,  without  difficulty.  By  the  strenuous 
efforts  of  the  clergymen,  the  youngest  child  was  at  length  delivered,  but  the  rest 
persevering  in  their  delusion  or  hypocrisy,  the  old  Irishwoman  was  appre- 
hended on  the  charge  of  bewitching  them.  Terrified  and  bewildered,  the  poor 
creature  gave  such  incoherent  replies  that  many  deemed  her  "  crazed  in  her 
intellectuals,"  yet  as  the  physicians  declared  her  to  be  "  compos  mentis,"  she 
was  speedily  condemned  and  executed.  Cotton  Mather  now  took  home  the 
eldest  girl  to  his  house,  where  she  continued  to  exhibit  the  same  extraordinary 
phenomena,  which  the  credulous  minister  set  himself  seriously  to  study,  and 
then  put  forth  a  sermon  and  narrative  under  the  title  of  "  Memorable  Provi- 
dences relating  to  Witchcrafts  and  Possessions."  The  times,  in  his  idea,  were  evil, 
and  there  was  a  tendency  in  many  minds  to  recoil  from  the  ultra  rigour  of  faith 
and  practice  into  the  opposite  extreme.  "  There  are  multitudes  of  Sadducees," 
complains  the  preface,  "in  our  days,  and  we  shall  come,  in  the  opinion  of  these 
mighty  acute  philosophers,  to  credit  nothing  but  what  we  can  see  and  feel.  How 
much  this  fond  opinion  hath  gotten  ground  in  this,  debauched  age  is  awfully  ob- 
servable. God  is  therefore  pleased,  besides  his  witness  borne  to  this  truth  in 
sacred  writ,  to  suffer  devils  to  do  such  things  in  the  world,  as  shall  stop  the 
mouths  of  gainsayers  and  extort  a  confession  from  them."  And  as  Mather  came 
forward  to  throw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  sceptics,  not  only  as  a  minister  of 
God,  but  also  an  eye-witness  of  the  facts  narrated,  he  declared  that  he  should 
henceforth  consider  the  "  denial  of  devils,  or  of  witches,"  as  proofs  of  "  ignor- 
ance, incivility,  and  dishonest  impudence"  in  any  who  should  be  so  hardy  as 
to  venture  it. 

The  bewitched  girls  at  length  became  restored,  and  made  a  public  profes- 
sion of  religion  on  the  ground  of  the  trials  they  had  endured ;  and  we  are 
assured  by  Hutchinson,  who  knew  one  of  them  many  years  afterwards,  that  she 
never  uttered  any  acknowledgment  of  fraud  in  the  transaction.  Cotton's  book 
made  a  great  noise,  being  reprinted  in  England,  with  a  preface  by  Richard 
Baxter,  who  affirmed  that  "  the  evidence  was  so  convincing,  he  must  be  a  very 
obstinate  Sadducee  who  would  not  believe  it."  Thus  a  popular  infatuation, 
which  might  have  died  away  of  itself,  was,  by  the  fanatical  zeal  of  the 
ministers,  kept  alive,  and  ultimately  inflamed  to  a  fearful  pitch. 

Four  years  after,  a  similar  scene  was  renewed  in  the  family  of  Parris,  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  191 

minister  of  Salem,  whose  church,  as  it  seems,  was  at  the  time  rent  by  bitter  c  ha  p. 
disputes.  Some  of  his  children  exhibited  the  same  symptoms  ;  and  Tituba,  an  A  D  ,.t9 
old  Indian  servant,  who  had  used  some  superstitious  rites  to  discover  the  witch, 
was  herself  accused  by  the  children,  and  being  well  scourged  by  her  master, 
confessed  herself  the  guilty  agent.  A  fast  day  was  appointed  by  the  neigh- 
bouring ministers,  among  whom  appeared  Cotton  Mather,  glorying  in  the  con- 
firmation of  his  previous  statements.  The  excitement  rapidly  spread — the 
girls  accused  others — the  ministers  implicitly  received  their  statements. 
The  divisions  among  the  people,  if  indeed  they  did  not  prompt  to  accusations 
wilfully  false,  at  least  facilitated  the  belief  of  them.  Parris  selected  for  his 
Sunday's  text  the  words,  "  Have  I  not  chosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is 
a  devil?"  At  this  a  sister  of  Sarah  Cloyce,  one  of  the  accused,  being  of- 
fended, rose  up  and  left  the  place,  and  was  herself  immediately  denounced 
and  sent  to  prison  as  an  accomplice. 

The  matter  had  now  grown  to  such  a  height,  that  the  magistrates,  headed  by 
the  deputy  governor  of  the  state,  held  a  judicial  court  in  the  meeting-house 
of  Salem.  Parris,  and  a  fellow-clergyman,  Noyes,  were  active  in  discovering 
the  witches  and  suggesting  fresh  accusations.  The  afflicted  were  placed  on 
one  hand,  and  the  accused  on  the  other,  the  latter  being  held  by  the  arms 
lest  they  should  inflict  torment  on  the  former,  who  declared  themselves 
haunted  by  their  spectres,  and  solicited  to  subscribe  a  covenant  with  the 
devil,  and  on  their  refusal  pricked  and  injured.  The  husband  of  Elizabeth 
Procter,  one  of  the  accused,  having  boldly  accompanied  her  into  court,  the 
possessed  cried  out  upon  him  also.  There  is  goodman  Procter  going  to  take 
up  Mrs.  Pope's  feet,  cries  one  of  them,  and  her  feet  are  immediately  taken  up. 
He  is  going  to  Mrs.  Pope,  cries  another,  and  straightway  Mrs.  Pope  falls  into 
fits.  One  Bishop,  a  farmer,  had  brought  round  a  possessed  servant  by  the 
application  of  a  horsewhip,  and  had  rashly  hinted  that  he  could  with  the  like 
remedy  cure  the  whole  company  of  the  afflicted.  For  this  indecent  scoffing  he 
soon  found  himself  in  prison.  Between  fanaticism  and  terror  the  minds  of 
the  accused  became  unhinged;  many,  staggered  by  the  results  ascribed  to  their 
agency,  for  a  while  believed  themselves  to  be  what  they  were  called ;  and 
others,  finding  no  safety  but  in  confession,  gave  fraudulent  and  circumstantial 
narratives  of  interviews  with  the  devil,  and  of  riding  through  the  air  on  a 
broomstick ;  and  these  confessions,  reacting  upon  minds  already  fully  per- 
suaded of  the  reality  of  the  crime,  tended  to  fortify  them  still  further  in  their 
delusion,  and  to  give  birth  to  a  still  widening  circle  of  accusations  and  con- 
fessions. Nearly  a  hundred  persons  were  already  thrown  into  prison,  and 
the  excitement  was  still  rapidly  on  the  increase. 

It  was  at  this  crisis  that  Sir  "William  Phipps  arrived  from  England  with  the 
new  charter.  He  had  been  a  parishioner  of  Cotton  Mather's,  and  owed  his 
appointment  as  governor  to  the  favour  of  Increase  Mather,  his  father,  who 
had  been  allowed  to  nominate  the  officers  for  the  crown.  Under  such  influ- 
ence, as  may  be  supposed,  the  new  governor,  far  from  taking  steps  to  coun- 
teract the  delusion,  and  secure  an  impartial  and  searching  examination,  first 


192 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1692. 


chap.  pUt  the  prisoners  in  irons,  and  organized  a  special  court  for  their  trial  at 
Salem,  over  which  presided  Stoughton,  the  lieutenant-governor,  a  man  fully- 
partaking  in  the  popular  infatuation.  The  work  was  hurried  on  as  vigor- 
ously as  the  ministers  could  have  desired,  several  old  women,  and  others, 
upon  evidence  no  better  than  has  been  cited,  being  forthwith  condemned 
and  hanged.  Of  these,  all  died  solemnly  persisting  in  their  innocence. 
One  woman,  Rebecca  Nurse,  had  been  declared  innocent,  but  her  accuser 
had  cried  out  at  this  acquittal.  Parris,  who  had  made  up  his  mind  as  to 
her  guilt,  preached  and  prayed  against  her,  until  a  fresh  verdict  was  ob- 
tained; and  after  being  led  in  chains  to  the  meeting-house,  and  formally  excom- 
municated, she  was  hanged  with  the  others.  Some  few  spirits  dared  to  resist 
the  general  delusion,  and  hurl  back  defiance  into  the  teeth  of  their  accusers. 
You  are  a  witch,  you  know  you  are,  said  the  minister  Noyes  to  Sarah  Good. 
You  are  a  liar,  she  retorted,  and  if  you  take  my  life,  God  will  give  you  blood 
to  drink.  One  wretched  man,  refusing  to  plead  at  all,  was  pressed  to  death  for 
his  contumacy.  But  the  greater  part  sought  safety  in  confession,  or  even  in 
accusing  others.  Wives  denounced  their  husbands — children  their  parents. 
The  public  mind  was  utterly  demoralized  with  terror. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  victims  was  George  Burrows,  himself  a  minister, 
but  who  had  for  some  reason  become  unpopular  both  with  his  flock  and  his 
fellow-ministers,  whose  convictions  he  had  outraged,  and  whose  self-conceit 
he  had  wounded,  by  declaring  his  entire  disbelief  even  of  the  possibility  of  the 
crime  for  which  they  were  putting  so  many  to  death.  Among  other  things,  he 
was  accused  of  displaying  preternatural  strength — of  course  through  the  assist- 
ance of  the  devil.  He  staggered,  however,  the  more  reasonable  portion  of  the 
crowd  present  at  his  execution,  by  solemnly  and  fervently  repeating  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  which  it  was  supposed  no  wizard  could  do.  The  tears  of  the  spec- 
tators began  to  flow,  and  they  gave  signs  of  rising  to  stop  the  execution,  but 
the  dangerous  sympathy  was  arrested  by  Cotton  Mather,  who,  riding  to  and 
fro,  carefully  reminded  them  that  Burrows  had  never  been  properly  ordained, 
and  that  to  deceive  the  unwary,  Satan  often  put  on  the  appearance  of  the 
children  of  light. 

Twenty  persons  had  already  been  executed,  others  were  under  sen- 
tence, and  the  prisons  were  full,  when  the  court  adjourned  until  November. 
Mather  proceeded  to  improve  the  interval  by  publishing  his  "  Wonders  of 
the  Invisible  World ; "  in  which,  although  he  suggests  caution  in  the  dis- 
crimination of  evidence,  he  glories  in  the  good  work  which  he  had  been 
mainly  instrumental  in  promoting,  and  evidently  anticipated  its  full  and  satis- 
factory completion.  Here,  however,  he  was  destined  to  be  most  bitterly  mor- 
tified. A  reaction  soon  after  commenced,  the  circle  of  accusations  had 
become  too  sweeping,  even  ministers  and  persons  in  power  were  not  safe, 
dark  hints  having  been  thrown  out  even  against  the  governor's  wife,  and  one  of 
the  first  magistrates  compelled  to  fly.  Moreover  the  interval  had  given  time 
for  men's  minds  to  recover  some  degree  of  sanity,  and  to  combine  for  the 
general  safety.    Many  who  had  confessed  now  boldly  recanted.   Having  been 


■•'■ 


V 


or  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


OF 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  193 

suddenly  seized  as  prisoners,  as  they  declared,  and  "  by  reason  of  trie  suiden  chap. 
surprisal  amazed  and  affrighted  out  of  their  reason,  and  exhorted  by  their  ]6?2 
nearest  relatives  to  confess,  as  the  only  means  of  saving  their  lives,  they  were  1(593- 
thus  persuaded  into  compliance.  And  indeed  the  confession  was  no  other 
than  what  was  suggested  to  them  by  some  gentlemen,  who,  telling  them  that 
they  were  witches  and  that  they  knew  they  were  so,  made  them  tltink  it  was 
so ;  and  their  understandings,  their  reason,  their  faculties,  almost  gone,  they 
were  incapable  of  judging  of  their  condition  ;  and  being  moreover  prevented 
by  hard  measures  from  making  their  defence,  they  confessed  to  any  thing  and 
every  thing  required  of  them."  The  scales  began  to  fall  from  the  eyes  of  a 
deluded  people.  Remonstrances  now  poured  in  against  condemning  persons 
of  exemplary  lives  upon  the  idle  accusations  of  children ;  the  evident  partiality 
of  the  judges,  their  cruel  methods  of  compelling  confessions,  their  total  disre- 
gard of  recantations  however  sincere,  at  length  appeared  in  their  true  light. 
On  the  opening  of  the  next  court,  the  grand  jury  dismissed  the  greater  part 
of  the  cases,  and  those  who  had  already  been  sentenced  to  death  were  re- 
prieved, and  ultimately  released.  Mather  was  utterly  astonished  and  con- 
founded at  this  so  unlooked-for  result,  and  while,  in  order  to  meet  the  altered 
state  of  public  feeling,  in  his  "  Cases  of  Conscience  concerning  Witchcraft," 
he  admitted  that  "  the  most  critical  and  exquisite  caution  "  was  required  in 
discriminating  the  genuine  offenders,  inasmuch  as  the  devil  might  assume  the 
appearance  of  an  innocent  person  ;  yet  he  stoutly  contended  for  the  reality  of 
the  crime,  and  the  justice  which  had  been  dealt  both  to  those  who  were  really 
guilty,  and  also  those  who,  by  confessing  falsely,  had  only  got  what  they  de- 
served. He  strove  hard  to  discover  fresh  cases,  but  received  a  mortifying  check 
by  the  publications  of  one  Robert  Calef,  "  a  coal  sent  from  hell  to  blacken  him, 
a  malignant,  calumnious,  and  reproachful  man,"  whose  stubborn  common 
sense  persisted  in  denying  the  existence  of  the  crime;  he  even  invited  reports 
of  "  apparitions,  possessions,  enchantments,  and  all  extraordinary  things."' 
But,  alas !  the  excitement  was  over,  the  "  spirits  came  not  at  his  call,"  and 
staggered  by  the  want  of  answer  to  his  earnest  prayers,  his  own  mind  was 
in  some  danger  of  realizing  that  reaction  which  had  taken  place  in  others, 
and  he  feelingly  bewails  "his  temptations  to  atheism,  and  to  the  abandonment 
of  all  religion  as  a  mere  delusion." 

Meanwhile  the  frontier  warfare  continued  with  unabated  cruelty  on  both 
sides.  In  retaliation  for  Indian  incursions,  Colonel  Church  ravaged  one  of 
their  settlements  on  the  Androscosrsren,  and  made  an  indiscriminate  massacre 

Do         7 

of  men,  women,  and  children.  Every  farm  was  a  fortress,  for  every  forest  bore 
a  lurking  enemy.  Men  became  cruel  in  self-defence,  and  even  the  temper  of 
woman,  tortured  from  its  natural  bias  by  witnessing  such  unnatural  horrors, 
became  tinged  with  a  savage  and  gloomy  heroism.  On  March  15,  1697, 
the  savages  burst  upon  Haverhill,  destroying  all  before  them.  One  Dustan, 
the  father  of  eight  young  children,  caught  the  alarm,  and  flew  from  his  la- 
bours to  save  them  and  their  mother,  who  had  lain  in  but  a  few  days,  and 
with  her  nurse  was  at  that  moment  within  doors.    Hurrying  away  his  unpro- 

2  c 


A.  D.  1697 


194  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  tected  children,  with  directions  to  hasten  to  a  fortified  house,  he  rode  towards 
his  home,  but  before  he  could  gain  the  threshold,  a  sudden  rush  of  the  In- 
dians compelled  him  to  fly,  and  leave  his  wife  at  their  mercy.  In  this  state  of 
distraction  he  flew  after  his  children,  resolving  to  save,  to  use  the  language 
of  the  narrative,  "  that  which  in  his  extremity  he  should  find  his  affections  to 
pitch  most  upon,  and  leave  the  rest  unto  the  care  of  the  Divine  providence." 
But  when  he  overtook  his  terrified  babes,  clinging  to  him  for  succour,  he  felt 
that  to  die  with  all  of  them  were  better  than  escape  with  one  alone,  and 
placing  them  before  him,  he  continued  to  cover  their  retreat  and  fire  upon  his 
pursuers,  until  happily  he  succeeded  in  making  good  his  escape  to  a  place  of 
safety. 

"  But  his  house,"  says  the  old  account,  "must  in  the  mean  time  have  more 
dismal  tragedies  acted  in  it."  The  nurse,  trying  to  escape  with  the  new-born 
infant,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  savages,  who,  rushing  into  the  house,  bade  the 
mother  arise  instantly,  while  they  plundered  the  house  and  afterwards  set  it 
on  fire.  They  then  hurried  her  away  before  them,  together  with  a  number  of 
other  captives,  but  ere  they  had  gone  many  steps,  dashed  out  the  brains  of  the 
infant  against  a  tree.  The  mother's  heart  would  have  sunk,  but  she  thought 
of  her  surviving  children,  and  summoned  up  strength  to  march  before  the 
savages  towards  the  Canadian  frontier.  She  saw  her  companions,  as  they  sunk 
one  by  one  with  exhaustion,  brained  by  the  tomahawk  of  the  savages,  and 
their  scalps  taken  as  trophies  to  the  Christian  governor  of  Canada.  After 
sojourning,  in  prayerfulness  and  anguish  of  spirit,  with  the  Indian  family  to 
which  she  was  allotted,  she  pursued  with  them  her  onward  course  towards  an 
Indian  rendezvous,  where,  as  she  was  jestingly  told,  she  would  have  to  run  the 
gauntlet  through  a  row  of  savage  tormentors.  When  they  marked  the  dejec- 
tion of  her  spirits  they  would  say  to  her,  "What  need  you  trouble  yourself? 
If  your  God  will  have  you  delivered,  you  will  be  so  ! "  A  desperate  resolution 
took  possession  of  her  mind — might  she  not  lawfully  slay  the  murderers  of 
her  babe,  effect  thus  her  own  deliverance,  and  rejoin  her  husband  and  chil- 
dren, if  haply  they  were  yet  alive  ?  One  night,  on  an  island  in  the  Merrimac, 
a  little  before  daybreak,  while  the  Indians  were  heavy  with  sleep,  she  en- 
couraged the  nurse,  and  a  captive  lad  who  accompanied  her,  to  nerve  them- 
selves to  the  work  of  retribution.  There  was  but  one  fear,  lest  the  softness 
of  their  sex  should  overcome  them  at  the  decisive  moment,  and  they  should 
only  wound,  not  kill  the  Indians.  But  they  had  already  been  familiar  with 
the  sight  of  blood,  and  knew  that  their  own  lives  depended  upon  their  success. 
They  armed  themselves  with  tomahawks,  and  struck, with  convulsive  energy, 
blow  upon  blow,  until  of  the  twelve  sleepers  ten  lay  dead  at  their  feet,  only 
one  squaw,  already  wounded,  and  a  boy  escaping  into  the  forest.  They 
then  took  the  scalps  of  the  ten  Indians  whom  they  had  slain,  threw  themselves 
into  a  canoe,  and  descended  the  stream  to  the  English  settlements,  where 
they  were  received  and  honoured  with  the  honour  due  to  weak  women, 
who  in  these  fearful  times  knew  how  to  rise  superior  to  the  natural  infirmity 
of  their  sex. 


1 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  195 

With  marvellous  energy,  but  with  varying  success,  Frontenac  still  continued  c  ha  p. 
to  struggle  against  the  Iroquois.  Although  now  seventy-four  years  old,  he  ■£-£-—, - 
personally  conducted  an  expedition,  and  carried  the  wars  into  the  territory  of 
the  Onondagas  and  Oneidas,  cutting  up  their  corn  and  burning  their  villages. 
It  was  a  melancholy  spectacle  to  see  a  man  of  noble  descent,  and  of  heroic 
spirit,  himself  tottering  on  the  brink  of  the  grave,  giving  his  sanction  to  torture 
an  Indian  prisoner,  as  aged  as  himself,  with  all  the  refinements  of  savage 
cruelty  !  "  A  most  singular  spectacle  indeed  it  was,"  says  the  missionary 
Charlevoix,  (whose  moral  sense  seems  to  have  been  blinded  to  the  sense  of 
these  and  other  atrocities,  when  perpetrated  in  the  interest  of  his  own  party,) 
"to  see  upwards  of  four  hundred  tormentors  raging  about  a  decrepit  old  man, 
from  whom,  by  all  their  tortures,  they  could  not  extract  a  single  groan,  and 
who,  as  long  as  he  lived,  did  not  cease  to  reproach  them  with  being  slaves  of 
the  French,  of  whom  he  affected  to  speak  with  the  utmost  disdain.  On  re- 
ceiving at  last  his  death-stroke,  he  exclaimed,  "  Why  shorten  my  life,  better 
improve  this  opportunity  of  learning  how  to  die  like  a  man  !  " 

This  first  intercolonial  war,  a  desultory  and  savage  struggle,  which  left 
matters  pretty  much  as  they  were,  was  at  length  brought  to  a  close  in  1697, 
by  the  Peace  of  Byswick. 

The  temporary  repose  of  North  America  from  the  horrors  of  an  inter- 
colonial warfare,  originating  in  the  rivalries  of  European  powers,  was  soon 
again  disturbed  by  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  in  which  William  III. 
and  Queen  Anne  were  opposed  to  the  French  and  Spaniards.  Hostilities 
first  broke  out  in  South  Carolina,  where  Moore,  the  governor,  who  strove  to 
enrich  himself  by  kidnapping  Indians  to  sell  them  for  slaves,  animated  by  this 
motive,  and  the  hope  of  plunder,  assaulted  the  Spanish  settlement  of  St. 
Augustine,  where,  since  the  foundation  of  this  ancient  town  by  Melandez,  the 
Spaniards  had  made  but  little  progress  in  the  work  of  colonizing  the  country. 
Moore  easily  succeeded  in  taking  the  town,  but  the  Spanish  troops  retiring 
into  the  fort,  and  intelligence  of  the  inroad  being  conveyed  to  the  French 
at  Mobile,  two  ships  of  war  speedily  appeared  before  St.  Augustine,  and 
forced  Moore  to  a  hurried  retreat ;  and  this  abortive  attempt  led  only  to  debt 
and  an  issue  of  paper  money.  Not  discouraged,  however,  Moore  undertook  a 
new  expedition  against  Florida,  fell  suddenly  upon  the  settlements  of  those 
Indians  who  had  been  half-civilized  by  the  Spaniards,  and  whose  vacated 
territory  was  made  over  to  the  Seminole  allies  of  the  English.  On  the  other 
hand  Charleston,  menaced  by  a  French  and  Spanish  squadron,  was  bravely 
and  successfully  defended  by  the  governor,  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson. 

The  whole  weight  of  the  war  fell  upon  the  exposed  northern  frontier  of 
Massachusetts.  The  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  who  now  succeeded  Frontenac  in 
the  government  of  Canada,  having  conciliated  the  Five  Nations,  was  at  liberty 
to  concentrate  his  energies  against  the  north-east  colonists.  Unfortunately,  they 
had  already  provoked  hostilities,  by  plundering  the  son  of  the  Baron  de 
Castin  on  the  Penobscot  river.  A  body  of  French  Canadians  and  Indians, 
under  the  command  of  Hertel  de  Rouville,  making  their  way  across  the  wide 

2  c  2 


A.  D.  1708. 


196  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  wilderness  that  separated  the  St.  Lawrence  from  the  Connecticut,  stole  upon 
the  village  of  Deerfield  in  the  dead  of  a  winter's  night,  when  all  the  inhabitants 
were  buried  in  sleep.  The  frontier  village  was  surrounded  by  a  palisade, 
but  the  snow  drifts  had  rendered  it  useless,  the  invaders  stole  into  the  de- 
fenceless village  and  renewed  the  same  horrible  scenes  that  had  so  lately- 
been  enacted  at  Schenectady.  The  village  was  burned,  nearly  fifty  of  the 
inhabitants  murdered,  and  a  hundred  more  driven  through  the  snow-covered 
forests  to  Canada,  a  distance  of  nearly  three  hundred  miles.  As  the  women 
and  children  sunk  with  fatigue  their  sufferings  were  ended  by  the  tomahawk. 
In  reprisal  for  these  atrocities  the  English  offered  a  premium  for  the  scalps  of 
the  Indians,  and  the  whole  frontier  was  a  scene  of  bloody  and  barbarous  re- 
crimination. Next  year  Hertel  de  Rouville  set  forth  on  a  second  predatory 
expedition,  with  the  view  of  surprising  Portsmouth,  but  not  being  able  to 
obtain  some  expected  reinforcements,  fell  again  upon  the  little  village  of 
Haverhill.  One  dreadful  circumstance  attending  these  acts  of  murder  and 
incendiarism  was,  that  those  who  perpetrated  them,  misled  by  sectarian  hatred, 
believed  that  they  were  doing  God  service.  The  Frenchman  and  his  con- 
federates, after  piously  joining  in  prayer,  entered  the  village  a  little  before 
sun-rise,  and  began  the  wonted  work  of  destruction.  Fifty  of  the  inhabitants 
were  killed  by  the  hatchet,  or  burned  in  the  flames  of  their  own  homesteads. 
The  first  panic  having  subsided,  a  bold  defence  was  made.  Davis,  an  intrepid 
man,  concealed  himself  behind  a  barn,  and  by  beating  violently  on  it,  and 
calling  out  to  his  imaginary  succours,  Come  on  !  Come  on !  as  if  already  on 
the  spot,  succeeded  in  alarming  the  invaders.  Here  occurred  another  re- 
markable instance  of  female  energy  and  heroism,  called  forth  by  the  terrible 
emergencies  of  the  period.  One  Swan,  and  his  wife,  seeing  two  Indians  ap- 
proach their  dwelling,  to  save  themselves  and  children,  planted  themselves 
against  the  narrow  doorway,  and  maintained  it  with  desperate  energy  against 
them,  till  their  strength  began  to  fail.  The  husband,  unable  to  bear  the 
pressure,  cried  to  his  wife  that  it  was  useless  any  longer  to  resist,  but  she, 
seeing  but  one  of  the  half-naked  Indians  was  already  forcing  himself  into  the 
doorway,  seized  a  sharp-pointed  spit,  drove  it  with  her  whole  strength  into  his 
body,  and  thus  compelled  himself  and  his  fellow  savage  to  retreat.  The  alarm 
being  given,  it  was  with  some  difficulty  that  the  invaders  contrived  to  effect 
their  escape  from  the  scene  of  their  barbarous,  and  as  regards  the  issue  of  the 
war,  purposeless,  and  ineffectual  outrage.  There  were  yet  a  few  minds  who 
rose  superior  to  the  general  feeling  of  mutual  revenge.  Such  was  Major 
Schuyler,  who  had  already  used  his  influence  to  prevent  the  Christian  Indians 
from  attacking  the  settlements  of  New  England.  In  a  letter  to  the  governor 
of  Canada,  he  declared  it  to  be  his  duty  towards  God  and  his  neighbour  to 
prevent,  if  possible,  these  barbarous  and  heathen  cruelties.  "  My  heart  swells 
with  indignation,"  exclaims  this  gallant  man,  "  when  I  think  that  a  war  be- 
tween Christian  princes,  bound  to  the  exactest  laws  of  honour  and  generosity, 
which  their  noble  ancestors  have  illustrated  by  brilliant  examples,  is  de- 
generating into  a  savage  and  boundless  butchery.    These  are  not  the  methods 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  197 

for  terminating  the  war.     "Would  that  all  the  world  thought  with  me  on  this  c  ha  p. 
subject."  -  D  ]71I 

Dudley,  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  had  made  two  abortive  attempts 
for  the  seizure  of  Port  Royal,  and  the  territory  of  Acadia.  An  earnest  peti- 
tion was  now  made  to  Queen  Anne,  to  terminate  this  "consuming  war"  of 
little  less  than  twenty  years'  duration,  by  the  final  conquest  of  all  the  French 
possessions.  All  the  northern  states  joined  in  raising  and  equipping  troops, 
and  agents  were  sent  over  to  urge  the  co-operation  of  the  English  government. 
Their  application  was  successful,  and  a  fleet  of  six  English  ships  appeared  in 
the  harbour  of  Boston,  which,  with  a  considerable  force  raised  by  the  colonists, 
proceeded,  under  the  command  of  Nicholson,  to  invest  Port  Royal,  which  was 
in  no  condition  to  offer  a  protracted  resistance.  The  French  were  obliged  to 
capitulate,  and  the  conquered  fortress,  in  honour  of  the  English  queen,  receiv- 
ed the  name  of  Annapolis,  which  it  has  ever  since  retained.  Nicholson,  flushed 
with  success,  now  returned  to  England,  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  obtain 
from  government  the  means  for  effecting  a  more  important  triumph.  A  fleet 
of  fifteen  ships  of  the  line,  conveying  five  regiments  of  Marlborough,  veteran 
troops,  were  shortly  afterwards  despatched  to  Boston.  The  plan  originally 
formed  for  a  simultaneous  attack  upon  Canada  by  land  and  sea  was  now 
renewed.  A  body  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  raised  by  New  York,  Connecticut, 
and  New  Jersey,  was  assembled  at  Albany  under  the  command  of  Nicholson, 
with  five  hundred  Indian  allies,  to  march  on  Montreal;  while  the  fleet,  with 
seven  thousand  men  on  board,  proceeded  to  invest  Quebec. 

Intelligence  of  this  expected  attack  soon  reached  Quebec,  where  prepara- 
tions were  made  for  a  determined  resistance.  The  inhabitants  were  daily  on 
the  stretch  for  the  appearance  of  the  formidable  "armament,  which  however  was 
never  destined  to  arrive.  The  fleet,  commanded  by  Sir  Hovenden  Walker, 
while  ascending  the  St.  Lawrence,  became  entangled  one  thick  night  among 
some  shoals  and  islands.  The  pilots  advised  one  course,  the  obstinate  admiral 
another,  and  he  was  yet  disputing  with  an  officer  on  board,  when  the  cry  of 
"breakers"  was  heard,  and  it  was  only  by  putting  his  ship  about  instantly 
that  she  narrowly  escaped.  As  soon  as  daylight  appeared,  it  was  ascertained 
that  eight  of  the  vessels  had  been  lost,  and  nearly  a  thousand  men  had 
perished.  The  admiral  hereupon  immediately  set  sail  for  England,  leaving 
the  colonial  vessels  to  return  to  Boston. 

The  second  intercolonial  war  terminated  by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  the  terms 
of  which  were  advantageous  as  regards  America,  conceding  to  her  entire 
possession  of  Hudson  Bay  and  the  fur  trade,  the  supremacy  in  the  Newfound- 
land fisheries,  and  the  territory  of  Acadia,  which  now  received  the  name  of 
Nova  Scotia. 

While  the  war  thus  terminated  was  yet  in  progress,  internal  disturbances  of 
a  serious  nature  had  broken  out  in  Carolina.  The  Tuscarora  Indians,  re- 
senting the  advance  of  a  body  of  German  emigrants  upon  their  hunting 
grounds,  seized  and  burned  the  surveyor  under  whose  authority  the  lands 
had  been  appointed,  and  commenced  an  exterminating  attack  upon  the  strag- 


A.  D. 1724. 


198  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  gling  settlers.  The  inhabitants  of  North  Carolina,  divided  among  themselves 
by  political  feuds,  did  not  at  first  repel  these  aggressions  with  vigour,  but  with 
the  arrival  of  succours  from  South  Carolina,  the  war  was  carried  on  with  in- 
discriminating  revenge,  and  many  Indians,  guiltless  of  participation  in  the 
attack  upon  the  whites,  were  carried  off  as  slaves.  The  conflict  terminated 
in  the  usual  way,  the  Tuscaroras  were  driven  from  their  old  forests,  and  took 
refuge  with  the  Five  Nations,  and  their  vacated  lands  were  thrown  open  to 
the  onward  advance  of  the  whites. 

Although  peace  was  now  established,  the  uncertainty  of  the  line  of  frontier 
kindled  disputes  with  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies,  which  led  to  bloody 
acts  of  mutual  hostility.  The  territory  between  the  Kennebec  and  St.  Croix 
rivers  was,  in  pursuance  of  the  late  treaty,  claimed  by  Massachusetts,  and 
New  England  settlers  and  traders  had  re-established  themselves  within  its 
confines.  The  Abenaki  Indians,  on  being  informed  by  the  governor  of 
Canada  that  no  direct  cession  of  their  country  had  been  made  by  treaty,  re- 
solved to  maintain  their  ground,  in  which  patriotic  determination  they  were 
encouraged  by  the  Catholic  missionaries.  The  venerable  Sebastian  Rasles 
had  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  laboured  among  them,  display- 
ing all  the  best  virtues  of  his  order,  and  a  village  and  chapel  had  grown  up  in  the 
midst  of  the  forest.  As  to  his  influence  over  the  Indians  was  attributed  their 
persevering  determination  to  maintain  their  right  to  the  soil,  the  seizure 
of  his  person  accordingly  became  an  object  of  the  English ;  and  after  many 
acts  of  hostility,  an  attempt  was  made  to  surprise  him,  but  he  succeeded  in 
making  his  escape.  Another  secret  expedition,  animated  at  once  by  the  de- 
sire of  acquiring  fresh  territory,  and  of  destroying  French  and  Catholic 
influence,  was  shortly  afterwards  organized  for  the  same  purpose.  A  party 
from  New  England,  emulating  the  bloody  exploits  of  Hertel  de  Rouville, 
stole  through  the  woods  to  the  village  of  Norridgewock,  a  village  then  sur- 
rounded by  a  stockade,  and  containing  a  Catholic  chapel  and  the  dwelling- 
houses  of  Rasles  and  his  converts.  They  advanced  in  profound  silence,  but 
one  of  the  Indians  having  given  the  alarm,  some  fifty  or  sixty  ran  forward  to 
meet  the  invaders,  and  cover  the  retreat  of  the  aged  and  defenceless.  They 
hastily  discharged  their  guns  at  the  English,  who  replied  by  a  murderous  volley, 
which  put  the  Indians  to  the  rout.  The  village  and  church  were  soon  wrapt 
in  flames,  and  an  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  Indians  took  place.  The  poor 
priest  fell  with  his  slaughtered  flock,  either  shot  down  as  he  ran  forward  to 
draw  upon  himself  the  vengeance  of  the  invaders,  or,  what  is  more  improba- 
ble, while  defending  himself  from  his  own  house.  As  soon  as  the  perpetrators 
of  this  outrage  had  retired,  the  Indians  returned  to  the  desolated  village, 
and  their  first  care,  while  the  women  sought  plants  and  herbs  proper  to  heal 
the  wounded,  was  to  shed  tears  over  the  corpse  of  their  beloved  missionary. 
They  found  him  pierced  with  shot,  his  scalp  taken  off,  his  skull  fractured 
with  hatchets,  his  mouth  and  eyes  filled  with  dirt,  the  bones  of  his  legs 
broken,  and  his  body  shockingly  mutilated.  This  barbarous  spirit  was  en- 
couraged by  a  premium  of  a  hundred  pounds  for  every  Indian  scalp,  and  on 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  199 

such  terms,  one  John  Lovewell  soon  succeeded  in  raising  a  company  of  hunt-   chap. 

ers,  and  carried  on  his  operations  with  some  success,  displaying  in  triumphal 

procession  the  scalps  he  had  taken,  elevated  on  lofty  poles,  but  at  length  met 
with  that  doom  which  so  often  overtakes  the  shedder  of  blood.  While  hunt- 
ing the  Indians,  he  was  himself  surprised  and  shot  with  several  of  his  con- 
federate scalp-hunters,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Fry,  the  chaplain  of  Andover, 
who  had  himself  killed  and  scalped  an  Indian  in  the  heat  of  the  action.  The 
Indians  retorted  by  burning  frontier  villages  and  farms.  This  dispute,  which 
had  well  nigh  involved  all  the  northern  colonies  and  Indians  in  a  fresh  war  of 
mutual  extermination,  was  at  length  found  to  be  so  unprofitable  to  both 
parties  that  they  gladly  agreed  to  a  peace.  Every  such  struggle  however 
had  but  the  same  result,  that  of  gradually  operating  the  extermination  of  the 
weaker  party,  and  opening  their  country  to  the  further  advance  of  the 
white  men. 

The  third  intercolonial  war  originated  in  the  endeavour,  on  the  part  of 
Spain,  to  maintain  that  jealous  system  of  colonial  monopoly,  which  she  had 
adopted  in  its  utmost  rigour,  and  in  which  she  was  imitated,  with  less  stringency, 
by  the  French  and  English.  The  latter  had  acquired  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht 
the  privilege  of  transporting  a  certain  number  of  slaves  annually  to  the 
Spanish  colonies,  under  cover  of  which  a  wide- spread  system  of  smug- 
gling had  been  introduced,  against  which  the  Spaniards  vainly  sought  to 
protect  themselves  by  the  establishment  of  revenue  cruisers.  Some  of  these 
Spanish  vessels  had  attacked  English  ships  engaged  in  lawful  traffic,  and  had 
committed  several  instances  of  barbarity,  which  had  greatly  moved  the  popu- 
lar indignation,  and  excited  a  clamour  for  war,  to  which  the  minister  was 
reluctantly  obliged  to  consent. 

Shortly  before  the  breaking  out  of  this  war,  a  new  colony  had  been  found- 
ed in  the  south,  which  became  speedily  involved  in  hostilities.  Carolina 
had  originated  in  the  desire  of  selfish  aggrandizement ;  the  adjacent  one  of 
Georgia,  the  last  colony  founded  before  the  revolution,  had  its  rise  in  a 
feeling  of  benevolence,  and  Non  sibi  sed  allis  was  appropriately  selected  for 
its  motto.  James  Oglethorpe,  a  young  gentleman  of  family  and  fortune,  a 
soldier  and  a  scholar,  at  an  age  when  his  class  are  usually  absorbed  in  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure,  had  already  distinguished  himself  for  his  zeal  against  in- 
carceration for  debt,  and  for  mitigating  the  horrors  of  imprisonment.  To  provide 
an  asylum  for  those  whom  he  had  rescued  from  the  jails,  as  well  as  other  de- 
stitute persons,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  foundation  of  a  new  colony, 
obtained  the  co-operation  of  many  persons  of  rank,  from  parliament  a  charter 
of  incorporation  together  with  a  pecuniary  grant,  still  further  increased  by 
liberal  contributions  from  the  nobility  and  clergy,  who  had  become  warmly 
interested  in  the  success  of  so  benevolent  a  plan.  Statesmen  and  merchants 
were  attracted  by  considerations  of  policy  and  interest;  the  new  colony  would 
interpose  a  barrier  between  Carolina  and  the  Spanish  settlements,  and  its  soil 
was  said  to  be  admirably  adapted  for  the  production  of  silk. 

Oglethorpe   determined  to  superintend  the  planting  of  his   colony.     And 


200  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  with  thirty-five  families,  a  clergyman,  and  a  silk  cultivator,  on  Nov.  17, 1732,  set 

— -  sail  from  Deptford,  and  after  touching  at  Charleston,  where  he  and  his  company 

to  1*736.  were  hospitably  entertained  and  assisted,  soon  landed  on  the  shores  of  his  new 
province.  On  ascending  the  Savannah  river,  a  pine-covered  hill,  somewhat 
elevated  above  its  level  shores,  was  fixed  upon  as  the  seat  of  the  capital,  which 
was  laid  out  in  broad  avenues  and  open  squares.  During  these  operations 
Oglethorpe  pitched  his  tent  under  a  canopy  of  lofty  pine  trees.  He  found 
the  spot,  on  his  arrival,  occupied  by  a  small  body  of  the  Creek  Indians,  who 
were  easily  induced  to  surrender  it,  and  to  yield  to  the  settlers  an  ample  ex- 
tent of  territory.  A  deputy  of  the  Cherokees  also  made  his  appearance  at 
Savannah.  Fear  nothing,  but  speak  freely,  said  Oglethorpe  to  him,  on  his 
entry.  I  always  speak  freely,  replied  the  Indian ;  why  should  I  fear  '{  I  am 
now  among  friends.  I  never  feared  even  among  my  enemies.  The  Choctas 
also,  complaining  of  French  encroachment,  shortly  afterwards  solicited  a  treaty 
of  commerce  with  the  new  settlers. 

The  English  settlers,  the  sweepings  of  the  jails,  were  not  the  most  favourable 
class  with  which  to  plant  a  new  colony,  but  as  the  fame  of  Oglethorpe  and 
Georgia  was  spread  abroad,  it  speedily  received  an  accession  of  a  more  valu- 
able character.  Among  these  were  a  body  of  German  Lutherans,  who,  ex-# 
posed  to  persecution  at  home,  obtained  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  the 
English  parliament,  who  furnished  the  means  for  enabling  them  to  emigrate. 
Headed  by  their  ministers,  they  left  the  home  of  their  fathers  on  foot 
and  walked  to  Rotterdam,  their  place  of  embarkation,  chanting  as  they  went, 
hymns  of  thanksgiving  for  their  deliverance.  They  touched  at  Dover,  where 
they  had  an  interview  with  their  English  patrons ;  and  on  reaching  Georgia, 
formed  at  a  distance  above  Savannah  a  settlement,  piously  called  Ebenezer, 
where  they  were  shortly  after  joined  by  other  members  of  their  community. 
To  these  shortly  afterwards  were  added  several  Moravians,  the  disciples  of 
Count  Zinzendorf.  A  company  of  destitute  Jews  had  also  been  furnished 
by  some  of  their  wealthier  brethren  with  the  means  of  emigrating  to  Georgia, 
where,  though  discouraged  by  the  trustees,  they  were  allowed  to  establish 
themselves  in  peace. 

Oglethorpe  now  returned  to  England,  carrying  with  him  some  of  the  In- 
dian chiefs,  who  on  his  arrival  were  presented  to  his  Majesty,  feasted  by  the 
nobility,  and  loaded  with  presents  to  a  large  amount.  They  remained  four 
months,  and  on  their  embarkation  at  Gravesend  were  conveyed  to  that  port 
in  one  of  the  royal  carriages.  Gratified  by  the  kindness  of  their  entertain- 
ment, and  the  general  interest  they  had  excited,  they  swore,  on  their  departure, 
eternal  fidelity  to  the  British  nation.  By  means  of  a  parliamentary  grant, 
another  valuable  accession  to  the  colony  was  made  in  1736,  consisting  of  a 
large  body  of  Scotch  Highlanders,  who  founded  a  colony  called  New  Inver- 
ness. Oglethorpe  himself  returned  with  these  settlers,  and  was  accompanied 
by  two  young  clergymen,  whose  names  have  since  become  famous  wherever  the 
English  tongue  is  spoken.  These  were  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  educated 
at  Oxford,  and  as  yet  conformists  to  that .  church  from  which,  unable  to  effect 


HISTCRY    OF    AMERICA.  201 

the  reformation  they  desired,  they  afterwards  led  away  so  vast  a  secession,  chap. 
Charles  was  appointed  secretary  to  Oglethorpe,  while  John  was  chosen  the  -  1736 
parish  minister  of  Savannah,  where  however  he  soon  became  involved  in  dif-  t0  1742- 
ficulties,  which  ultimately  drove  him  from  the  colony.  He  had  been  led  into 
an  attachment  to  a  young  lady,  whose  piety  at  first  appeared  unquestionable, 
but  proving  upon  further  experiment  less  ardent  than  was  exacted  by  the  en- 
thusiastic temper  of  Wesley  and  his  religious  associates,  he  had  been  led  by 
principle  to  break  off  the  connexion,  and  the  lady  shortly  after  married  another 
person.  Becoming  now  more  "  worldly  "  than  before,  she  was  refused  admission 
to  the  Lord's  supper  by  her  former  lover,  as  unfit  to  partake  of  that  solemnity, 
an  exclusion  for  which  her  husband  brought  a  suit  and  obtained  damages. 
Wesley,  charged  beside  with  other  abuses  of  authority,  and  finding  the  public 
feeling  running  high  against  him,  "  shook  off  the  dust  of  his  feet,"  and  re- 
turned to  England,  disgusted  with  a  country  where  his  principles  were  des- 
tined to  acquire  a  wide-spread  influence,  but  which  he  never  afterwards 
personally  revisited. 

The  towns  of  Frederica  and  Augusta  were  now  founded,  and  the  trading 
part  of  the  English  pushed  nearer  to  the  frontiers  of  the  Spaniards,  with  whom 
hostilities  were  then  pending.  Oglethorpe  had  acquired  the  veneration  of 
all  classes  by  his  benevolent  labours,  "  nobly  devoting  all  his  powers  to  serve 
the  poor,  and  rescue  them  from  their  wretchedness;"  and  no  less  was  his 
vigour  displayed  in  the  defence  of  his  beloved  colony.  Though  he  himself 
possessed  no  share  of  its  territory,  he  determined  to  shelter  it,  if  needful,  with 
his  life.  "  To  me,"  he  said  to  Charles  Wesley,  "  death  is  nothing.  If  separate 
spirits  regard  our  little  concerns,  they  do  it  as  men  regard  the  follies  of  their 
childhood."  He  returned  to  England,  raised  and  disciplined  a  regiment,  and 
returned  to  Savannah,  where  he  was  received  with  an  enthusiastic  welcome. 

Soon  afterwards  the  war,  signalized  by  the  voyage  of  Anson  and  the 
disasters  of  Vernon,  broke  out.  Oglethorpe,  after  an  unsuccessful  siege  of 
the  neighbouring  city  of  St.  Augustine,  returned  to  defend  his  own  colony, 
which  was  menaced  with  invasion  by  the  Spaniards.  He  succeeded  in  re- 
pelling a  formidable  attack  upon  Frederica,,  which  had  inspired  the  greatest 
apprehensions  in  Charleston.  Notwithstanding  these  successes,  Oglethorpe 
found  the  government  of  his  newly-founded  colony  any  thing  but  an  easy  task, 
and  was  destined  to  experience  no  small  share  of  meanness  and  ingratitude. 
The  colonists  first  sent  over  Thomas  Stevens  as  their  agent  to  England,  laden 
with  complaints  against  the  trustees  in  general,  which  having  been  duly  ex- 
amined by  the  House  of  Commons,  were  pronounced  to  be  "  false,  scandalous, 
and  malicious."  Oglethorpe  himself  was  next  cited  to  appear  in  England  to 
answer  charges  brought  against  his  character,  which  he  so  effectually  suc- 
ceeded in  vindicating,  that  his  accuser,  who  was  his  own  lieutenant-colonel, 
was  deprived  of  his  commission.  He  never  afterwards  returned  to  Georgia. 
His  name,  which  no  malevolence  could  ever  stain  with  baseness,  will  ever 
stand  conspicuous  among  the  noble  spirits  who  have  laboured  for  the  ameli- 
oration of  their  species. 

2  D 


202 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.D.I  745. 


c  h^a  p.        The  French  soon  afterwards  became  involved  in  the  war,  and  the  northern 
frontier  became  a  third  time  the  scene  of  hostilities. 

After  the  cession  of  Acadia  to  the  English,  the  French  had  expended  vast 
sums  in  the  erection  of  the  fortress  of  Louisburg,  on  the  island  of  Cape 
Breton,  which  soon  became  a  stronghold  for  numerous  privateers,  that  inflicted 
severe  injuries  on  the  commerce  and  fisheries  of  New  England.  To  effect  its 
reduction  was  therefore  of  the  most  vital  importance,  yet  the  attempt  might 
well  have  appeared  all  but  desperate.  The  walls  of  the  fortress,  surrounded 
with  a  moat,  were  prodigiously  strong,  and  furnished  with  nearly  two 
hundred  pieces  of  cannon.  A  body  of  prisoners,  however,  who,  having  been 
seized  at  the  English  settlement  of  Canso  and  carried  to  Louisburg,  were 
allowed  to  return  to  Boston  on  parole,  disclosed  the  important  fact  that  the 
garrison  was  both  weak  and  disaffected.  Shirley,  the  governor,  proposed  to 
the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  to  attempt  its  reduction,  a  proposal  carried 
by  only  a  single  vote.  The  northern  States,  invited  to  co-operate  against 
the  common  enemy,  furnished  some  small  supplies  of  men  and  money,  but 
the  chief  burden  fell  upon  Massachusetts  itself.  The  enthusiasm  of  her  citi- 
zens was  enkindled  by  religious  zeal  as  well  as  commercial  interest — all 
classes  offered  themselves  as  volunteers,  from  the  hardy  woodman  of  the  in- 
terior, to  the  intrepid  fisherman  of  the  coast.  Whitefield,  then  on  a  preaching 
excursion  through  the  northern  colonies,  gave  as  a  motto  for  the  flag,  "  With 
Christ  as  a  leader,  nothing  is  to  be  despaired  of,"  and  sermons  were  preached 
to  maintain  the  popular  excitement  at- the  highest  pitch. 

Ten  vessels  shortly  sailed  from  Boston  with  a  body  of  more  than  three 
thousand  men,  and  after  a  few  days'  sail  reached  Canso,  where  they  were  to 
await  the  melting  of  the  ice  and  the  arrival  of  further  succours.  Most  for- 
tunately  they  were  here  joined  by  four  English  ships  of  war,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Warren,  who  at  the  solicitation  of  Shirley  had  been  ordered 
to  co-operate  zealously  with  the  expedition.  Over  the  New  England  arma- 
ment was  William  Pepperell,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Maine,  but  who  had  no 
further  knowledge  of  military  affairs  than  he  had  obtained  by  commanding  the 
militia.  On  the  morning  of  the  last  day  of  April,  the  squadron  arrived  off 
Louisburg,  the  troops  were  landed  in  spite  of  opposition,  and  the  siege  was 
carried  on  with  all  the  energy  of  courage  and  enthusiasm,  though  uninstructed 
and  inexperienced  in  the  art  of  war.  Cannon  were  dragged  through  morasses, 
and  batteries  established  in  an  irregular  sort  of  way,  but  no  impression  was 
made  upon  the  works,  and  after  the  first  outburst  of  excitement  was  spent,  the 
most  sanguine  were  compelled  to  admit  that  the  place  seemed  all  but  impregna- 
ble, and  that  the  campaign  promised  to  be  both  long  and  arduous.  Happily  the 
greatest  friends  of  the  besiegers  were  a  discontented  garrison  and  embarrassed 
governor,  whose  supplies  had  been  already  cut  off  by  the  vigilance  of  the  Eng- 
lish fleet,  that  now  succeeded  in  capturing,  under  his  very  eyes,  a  ship  of  war 
sent  to  his  relief.  To  hold  out  longer  with  any  chance  of  success  was  impossible, 
and  on  the  17th,  he  accordingly  surrendered.  This  important  capture  was  look- 
ed on  by  the  pious  New  Englanders  as  "  a  remarkable  providence,"  and  caused 


I. 

A.  D. 1747. 


HISTOHY   OF    AMERICA.  203 

great  rejoicings  at  Boston.  The  enterprise  indeed  was  all  their  own,  though  chap. 
its  success  had  been  materially  promoted  by  succours  from  the  mother  coun- 
try, where  their  energy  and  prowess  were  honourably  recognised,  not  without 
some  slight  tincture  of  jealous  apprehensions  for  the  future.  Pepper  ell  re- 
ceived the  honour  of  an  English  Baronetcy,  and  Shirley  received  a  commis- 
sion as  Colonel  in  the  British  army. 

The  fall  of  Louisburg  was  no  sooner  known  in  Paris  than  a  formidable 
armament  was  despatched  from  the  shores  of  France  for  its  recapture,  as  well 
as  that  of  Acadia  itself.  It  was  commanded  by  M.  D'Anville,  an  able  and 
experienced  officer,  but  was  scattered  by  a  succession  of  disasters,  and  return- 
ed home  without  accomplishing  its  object.  A  second  fleet  which  was  de- 
spatched on  the  same  errand,  was  encountered  and  captured  by  a  British 
squadron  under  Admirals  Anson  and  "Warren. 

This  fortress,  however,  which  the  arms  of  France  had  been  unable  to  retain 
or  recapture,  was  shortly  afterwards  restored  to  its  former  possessors  at  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  to  the  deep  mortification  of  the  New  Englanders. 
Some  amends  however  were  made  by  the  payment  to  them  of  an  indemnity 
by  the  British  government  for  the  expenses  they  had  incurred  in  the  ex- 
pedition. 

Shortly  before  the  peace,  occurred  an  incident  which  conspicuously  dis- 
played the  spirit  of  the  people  of  Boston.  Commodore  Knowles,  then  off  that 
city  with  his  fleet,  having  lost  several  of  his  men  by  desertion,  proceeded  to  fill 
up  their  room  by  a  summary  and  cruel  process  of  impressment,  which  at  that 
time  was  universally  resorted  to  in  England.  Sending  some  of  his  boats  up  to 
Boston,  he  seized  from  the  wharves,  as  well  as  vessels,  as  many  persons,  lands- 
men and  seamen,  as  his  necessities  happened  to  require.  This  proceed- 
ing, unheard  of  in  the  colonies,  created  an  intense  excitement.  A  mob  of 
several  thousand  people  immediately  collected,  and  besieged  the  town -house, 
where  the  council  was  then  in  session,  with  a  storm  of  stones  and  brickbats. 
In  vain  did  Governor  Shirley  come  forth  upon  the  balcony,  and  with  a  dis- 
avowal of  the  outrage,  and  a  promise  to  obtain  redress,  endeavour  to  calm  the 
exasperated  feelings  of  the  populace — they  seized  upon  the  officers  of  the  ship, 
who  happened  to  be  on  shore  at  the  time,  and  detained  them  as  hostages  for 
the  ransom  of  their  fellow  citizens.  The  governor  earnestly  entreated  Knowles 
to  give  up  the  impressed  seamen,  in  reply  to  which  he  offered  to  land  a  body 
of  mariners  to  support  the  governor,  and  threatened  to  bombard  the  town 
unless  the  tumult  was  appeased.  The  excitement  continually  increased,  and 
the  militia,  who  were  called  out  next  day,  evincing  a  sympathy  with  the 
mob,  Shirley,  considering  himself  in  personal  danger,  retired  from  the  town  to 
the  castle,  situated  on  an  island  in  the  neighbouring  bay,  a  retreat  which  the 
more  zealous  of  the  mob  began  to  consider  equal  to  an  abdication.  As  mat- 
ters had  now  reached  an  alarming  pitch,  the  leading  members  of  society,  who 
had  fully  concurred  in  the  movement,  began  to  think  that  it  was  time  to  check 
it,  and  assembling  in  town  meeting,  declared  their  intention,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  yielded  to  none  in  a  sense  of  the  outrage  committed  by  Knowles,  to 

2  d  2 


A.  D. 1747. 


204  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  stand  by  the  governor  and  executive,  and  to  suppress  this  threatening  tumult, 
which  they  attributed  to  "  negroes  and  persons  of  vile  condition."  Meanwhile 
Knowlcs,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  governor,  consented  to  return  most 
of  the  men  he  had  impressed,  and  shortly  afterwards  departed  with  his  fleet, 
while  Shirley,  returning  to  Boston,  was  escorted  to  his  house  with  every 
honour  by  the  same  militia,  who  but  a  day  or  two  before  had  refused  to  obey 
his  instructions.  In  his  report  of  this  rebellious  insurrection,  he  ascribes  the 
"  mobbish  turn  of  a  town  inhabited  by  twenty  thousand  people,  to  its  constitu- 
tion, by  which  the  management  of  it  devolves  on  the  populace  assembled  in 
their  town  meetings." 

Thus,  for  the  present,  terminated  the  struggle  between  France  and  Eng- 
land on  the  continent  of  North  America.  It  was  however  but  a  temporary 
truce,  for  the  disputes  concerning  the  boundaries  alone  contained  the  seed  of 
future  wars,  which  could  only  end  with  the  absolute  ascendency  of  the 
strongest  party.  The  conquest  of  Canada  had  become  the  favourite  scheme  both 
of  the  English  government  and  the  northern  colonies  ;  an  object  not  to  be 
_  accomplished  in  less  than  several  campaigns,  in  which  the  blood  and  treasure 
of  France  and  England  were  freely  squandered,  and  in  which  success  alter- 
nated with  either  party,  until  the  dispute  was  finally  decided  by  the  memor- 
able encounter  upon  the  heights  of  Quebec. 


ii. 


a.  d.: 


CHAPTER  II. 


GENERAL  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONIES  DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  INTERCOLONIAL  ■WARS.  — 
MASSACHUSETTS.  —  NEW  YORK.— PENNSYLVANIA.  —  VIRGINIA.  —  THE  CAROLINAS.  —  GEORGIA.  — 
LOUISIANA. 

chap.        We  now  proceed  to  give  a  view  of  the  general  progress  and  political  con- 


dition of  the  colonies  during  the  intercolonial  wars.  While  the  provisional 
government  that  followed  the  deposition  of  Andros  lasted,  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple in  Massachusetts  desired  the  restoration  of  their  original  charter,  but  the 
council  of  safety  held  out,  partly  for  fear  of  committing  themselves  with  the 
English  government,  and  partly  as  secretly  desiring  to  effect  certain  liberal 
modifications.  Mather  had  been  sent  over  to  England  as  agent  for  the  colony, 
and  with  him  was  associated  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  an  English  dissenter  of 
influence.  On  soliciting  at  court  a  restoration  of  the  charter,  they  were  at 
first  backed  by  the  parliament  itself,  but  the  fulfilment  of  their  desires  was 
baulked  by  the  ascendency  of  the  Tory  party.  William's  sense  of  prerogative 
was  as  high  as  that  of  his  predecessors,  and  the  crown  lawyers  maintained 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  205 

the  absolute  power  of  the  king  and  parliament  to  modify  at  will  the  govern-    chap. 

ment  of  the  colonies,  unless  when  a  special  legal  provision  existed  against  it. . 

However  doubtful  might  be  this  pretension  in  the  abstract,  it  was  in  the  pre-  A' D' 1<592' 
sent  instance  the  cause  of  the  political  foundation  of  the  colony  being  laid 
more  broadly  and  securely  than  before.  When  Sir  William  Phipps,  in  1692, 
returned  as  governor  bearing  with  him  a  new  charter,  it  was  found  to  contain 
very  considerable  modifications,  of  which  the  most  important  was  the  alter- 
ation of  the  right  of  suffrage,  which  had  proved  the  bone  of  contention  ever 
since  the  foundation  of  the  State.  This  privilege  was  now  no  longer  to  be 
confined  to  orthodox  church  members,  but  upon  all  freeholders  whatsoever 
to  the  annual  value  of  forty  shillings.  Toleration  was  also  expressly  secured 
to  all  except  Papists.  Politically  speaking,  therefore,  the  power  of  the  theo- 
cratic party,  under  whose  stern  rule  the  commonwealth  had  grown  up,  was 
now  come  to  an  end,  although,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  they  long  continued 
to  exercise  a  preponderating  influence  upon  the  public  mind  of  the  colony. 

By  this  charter  the  province  acquired  a  great  increase  of  territory.  Its  ju- 
risdiction extended  over  Plymouth,  Maine,  and  Nova  Scotia  ;  New  Hamp- 
shire being  excluded.  The  people  as  before  were  to  elect  the  council  of 
representatives,  but  the  nomination  of  the  governor  and  chief  officers  was 
reserved  to  the  crown. 

The  royal  governors  of  Massachusetts  often  experienced  no  little  difficulty 
in  dealing  with  a  people  so  doggedly  tenacious  of  popular  rights.  Under  the 
administration  of  Colonel  Shute,  a  quarrel  arose  between  the  advocates  of  a 
public  and  private  bank,  in  which  the  governor  sided  with  the  former, 
and  thus  exposed  himself  to  the  virulent  opposition  of  the  advocates  of  the 
latter.  This  party,  enjoying  a  majority,  elected  their  leader,  a  man  par- 
ticularly obnoxious  to  Shute,  to  the  post  of  speaker ;  the  governor  interposed 
his  veto,  and,  the  house  persisting  in  its  choice  on  the  ground  that  the  charter 
gave  to  the  governor  no  express  authority  for  such  an  act,  he  at  once  dissolved 
them.  The  people  returned  nearly  the  same  men,  who,  while  they  chose 
another  speaker,  protested  boldly  against  the  governor's  act,  and  voted  him  a 
diminished  salary.  The  governor  then  informed  them  that  he  was  instructed 
by  the  king  to  recommend  the  appointment  of  a  regular  and  competent 
salary,  a  request  which  they  continued  to  evade  through  several  sessions, 
until  Shute,  finding  his  situation  intolerable,  privately  returned  to  England, 
loud  in  his  complaints  against  the  factious  temper  of  the  colonists,  and  their 
disposition  to  encroach  upon  the  royal  prerogative  until  it  would  become  at 
last  no  better  than  nominal.  The  same  controversy  was  renewed  under  the 
governorship  of  his  successor,  Burnet,  who  had  been  removed  hither  from  New 
York.  His  demand  for  a  permanent  salary  which  should  confer  on  him  inde- 
pendence and  dignity  was  evaded,  although  the  assembly  voted  liberally  for  a 
present  supply.  The  dispute,  again  prolonged  through  several  sessions,  remain- 
ed unadjusted.  A  memorial  was  sent  over  to  the  king  by  the  assembly,  justi- 
fying their  conduct,  and  the  matter  was  referred  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  who, 
after  hearing  advocates  for  both  parties,  condemned  the  assembly,  and  in  their 


206  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  concluding  report  to  the  king,  press  upon  him  the  necessity  of  vigorously 
— — - —  restraining  the  growing  power  of  the  colonists. 

"  The  inhabitants,"  say  the  Board,  "  far  from  making  suitable  returns  to  his 
Majesty,  for  the  extraordinary  privileges  they  enjoy,  are  daily  endeavouring 
to  wrest  the  small  remains  of  power  out  of  the  hands  of  the  crown,  and  to  be- 
come independent  of  the  mother  kingdom.  The  nature  of  the  soil  and  pro- 
ducts are  much  the  same  with  Great  Britain,  the  inhabitants  upwards  of 
ninety-four  thousand,  and  their  militia,  consisting  of  sixteen  regiments  of 
foot  and  fifteen  troops  of  horse,  in  the  year  1718,  fifteen  thousand  men ;  and 
by  a  medium  taken  from  the  naval  officers'  accounts  for  three  years,  from  the 
24th  of  June,  1714,  to  the  24th  of  June,  1717,  for  the  ports  of  Boston  and 
Salem  only,  it  appears  that  the  trade  of  this  country  employs  continually  no 
less  than  three  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-three  sailors,  and  four 
hundred  and  ninety-two  ships,  making  twenty-five  thousand  four  hundred 
and  six  tons.  Hence  your  Excellencies  will  be  apprized  of  what  importance 
it  is  to  his  Majesty's  service,  that  so  powerful  a  colony  should  be  restrained 
within  due  bounds  of  obedience  to  the  crown ;  which,  we  conceive,  cannot 
effectually  be  done  without  the  interposition  of  the  British  legislature,  wherein, 
in  our  humble  opinion,  no  time  should  be  lost." 

The  passing  of  the  Molasses  Act,  in  1733,  is  worthy  of  remark  as  being  the 
first  instance  in  which  the  claim  of  England  to  regulate  the  external  commerce 
of  the  colonies  was  asserted  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  which,  but  a  few  years 
later,  produced  a  general  convulsion.  The  people  of  New  England  having 
established  a  manufacture  of  rum  from  molasses  imported  from  the  West 
Indies,  which  interfered  with  the  trade  of  those  islands,  a  duty  was  imposed 
by  parliament  upon  imports  received  thence  by  the  colonists.  This  measure 
created  great  discontent,  and  an  inhabitant  of  Massachusetts  was  severely 
called  to  account  by  the  general  court  for  the  evidence  on  the  subject  which 
he  had  given  before  the  House  of  Commons — a  proceeding  which  was  warmly 
resented  by  that  body.  Besides  its  obvious  tendency  to  injure  colonial  com- 
merce, it  was  protested  against  as  divesting  the  colonists  of  their  rights  as 
Englishmen,  by  levying  taxes  upon  them  against  their  consent,  without  their 
possessing  any  representation  in  parliament.  This  act,  afterwards  regarded  as 
a  precedent  by  English  statesmen,  was  however  very  generally  evaded.  As 
the  colonists  continued  the  development  of  their  internal  resources,  and  new 
channels  of  foreign  commerce  opened  to  their  enterprise,  it  was  becoming 
more  and  more  the  general  feeling  that  such  restrictions  could  not  much 
longer  be  submitted  to,  although  as  yet  open  opposition  to  them  seems  not 
to  have  been  thought  of.  But  the  smouldering  fire  was  ready  to  burst  forth 
on  the  first  occasion  of  importance. 

In  New  York,  still  divided  into  the  Leislerian  and  anti-Leislerian  factions, 
the  administration  of  Fletcher,  who  had  succeeded  to  Slaughter,  was  intended 
to  carry  out  the  predominance  of  English  influence.  Fletcher  was  active  and 
energetic,  and  zealous  in  the  service  of  the  colony,  but  rash  and  passionate, 
the  firm  partisan  of  the  English  Church,  and  disposed  to  assert  the  absolute 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  £07 

supremacy  of  royal  power.  Even  the  aristocratic  party  itself  resisted  these  c  ha  p. 
despotic  tendencies,  and  passed  an  act  declaring  that  supreme  legislative 
power  belonged  to  the  governor  and  council,  and  to  the  people  through  their 
representatives,  and  that  no  tax  could  be  levied  without  their  consent, 
enactments  which  were  nevertheless  annulled  by  the  English  sovereign: 
A  plan  warmly  cherished  by  Fletcher  was  to  endow  the  English  Episcopal 
Church,  in  lieu  of  the  Dutch,  to  which  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  yet  re- 
mained warmly  attached.  Having  laid  the  subject  before  the  assembly,  they  so 
far  complied  as  to  pass  an  act  making  provision  for  certain  ministers,  the  choice 
of  whom  was  however  to  be  left  to  the  people  themselves.  The  council  made 
an  amendment,  that  the  approval  or  rejection  of  their  candidate  should  be  left 
with  the  governor,  but  the  assembly  refused  to  sanction  it.  Fletcher  was 
highly  indignant,  and  having  commanded  the  attendance  of  the  assembly, 
prorogued  them  in  a  speech  curiously  characteristic  both  of  the  man  himself, 
and  of  colonial  administration  in  general. 

"  Gentlemen,  There  is  also  a  bill  for  settling  a  ministry  in  this  city  and  some 
other  countries  of  the  government.  In  that  very  thing  you  have  showed  a 
great  deal  of  stiffness.  You  take  upon  you,  as  if  you  were  dictators.  I  sent 
down  to  you  an  amendment  of  three  or  four  words  in  that  bill,  which,  though 
very  immaterial,  yet  was  positively  denied ;  I  must  tell  you  it  seems  very  un- 
mannerly. There  never  was  an  amendment  yet  desired  by  the  council-board 
but  what  was  rejected.  It  is  the  sign  of  a  stubborn  ill  temper,  and  this  I  have 
also  passed."  Proceeding  then  to  remind  them  that  they  have  but  a  third 
share  in  the  government,  that  the  council  were  a  sort  of  upper  house,  and 
that  he  had  the  power  by  his  Majesty's  letters  patent  to  collate  or  suspend  at 
his  pleasure,  he  concludes  thus  sarcastically:  "You  have  sat  a  long  time  to 
little  purpose,  and  have  been  a  great  charge  to  the  country.  Ten  shillings 
a-day  is  a  large  allowance,  and  you  punctually  exact  it.  You  have  been 
always  forward  enough  to  pull  down  the  fees  of  other  ministers  in  the  govern- 
ment. Why  did  you  not  think  it  expedient  to  correct  your  own?  Gentle- 
men, I  shall  say  no  more  at  present,  but  that  you  do  withdraw  to  your  private 
affairs  in  the  country.  I  do  prorogue  you  to  the  tenth  of  January  next,  and 
you  are  hereby  prorogued  to  the  10th  day  of  January  next  ensuing." 

Nor  was  Fletcher  more  fortunate  with  the  stubborn  citizens  of  Connecticut, 
than  he  had  been  with  the  assembly  of  New  York.  The  English  government, 
bent  on  a  system  of  centralization,  desired  to  confer  the  command  of  the  Con- 
necticut militia  upon  the  governor  of  New  York,  a  plan  which  extorted  from 
the  inhabitants  of  the  former  State  a  spirited  protest  against  a  measure  inimical 
to  their  freedom  and  repugnant  to  their  charter.  This  memorial  they  despatch- 
ed to  England  by  the  hands  of  Winthrop,  but  Fletcher,  without  awaiting  an 
answer,  determined  to  carry  matters  with  the  high  hand  of  power.  Repairing 
therefore  to  the  small  town  of  Hartford,  where  the  Connecticut  assembly  was 
then  in  session,  he  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  overawe  that  body  into  an 
immediate  compliance  with  his  demands.  Declaring  that  he  would  not  set  his 
foot  out  of  the  province  till  his  Majesty's  orders  had  been  obeyed,  he  then 


208  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  ordered  the  trained  bands  to  be  assembled,  and  his  commission  to  be  read 

! to  them.     Captain  Wadsworth,  the  senior  captain,  walked  up  and  down, 

a. d.  1695.  ostensjbiy  engaged  in  exercising  his  men.  "Beat  the  drums,"  he  exclaim- 
ed, as  Fletcher's  officer  lifted  up  his  voice  to  read.  The  governor  commanded 
silence,  and  his  officer  prepared  to  read.  "  Drum,  drum,  I  say  again,"  vocifer- 
ated Wadsworth,  and  the  voice  of  the  reader  was  a  second  time  drowned  in 
the  discordant  roll.  "  Silence,"  passionately  exclaimed  Fletcher.  "  Drum, 
drum,  I  say,"  roared  Wadsworth  in  a  still  louder  key;  and  significantly  turn- 
ing to  Fletcher,  he  exclaimed,  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again  I  will  make  the 
sun  shine  through  you  in  a  moment."  The  angry  governor,  astounded  at  this 
display  of  spirit,  was  compelled  to  swallow  the  affront,  and  shortly  afterward 
Winthrop  returned  with  the  royal  concession,  that  on  ordinary  occasions,  at 
least,  the  command  of  the  local  militia  belonged  to  the  respective  States. 

If  Fletcher  was  rash,  arbitrary,  and  unsuccessful  in  moulding  the  public 
mind,  Lord  Bellamont,  who  succeeded  him  after  the  peace  of  Byswick,  and 
had  a  general  commission  to  preside  over  the  northern  colonies,  by  mildness, 
liberality,  and  conciliating  manners,  won  golden  opinions  from  all  ranks  of 
the  people.  While  in  England,  he  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  renewal  of 
Leisler's  attainder,  and  on  his  arrival  the  bones  of  that  unfortunate  man  and 
his  son-in-law  were  taken  up,  and  after  lying  some  days  in  state,  solemnly 
reinterred  in  the  Dutch  church,  while  an  indemnity  was  also  voted  to  their 
heirs.  Repairing  to  Boston,  Lord  Bellamont,  although  an  Episcopalian, 
by  his  courteous  and  respectful  treatment  of  the  theocratic  clergy,  and  occa- 
sionally attending  their  ministrations,  rendered  himself  exceedingly  popular, 
and  freely  obtained  a  larger  salary  than  any  preceding  governor  had  been 
allowed.  While  he  thus  became  personally  acceptable,  he  was  but  indifferently 
successful  in  the  special  objects  he  was  sent  out  to  accomplish.  Of  these  the 
principal  was  the  enforcement  of  conformity  to  the  acts  of  trade.  The  original 
establishment,  by  the  arbitrary  government  of  the  Stuarts,  of  these  obnoxious 
statutes,  together  with  their  successful  evasion,  has  been  already  described : 
they  were  now  enforced  by  a  new,  and  perhaps  more  formidable  authori*~ 
that  of  parliament  itself,  and  fortified  by  a  growing  commercial  jealousy  on 
the  part  of  the  English  mercantile  and  manufacturing  interest,  who  were  now 
acquiring  a  powerful  influence  over  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  At  the  earnest 
instances  of  this  body  a  permanent  commission  had  been  formed,  denominated 
"The  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations."  As  the  narrow  policy  of  commercial 
monopoly  was  at  that  time  universal,  and  the  doctrine  was  asserted  that  the 
colonies  existed  for  the  purpose  of  enriching  the  parent  state,  it  became  the 
business  of  this  commission  to  adopt  every  means  for  discouraging  manufac- 
tures in  the  colonies,  of  checking  the  freedom  of  their  commerce,  and  divert- 
ing its  profits  into  English  coffers.  In  New  York  all  attempts  to  enforce 
the  restrictions  had  been  vain,  and  the  Boston  merchants  loudly  expressed 
their  indignation  at  the  selfish  and  oppressive  enactments.  It  was  even 
asserted  that  the  colonists  were  not  bound  to  obey  laws  enacted  in  a  country 
where  they  had  no  representatives.     Although  some  temporizing  concessions 


A.  D.  1698. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  209 

were  made  by  Rhode  Island.     Bellamont  soon  found   himself  involved  in   chap. 
disputes    arising  out   of  this  subject,  which   were  only  terminated  by  his 
sudden  death. 

"With  a  view  to  the  suppression  of  piracy,  which  had  followed  in  the  train 
of  the  late  wars,  a  company  was  formed  in  which  both  the  king  and  the 
colonial  governor  were  partners,  for  the  recapture  of  piratical  vessels,  as  well 
as  the  second-hand  acquisition  of  their  ill-gotten  plunder.  The  command  of 
an  armed  vessel  for  this  purpose  was  conferred  on  William  Kidd,  a  New 
York  shipmaster ;  but  hardly  had  he  been  sent  to  sea,  when  he  turned  pirate 
himself,  contrived  to  engage  the  crew  in  his  schemes,  and  entered  upon  an  atro- 
cious career  of  murder  and  pillage.  One  of  Bellamont's  instructions  was,  if 
possible,  to  capture  Kidd,  who  for  three  years  evaded  all  pursuit.  Strange 
to  say,  however,  after  the  expiration  of  that  term,  wearied  or  disappointed,  he 
burned  his  ship,  buried  a  considerable  amount  of  treasure  on  Long  Island, 
and  ventured  openly  to  appear  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  where  he  was  recog- 
nised by  the  astonished  Bellamont,  and  being  sent  to  England,  terminated  his 
career  on  the  gallows.  Much  odium  was  naturally  attached  to  everybody 
implicated  in  this  adventure,  and  a  motion  was  made  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons that  all  concerned  in  it  should  be  deprived  of  their  employments, 
but  the  confession  of  Kidd  conclusively  showed  the  falsity  of  these  suspi- 
cions, by  its  denial  of  any  accomplices  in  his  crimes. 

To  the  amiable  Bellamont  succeeded  Lord  Cornbury,  a  grandson  of 
Clarendon,  sent  over  to  escape  his  creditors  ;  a  man  whose  imperious  in- 
solence and  unprincipled  rapacity  disgusted  even  the  aristocratic  party  who 
were  disposed  to  welcome  him  with  incense,  while  his  profligate  and  indecent 
manners  provoked  the  general  contempt.  No  one  could  possibly  have  been 
selected  better  fitted  to  unite  all  parties  in  determined  resistance  to  a  foreign 
yoke.  Accordingly  from  the  period  of  his  administration  the  spirit  of  popular 
liberty  made  rapid  progress  in  New  York. 

In  1741,  this  city  was  frightened  from  its  propriety  by  a  supposed  negro 
conspiracy.  Two  or  three  fires  happening  in  quick  succession,  were  at 
first  attributed  to  accident  alone,  but  when  the  number  increased  to  nine,  in 
almost  as  many  days,  popular  suspicion  was  awakened,  and  at  last  rested 
on  the  negroes,  who  formed  at  that  time  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  population. 
The  supreme  court,  at  its  ensuing  meeting,  strictly  enjoined  the  grand  jury 
to  prosecute  inquiries  as  to  the  incendiaries,  when  one  Mary  Burton,  servant 
to  a  low  fellow,  at  whose  house  the  negroes  met  to  indulge  in  debauchery, 
having  been  apprehended  on  suspicion,  and  moreover,  stimulated  by  an 
offered  reward  of  £100,  made  a  confession  the  very  absurdity  of  which  would 
have  demonstrated  its  falsehood,  had  the  public  prejudices  been  less  deeply 
rooted.  According  to  her  statement,  the  negroes  assembled  at  her  master's 
house  to  concert  measures  for  burning  the  city  and  exterminating  the  whites ; 
no  less  than  twenty  of  them  were  accustomed  to  meet  for  this  purpose,  and 
they  had  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  guns,  and  as  many  swords,  wherewith 
to  effect  their  bloody  purposes.     Fresh  informers  now  came  forward,  one  of 

2  £ 


A.  D. 1699. 


210  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  them  being  a  servant  in  prison  for  theft,  the  other  a  notorious  prostitute, 
and  upon  the  information  of  this  triumvirate,  many  negroes  were  thrown  into 
prison,  and,  like  those  accused  of  witchcraft,  terrified  into  false  and  incoherent 
confessions.  When  the  trial  came  on,  all  the  counsel  in  the  city  volunteered 
on  behalf  of  the  crown,  while  the  accused  were  left  to  defend  themselves. 
The  issue  could  hardly  be  doubtful,  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  negroes 
committed  to  prison,  fourteen  were  burned  at  the  stake,  eighteen  hanged, 
seventy-one  transported,  and  the  rest  discharged  for  want  of  even  such  evi- 
dence, slender  as  it  was,  as  had  sufficed  to  convict  their  brethren.  Among 
the  victims  was  a  Papist  schoolmaster,  said  to  be  a  priest  in  disguise,  and 
accused  of  stimulating  the  negroes  to  this  atrocious  plot.  He  had  been 
already  committed  under  the  act  against  Jesuits  and  Popish  priests,  and  was 
now  condemned  and  executed,  calling  upon  God  to  witness  his  innocence  of 
the  crime  attributed  to  him.  So  confident,  however,  were  the  people  of  its 
reality,  that  an  inhabitant  of  New  York  published  at  the  time  a  circumstantial 
account  of  the  conspiracy.  After  the  executions,  and  when  the  informers  be- 
gan to  inculpate  the  white  citizens,  a  reaction  began  to  take  place,  though  it 
was  long  before  the  public  mind  was  entirely  disabused  of  this  infatuation. 

The  progress  of  Pennsylvania  was  in  the  mean  time  rapid,  and  its  govern- 
ment became  still  more  democratic  in  form.  It  would  neither  be  easy  nor 
profitable  to  detail  the  disputes  that  arose  between  the  people  and  Penn  ; 
such  as,  while  human  nature  is  imperfect,  must  inevitably  spring  up  under 
similar  circumstances.  Penn  listened  favourably  to  the  jealous  demands  of 
his  people  for  a  still  further  control  over  the  political  affairs  of  the  province, 
but  their  treatment  of  his  proprietary  claims  occasioned  him  much  vexation  and 
annoyance.  He  had  expended  so  largely  from  his  private  fortune  as  to 
have  fallen  into  embarrassment,  yet  the  quit  rents  to  which  he  looked  for  a 
return  were  found  to  be  extremely  difficult  of  collection.  Unselfish  himself, 
he  was  deeply  pained  at  this  exhibition  of  selfishness  on  the  part  of  those  to 
whom  he  had  behaved  in  so  liberal  a  spirit.  The  fall  of  his  patron,  James 
II.,  and  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange,  naturally  exposed  him  to  much 
suspicion ;  he  was  repeatedly  imprisoned  on  the  charge  of  corresponding  with 
the  banished  monarch,  and  deprived  of  the  government  of  Pennsylvania. 
His  innocence  however  was  so  fully  established,  and  his  integrity  respected, 
that  he  was  soon  restored  to  his  rights,  and  in  1609,  after  an  absence  of  fifteen 
years,  revisited  his  beloved  colony.  He  found  it  rapidly  flourishing,  and  freely 
conceded  such  popular  reforms  as  were  required  of  him.  Although  he  did 
not  lift  up  his  voice  against  the  establishment  of  negro  slavery,  which  indeed 
he  had  no  power  to  prevent,  he  endeavoured  to  amend  the  moral  and  social 
condition  of  the  negroes,  by  proposing  a  bill  to  secure  to  them  the  rights  of 
legal  marriage  ;  and  although  he  was  defeated,  he  yet  persevered  in  inculcating 
a  spirit  which  eventually  led  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Pennsylvania  in 
about  half  a  century.  Quitting  Pennsylvania  for  the  last  time,  he  returned 
to  England,  where  his  latter  days  were  overclouded  with  embarrassments,  and 
harassed  by  pecuniary  disputes  with  his  distant  people.     Before  his  departure 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  211 

he  had  proposed  the  establishment  of  a  new  form  of  government,  and  in  1701,    chat. 
presented  one  which  was  accepted  by  the  assembly,  who  thereby  acquired  the 


right  of  originating  bills,  previously  vested  in  the  governor  alone,  and  of  to  i7so. 
rejecting  or  amending  any  that  might  be  laid  before  them.  He  was  at  length 
tempted  to  throw  up  a  load  too  heavy  for  him.  He  had  been  already  com- 
pelled to  mortgage  his  government  in  order  to  obtain  money,  and  he  now 
prepared  to  enter  into  a  contract  for  ceding  the  sovereignty  of  Pennsylvania  to 
Queen  Anne,  but  it  was  set  aside  by  an  attack  of  paralysis,  which  eventually, 
in  1717,  terminated  his  existence.  Beyond  the  reach  of  calumny  and  detrac- 
tion, the  clouds  that  had  obscured  his  fair  fame  were  now  dissipated,  his  great- 
ness of  character  and  singleness  of  purpose  were  universally  acknowledged, 
and  his  memory  regarded  with  affectionate  veneration. 

After  the  death  of  Penn  his  claims  descended  to  his  brother,  and  the  same 
disputes  were  kept  up  between  the  assembly  and  proprietaries  as  before, 
and  which  continued  to  agitate  the  colony  until  the  Revolution  broke  out; 
just  before  which  period,  Franklin,  who  had  warmly  advocated  the  popular 
cause,  was  despatched  to  England,  to  solicit  on  the  part  of  the  people  the 
abolition  of  the  proprietary  government. 

The  legislature  of  the  province  long  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Quakers, 
who  responded  but  feebly  to  the  demands  for  men  and  money  to  co-operate 
in  maintaining  the  wars  with  the  French.  When  called  upon  by  the 
governor  to  levy  a  contingent  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers,  they  protested 
"with  all  humility,  that  they  could  not  in  conscience  provide  money  to  hire 
men  to  kill  each  other."  They  went  so  far  however  as  to  tender  a  present  to 
her  Majesty  of  £500,  the  application  of  which  was  left  to  her  own  conscience ; 
but  this  the  governor  declined  to  accept.  Is  was  not  until  the  last  inter- 
colonial war  in  1755,  that  the  Quakers,  who  were  still  in  the  ascendant,  were 
compelled,  in  consequence  of  the  general  excitement,  and  the  ravage  of  their 
frontiers  by  the  Indians,  to  vote  a  handsome  sum  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
raising  a  military  force,  in  which  Franklin  bore  a  commission.  Many  of 
them,  upon  this  enforced  violation  of  their  principles,  resigned  their  seats, 
and  from  this  time  their  influence  no  longer  preponderated  in  the  colony. 
They  persisted  in  declaring  that  the  Indians  had  not  been  impelled  to  these 
attacks  by  any  acts  of  theirs,  but  by  wrongs  and  outrages  on  the  part  of 
others,  for  which  pacific  negotiation  was  the  proper  remedy ;  and  with  this 
view  they  opened  a  conference  with  the  Delawares,  appointed  Charles 
Thompson,  afterward  secretary  to  the  Continental  Congress,  as  assistant 
secretary  to  their  chief,  and  succeeded,  in  some  measure  at  least,  in  the  object 
of  their  benevolent  exertions. 

Since  Bacon's  rebellion  nothing  had  occurred  to  disturb  the  tranquillity  of 
Virginia,  which  continued  its  rapid  increase  in  wealth  and  population.  Little 
indeed  appeared  to  a  cursory  observer  to  indicate  the  real  importance  of  this 
province,  which  yet  retained  the  appearance  of  a  half-cleared  wilderness. 
Few  towns  or  villages  had  grown  up  as  centres  to  the  population,  which  was 
scattered  abroad  along  the  courses  of  the  great  rivers,  dwelling  in  lonely  log 

2  e  2 


£18 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1750. 


c  h  A  R  huts  or  rude  cabins,  and  keeping  up  intercourse  with  one  another  by  narrow 
horse  paths  through  swamps  and  forests,  or  by  boating  up  and  down  the 
numerous  streams  which  intersect  the  country.  The  people  lived  a  rude  and 
joyous  pastoral  life,  principally  engaged  in  cultivating  tobacco,  and  amusing 
themselves  with  the  rifle  in  the  woods ;  hospitality  was  universal,  and  the  few 
tavern  bills  a  traveller  was  called  to  pay,  were  liquidated  in  rolls  of  tobacco. 
"We  have  already  described  the  general  state  of  society.  A  few  wealthy 
planters  resided  in  almost  feudal  pomp,  and  possessed  almost  feudal  privi- 
leges over  the  indented  servants  and  negro  slaves  who  cultivated  their  vast 
estates.  The  favourite  policy  of  Berkeley,  that  of  depressing  education,  lest  it 
should  bring  with  it  a  spirit  of  innovation  and  discontent,  was  yielding  to  the 
spirit  of  the  age ;  yet  while  the  other  colonies  were  acquiring  a  free  press,  it 
was  long  ere  a  single  newspaper  brought  tidings  of  the  world  to  the  solitary 
hut  of  the  Virginian,  and  when  the  parishes  of  the  ministry  extended  over 
miles  of  wilderness  he  did  not  very  often  visit  the  church.  Derived  from  an 
aristocratic  stem,  the  province  was  remarkable  for  its  loyalty ;  but  loyalty  to  a 
distant  monarch  whose  smile  or  frown  is  never  to  be  hoped  or  dreaded,  soon 
becomes  a  merely  traditional  feeling  in  the  breasts  of  those  who  feel  them- 
selves the  real  sovereigns  of  the  soil. 

The  progress  of  the  Carolinas  was  rapid,  the  introduction  of  the  staples  of 
rice  and  indigo  had  vastly  enriched  the  colonies,  and  the  planters  acquired 
great  wealth.  From  their  central  position,  they  were  but  little  affected  by  the 
first  intercolonial  war.  In  1706,  Charleston,  which  had  now  increased  to  a 
considerable  town,  successfully  repulsed  an  attack  by  the  French  and  Spani- 
ards, and  was  threatened  with  a  more  formidable  one  the  following  year,  by 
DTberville,  which  was  frustrated  by  his  death  in  the  West  Indies.  The 
Church  of  England  had,  after  some  opposition,  become  established. 

The  settlement  of  Georgia,  the  last  colony  founded  before  the  Revo- 
lution, has  already  been  briefly  narrated.  After  the  return  of  Oglethorpe  to 
England,  the  settlers  succeeded  in  their  desired  object  of  the  establishment 
of  slavery.  The  progress  of  the  colony  was  for  a  long  while  exceedingly 
slow  and  discouraging,  and  in  1752,  the  charter  was  surrendered,  and  Georgia, 
like  Carolina,  received  a  governor  from  the  crown. 

Turning  from  the  British  colonies,  let  us  now  briefly  trace  the  progress 
made  by  those  of  France.  The  termination  of  her  long-protracted  hostilities 
with  the  Five  Nations,  opened  to  her  an  uninterrupted  egress  to  the  bound- 
less regions  of  the  Far  West.  The  vivid  descriptions  given  of  its  green 
prairies  and  genial  climate,  by  the  unfortunate  La  Salle,  now  induced  many 
to  resort  thither  from  the  colder  and  more  stubborn  region  of  Canada,  by  the 
way  first  traversed  by  Marquette  in  1673,  and  afterwards  by  La  Salle  him- 
self, and  by  the  straits  of  Mackinaw,  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  river  of 
Michigan,  and  to  Chicago  creek  of  Illinois,  whence  they  passed  over  the 
dividing  ridge  to  the  head  branches  of  the  Illinois  river.  Some  of  the  old 
companions  of  La  Salle  and  Tonti  had  remained  there,  and  small  communities 
had  gradually  been  formed  on  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi.     The  missionaries 


A.  D.  1<*3. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  213 

had  pushed  their  station  as  high  as  Peoria  Lake,  on  the  north,  and  to  Red   chap. 

River  on  the  south.     Kaskasia  had    become  a   populous    village,  while  in  , lh 

1701,  La  Motte  Cadillac,  with  a  hundred  followers,  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
new  settlement  at  Detroit.  On  all  sides  the  French  were  rapidly  extending 
their  establishments  and  their  influence. 

A  bold  and  successful  effort  was  now  made  to  renew  La  Salle's  project  for 
colonizing  the  Mississippi  by  the  Canadian,  D'Iberville,  who  had  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  recent  war  with  England,  and  was  greatly  regarded 
as  an  experienced  and  distinguished  commander.  With  two  frigates,  and 
some  smaller  vessels  carrying  about  two  hundred  colonists,  for  the  most 
part  disbanded  military,  and  accompanied  by  his  brothers  Sauvolle  and 
Bienville,  men  of  merit  akin  to  his  own,  on  the  24th  September,  1698, 
he  sailed  from  La  Rochelle,  and  touched  at  St.  Domingo,  whence  he  was 
escorted  by  an  additional  ship  of  war  as  far  as  the  shores  of  Louisiana.  On 
arriving  in  the  Bay  of  Pensacola,  he  found  himself  forestalled  by  the  Spaniards, 
who,  jealous  of  French  encroachments  upon  a  territory  to  which  they  still  laid 
claim,  had  hastened  to  occupy  this  advantageous  position.  Proceeding  to  the 
westward,  he  landed  on  Ship  Island,  off  the  mouth  of  the  Pascagoula,  and  on 
the  27th  of  February  set  off  in  quest  of  the  great  river  St.  Louis,  or,  as  it  had 
been  lately  called  by  the  French,  the  "  Hidden- River."  In  two  large  barges, 
each  carrying  twenty-four  men,  and  commanded  by  himself  and  his  brother 
Bienville,  he  moved  westward  along  the  coast,  passing  the  Balize  ;  and  on  the 
22nd  of  March,  entering  a  wide  river  flowing  into  the  sea,  which  Father 
Athenase,  who  had  accompanied  La  Salle  on  his  unfortunate  voyage,  declared 
to  be  the  true  St.  Louis.  Its  deep  and  turbid  flood,  bearing  on  its  surface 
vast  quantities  of  floating  timber,  the  spoils  of  the  western  forests,  seemed  to 
point  it  out  at  once  and  unmistakeably  as  the  mighty  father  of  the  western 
floods.  D'Iberville,  who  had  expected  to  have  found  a  more  expansive  out- 
let, at  first  had  his  doubts,  but  they  were  entirely  dispelled  as  he  proceeded 
further  up  the  majestic  stream,  and  beheld  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians  the 
painful  traces  of  his  unfortunate  predecessors  in  enterprise.  The  first  was  a 
portion  of  a  Spanish  coat  of  mail,  a  relic  of  Soto's  expedition ;  the  second,  a 
letter  written  by  Tonti  to  La  Salle.  From  this  document,  which  had  been 
carefully  preserved  by  the  Indians,  it  appeared  that  Tonti  with  a  body  of 
men  had  descended  the  Mississippi  from  Illinois,  to  meet  La  Salle  on  his 
expected  arrival  from  France,  but  after  long  and  vain  research,  had  returned 
disheartened  to  his  post.  After  exploring  the  country,  D'Iberville  returned 
by  the  Manipac  pass,  and  through  Lakes  Maurepas  and  Pontchartrain,  and 
rejoined  his  companions  on  Ship  Island — the  first  explorer  who  had  ever 
ascended  the  Mississippi  from  the  sea.  On  the  sandy  and  desolate  shore  of 
Biloxi,  a  spot  about  eighty  miles  north-east  from  the  present  city  of  New 
Orleans,  exposed  to  the  fierce  heat  of  a  tropical  sun,  he  settled  his  followers, 
erected  a  fort  with  four  bastions  and  twelve  cannon,  and  leaving  his  brothers 
in  command,  returned  to  France  to  seek  for  reinforcements  to  his  successful 
enterprise. 


214  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       In  addition  to  the  difficulties  arising  out  of  uncongenial  soil  and  climate, 


n 


the  French  had  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  the  Spanish  and  English,  to 
'  what  they  regarded  as  an  encroachment.  But  the  accession  of  a  Bourbon 
prince  to  the  throne  of  Spain  set  aside  the  pretensions  of  the  Spaniards,  nor 
were  those  of  the  English  destined  to  be  effectively  asserted.  Father  Henne- 
pin, who  had  accompanied  La  Salle  in  his  exploration  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  who  had  falsely  claimed  to  have  anticipated  that  adventurer  in  his 
descent  of  the  river,  had  been  taken  into  the  pay  of  William  III.,  who 
expressed  his  firm  determination  to  plant  a  Protestant  colony  on  the 
spot.  The  patent  for  settling  the  vast  province  of  Carolina,  which,  as 
before  stated,  had  been  granted  by  Charles  II.,  had  been  purchased  by 
one  Coxe,  a  London  physician,  who  had  succeeded  in  getting  two  armed 
vessels  sent  out  to  assert  his  visionary  claim.  As  Bienville  returned  from  a 
visit  to  the  Indians,  he  encountered  one  of  these  hostile  ships,  a  corvette  of 
twelve  guns,  ascending  the  Mississippi.  He  sent  a  flag  on  board  assuring  the 
British  commander  that  he  was  within  the  limits  of  a  country  discovered  and 
settled  by  the  French,  and  that  there  were  strong  defences  a  few  miles 
farther  up  the  river.  Overawed  by  this  threat,  or,  as  others  assert,  deceived 
by  an  assurance  that  the  river  he  was  sailing  in  was  not  the  Mississippi,  the 
English  commander  tacked  about  and  returned  at  a  spot  which,  from  this 
incident,  still  retains  the  appellation  of  the  "  English  Turn."  But  though 
relieved  from  this  apprehension,  and  in  spite  of  the  most  energetic  efforts, 
the  colony  maintained  but  a  languishing  existence.  A  body  of  fugitive 
French  Protestants  had  landed  in  Carolina  from  the  English  vessels,  and  now 
requested  permission  to  remove  to  the  Mississippi,  and  settle  under  their 
national  flag  ;  but  the  French  monarch  repelled  them  with  the  unfeeling  de- 
claration, that  he  had  not  expelled  the  Huguenots  from  France  to  allow  them 
to  form  a  republic  in  Louisiana.  They  had  little  cause  for  regret,  as  the 
sickliness  of  the  situation  soon  cut  off  the  larger  portion  of  the  emigrants. 
The  fortress  was  now  transferred  from  Biloxi  to  Mobile.  DTberville  also 
built  a  new  fort  near  Poverty  Point,  where  he  was  joined  by  the  veteran 
Tonti,  with  whom  he  now  proceeded  on  a  voyage  up  the  Mississippi,  and 
being  pleased  with  his  reception  by  the  tribes  of  Natchez  Indians,  he  founded 
on  a  bold  eminence  above  the  river,  a  settlement  called  Rosalie,  after  the 
Countess  of  Pontchartrain,  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Natchez.  But  the 
health  of  DTberville  was  broken  with  his  successive  explorations  and 
voyages,  and  he  died  at  Havana  on  his  return  from  another  voyage  to  France 
with  a  force  intended  for  the  reduction  of  Charleston. 

Louisiana,  as  boundless  in  its  ideal  limits  (which  were  made  to  include  the 
Mississippi  valley  and  its  tributaries,  and  all  the  country  westward  to  the 
Rio  del  Norte)  as  it  had  hitherto  proved  unfortunate  in  actual  progress,  was 
soon  afterwards  assigned  to  Anthony  Crozat,  a  wealthy  French  merchant, 
who  established  a  monopoly  of  its  commerce,  so  unprofitable  both  to  himself 
and  the  settlers,  that  he  speedily  resigned  his  charter.  Although  some 
progress  had  been  made  by  Bienville  in  conciliating  the  Natchez  Indians,  by 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  215 

whose  assistance  he  had  erected  Fort  Rosalie  upon  the  spot  marked  out  by   c  ha  p. 
DTberville,    Louisiana    still    continued   in    a   very    depressed   state.     But  ■ 

while  thus  struggling  for  existence,  it  became,  by  a  singular  illusion,  the  ideal 
source  whence  boundless  opulence  might  be  derived.  The  celebrated  paper 
system  of  Law  had  just  been  established.in  France,  and  to  the  Company  of  the 
West,  otherwise  called  the  Mississippi  Company,  which  had  been  established 
under  his  auspices,  the  monopoly  of  Louisianian  enterprise  was  now  transferred. 
The  shares  were  eagerly  bought  up,  visions  of  tropical  wealth,  of  gold  and 
silver  mines,  and  boundless  territorial  acquisitions,  agitated  and  duped  the 
credulous  public.  This  excitement  had  however  the  immediate  effect  of 
promoting  the  settlement  of  the  country.  By  the  terms  of  their  grant,  the 
Company  were  bound  to  send  out  a  large  body  of  emigrants  and  negroes,  and 
in  August,  1718,  two  vessels  arrived  with  a  body  of  eight  hundred  men. 
Bienville  foreseeing  the  future  importance  of  a  commercial  capital  to  the  vast 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  determined  to  found  a  city  on  the  borders  of  the 
river,  though  in  the  midst  of  a  marshy  and  unhealthy  country,  which  from  the 
regent  of  France  received  the  name  of  NEW  ORLEANS ;  which,  to  use  the 
words  of  Bancroft,  "  was  famous  at  Paris  as  a  beautiful  city  almost  before  the 
cane-brakes  were  cut  down,  and  which  for  some  years  consisted  of  but  a  hand- 
ful of  dwellings."  Law  had  reserved  for  himself  the  grant  of  an  extensive 
tract,  upon  which  he  located  a  colony  of  Germans.  During  the  bubble  pros- 
perity of  the  paper  system,  money  was  lavishly  expended  in  promoting  enter- 
prise in  Louisiana;  but  with  the  bursting  of  the  scheme,  these  foreign  re- 
sources as  suddenly  ceased,  and  the  settlers,  who  were  dependent  upon  them, 
reduced  to  great  distress.  Instead  of  the  visionary  wealth  of  which  they  had 
dreamed,  they  now  beheld  the  actual  difficulties  of  their  situation,  in  a  low 
swampy  country,  exposed  to  the  fierce  beams  of  a  tropical  sun,  and  almost 
entirely  indebted  to  slave  labour  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  A  military 
and  religious  establishment  was  kept  up,  but  the  progress  of  the  colony  for  a 
long  time  was  but  slow.  Serious  difficulties  also  arose  with  the  neighbouring 
Indians.  The  Natchez  tribe,  who  had  at  first  amicably  received  the  French, 
and  in  whose  territory  Fort  Rosalie  had  been  erected,  now  became  jealous  of 
their  growing  demands  for  territory,  and  instructed  by  the  Chickasaw  tribes, 
and  falling  suddenly  upon  the  Fort,  massacred  all  the  male  inhabitants  and 
carried  away  the  women  and  children  into  slavery,  but  were  shortly  after- 
wards successfully  repulsed.  The  Chickasaws,  who  traded  with  the  English, 
and  were  instigated  by  them,  attacked  the  French  boats  on  the  Mississippi, 
and  defied  several  attempts  made  for  their  subjugation.  A  communication 
was  nevertheless  maintained  with  Canada  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Lake  Michigan,  as  also  by  the  Wabash  river. 


216  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  III. 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  COLONIES  BEFORE  THE  REVOLUTION.— POLITICAL  CONDITION. — RELIGION. 
—EDUCATION. — THE  PRESS.— SLAVERY.— STATE  OF  THE  TOWNS  AND  COUNTRY.— MILITIA.— CUR- 
RENCY.—POST   OFFICE,  ETC. 

chap.  Before  entering  upon  the  narrative  of  the  war  which  wrested  Canada  from 

J —  the  French,  let  us  pause  to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  general  condition  of  the 

to  i>50?°  different  States  from  that  important  period  up  to  the  revolution.  Notwith- 
standing the  widely  different  origin  of  the  various  colonists,  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  were  placed  were  so  similar,  that  the  same  general  form  of  charac- 
ter must  inevitably  have  developed  itself,  and  produced  a  growing  consciousness 
of  power  and  impatience  of  foreign  restraint.  The  giant  child  of  freedom  had 
indeed  burst  its  swaddling-bands,  and  was  ready  to  walk  in  its  own  unassisted 
strength.  The  proximate  independence  of  America  was  already  a  matter  of 
certainty,  although  her  gradual  growth  had  veiled  the  truth  from  the  eyes 
of  English  statesmen.  The  causes  which  were  to  produce  a  final  rupture 
were  already  at  work,  though  their  full  operation  was  delayed  for  a  while  by 
the  want  of  union  among  the  different  provinces,  and  by  their  hereditary  at- 
tachment to  the  parent  country,  under  whose  wings  they  had  grown  up,  by 
whose  arms  they  had  been  sheltered,  by  whose  commerce,  in  spite  of  jealous 
restrictions,  they  were  enriched,  whose  manners  they  affectionately  cherished, 
and  whose  fashions  they  delighted  to  copy.  This  conflicting  state  of  feeling — 
a  growing  desire  of  independence,  and  a  no  less  warm  attachment  to  the  mo- 
ther country — may  still  be  traced  until  the  period  of  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence. Not  that  the  hereditary  love  of  England  was  equally  strong  in  all 
parts  of  America — witness  the  language  of  an  acute  observer,  Feter  Kalm, 
who  visited  New  York  in  1748.  "  The  English  colonies  in  this  part  of  the 
world,"  he  observes, "  have  increased  so  much  in  wealth  and  population,  that 
they  will  vie  with  European  England.  But  to  maintain  the  commerce  and 
the  power  of  the  metropolis,  they  are  forbid  to  establish  new  manufactures 
which  might  compete  with  the  English ;  they  may  dig  for  gold  and  silver 
only  on  condition  of  shipping  them  immediately  to  England  ;  they  have,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  fixed  places,  no  liberty  to  trade  to  any  parts  not  be- 
longing to  the  English  dominions  ;  and  foreigners  are  not  allowed  the  least 
commerce  with  these  American  colonies.  And  there  are  many  similar  restric- 
tions. These  oppressions  have  made  the  inhabitants  of  the  English  colonies 
less  tender  towards  their  mother  land.  This  coldness  is  increased  by  the 
many  foreigners  who  are  settled  among  them;  for  Dutch,  Germans,  and 
French  are  here  blended  with  English,  and  have  no  special  love  for  Old 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  217 

England.     Besides,  some  people  are  always  discontented  and  love  change;  chap. 

and  exceeding  freedom  and  prosperity  nurse  an  untameable  spirit.     I  have ■ — 

been  told  not  only  by  native  Americans,  but  by  English  emigrants,  publicly,  to  1750. 
that,  within  thirty  or  fifty  years,  the  English  colonies  in  North  America  may 
constitute  a  separate  state  entirely  independent  of  England.  But,  as  this 
whole  country  is  towards  the  sea  unguarded,  and  on  the  frontier  is  kept  un- 
easy by  the  French,  these  dangerous  neighbours  are  the  reason  why  the  love 
of  these  colonies  for  their  metropolis  does  not  utterly  decline.  The  English 
government  has  therefore  to  regard  the  French  in  North  America  as  the  chief 
power  that  urges  their  colonies  to  submission."  The  same  view,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  see,  was  taken  by  the  French  themselves.  John  Adams,  when  a 
youth  not  quite  twenty,  cast  a  penetrating  glance  into  futurity.  "  Soon  after 
the  Reformation,"  he  says,  "  a  few  people  came  over  into  this  new  world  for 
conscience'  sake.  Perhaps  this  apparently  trivial  circumstance  may  transfer 
the  great  seat  of  empire  into  America.  It  looks  likely  to  me,  for  if  we  can 
remove  the  turbulent  Gallics,  our  people,  according  to  the  exactest  computa- 
tions, will  in  another  century  become  more  numerous  than  England  itself. 
Should  this  be  the  case,  since  we  have,  I  may  say,  all  the  naval  stores  of  the 
nation  in  our  hands,  it  will  be  easy  to  obtain  the  mastery  of  the  seas,  and  then 
the  united  force  of  Europe  will  not  be  able  to  subdue  us.  The  only  way  to 
keep  us  from  setting  up  for  ourselves  is  to  disunite  us." 

A  few  quotations  from  the  most  philosophical  of  modern  historians — M. 
Guizot — may  serve  as  a  brief  recapitulation  of  the  political  part  of  the  preced- 
ing pages,  and  show  the  relative  position  of  Britain  and  America  at  this  period. 

"  It  is  the  honour  of  England  that  she  had  deposited  in  the  cradle  of  her 
colonies — the  germ  of  their  freedom.  Nearly  all,  at  their  foundation,  or 
shortly  after,  received  charters  which  conferred  the  franchises  of  the  mother 
country  on  the  colonists." 

"  And  these  charters  were  not  a  vain  display  or  dead  letter,  for  they  estab- 
lished or  allowed  powerful  institutions  which  impelled  the  colonists  to  defend 
their  liberty,  and  to  control  power  by  participating  in  it — the  grant  of  sup- 
plies, the  election  of  great  public  councils,  trial  by  jury,  the  right  of  as- 
sembling and  of  discussing  the  general  affairs." 

"  Thus  the  history  of  the  colonies  is  only  the  more  practical  and  laborious 
development  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  flourishing  under  the  standard  of  the  laws 
and  traditions  of  the  country.  It  might  be  considered  the  history  of  England 
herself.  A  resemblance  the  more  striking,  as  the  colonies  of  America,  at  least 
the  greatest  number  and  the  most  considerable  of  them,  were  founded  or  in- 
creased the  most  rapidly  at  the  very  epoch  when  England  was  getting  ready 
for,  or  already  sustained  against  the  pretensions  of  absolute  power,  those  fierce 
conflicts  which  were  to  obtain  for  her  the  honour  of  giving  to  the  world  the 
first  example  of  a  great  nation  free  and  well  governed. 

^  "  From  1578  to  1704,  under  Elizabeth,  James  L,  Charles  I.,  the  Long  Par- 
liament, Cromwell,  Charles  II.,  James  II.,  William  III.,  and  Queen  Anne, 
the  charters  of  Virginia,  of  Massachusetts,  of  Maryland,  of  Carolina,  of  New 

2  p 


218 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


C  ni.P'  York,  were  by  turns  recognised,  disputed,  restrained,  enlarged,  lost,  acquired 
A'D  17C0  back  again,  incessantly  exposed  to  those  vicissitudes  which  are  the  conditions 
to  1750.  and  even  the  essence  of  liberty,  for  free  nations  can  only  pretend  to  peace  in 
victory." 

He  then  well  observes,  that  strife  was  rendered  inevitable  by  the  disorder 
subsisting  between  the  elements  of  government.  "  In  the  cradle  of  the 
English  colonies,  side  by  side  with  their  liberties,  and  consecrated  by 
the  same  charters,  three  different  powers  came  into  contact:  the  crown, 
the  proprietary  founders,  companies  or  individuals,  and  the  mother  coun- 
try. The  crown,  by  virtue  of  the  monarchical  principle,  with  its  tra- 
ditions flowing  from  the  church  and  the  empire.  The  proprietary  founders, 
to  whom  a  concession  of  the  territory  was  made,  by  virtue  of  the  feudal  prin- 
ciple which  attaches  to  property  a  considerable  portion  of  sovereignty.  The 
mother  country,  by  virtue  of  the  colonial  principle,  which,  in  all  times  and 
amongst  all  nations,  by  a  natural  sequence  of  facts  and  ideas,  has  attributed 
to  the  metropolis  a  great  empire  over  the  populations  sprung  from  its  bosom. 

"  From  the  beginning,  and  in  events  as  in  charters,  the  confusion  amongst 
these  powers  was  extreme,  by  turns  dominant  or  lowered,  united  or  divided, 
sometimes  protecting  the  colonists  and  their  franchises  one  against  the  other, 
sometimes  attacking  them  in  concert.  In  the  midst  of  these  confusions  and 
vicissitudes  all  found  titles  to  invoke,  facts  to  allege  in  support  of  their  acts 
and  of  their  pretensions. 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  monarchical  principle 
was  in  England  overcome  in  the  person  of  Charles  I.,  for  awhile  it  might 
have  been  thought  that  the  colonies  would  use  the  opportunity  to  shake  off  her 
sway.  Indeed,  some  of  them,  Massachusetts  above  all,  peopled  by  haughty 
Puritans,  showed  symptoms  of  a  desire,  if  not  to  break  every  tie  with  the  me- 
tropolis, at  least  to  govern  themselves  alone  and  by  their  own  laws.  But. the 
Long  Parliament,  in  the  name  of  the  colonial  principle,  and  also  in  virtue  of  the 
rights  of  the  crown  which  it  inherited,  maintained  with  moderation  the  British 
supremacy.  Cromwell,  in  his  turn,  heir  of  the  Long  Parliament,  exerted  its 
power  more  signally,  and  by  a  skilful  and  firm  protection,  prevented  or  re- 
pressed in  the  colonies,  whether  Royalist  or  Puritan,  those  feeble  yearnings 
after  independence. 

"  This  was  an  easy  task  for  him.  At  this  epoch  the  colonies  were  feeble  and 
divided.  Towards  1640,  Virginia  counted  only  three  or  four  thousand  in- 
habitants, and  in  1660,  hardly  thirty  thousand.  Maryland  had  at  most  twelve 
thousand.  In  these  two  provinces  the  royalist  party  was  in  the  ascendency, 
and  Avelcomed  the  restoration  with  joy.  In  Massachusetts,  on  the  contrary, 
the  general  feeling  was  republican;  the  fugitive  regicides,  Goffe  and  Whalley, 
found  favour  and  protection  there ;  and  when  at  last  the  local  administration 
found  itself  obliged  to  proclaim  Charles  II.,  it  interdicted  on  the  same  day  all 
uproarious  demonstrations,  all  festivity,  even  to  drink  the  king's  health. 

"  In  such  a  state  of  things  there  was  not  yet  either  the  moral  unity  or  the 
material  force  which  are  necessary  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  state. 


J 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  219 

"After  1688,  when  England  had  finally  achieved  a  free  government,  its    chap. 
colonies  partook  but  slightly  of  the  benefits.     The  charters  which  Charles  II. 


and  James  II.  had  abolished  or  mutilated,  were  only  partially  restored  to  ^^vJ"0 
them.  The  same  confusion  reigned,  the  same  struggle  for  sway  continued. 
The  greater  part  of  the  governors,  sent  from  Europe,  brief  depositories  of  the 
royal  prerogatives  and  pretensions,  displayed  them  with  more  haughtiness 
than  power  in  an  administration  in  general  incoherent,  shifty,  not  very  effi- 
cient, often  rapacious,  more  occupied  with  selfish  quarrels  than  with  the 
interests  of  the  country. 

"  Besides,  it  was  no  longer  with  the  crown  alone,  but  with  the  crown  and  the 
metropolis  united,  that  the  colonists  had  to  do.  Their  real  sovereign  was  no 
longer  the  king,  but  the  king  and  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  represented 
and  blended  in  parliament.  And  the  parliament  regarded  the  colonies  al- 
most with  the  same  eye,  and  held  the  same  language  with  regard  to  them, 
which  those  kings  whom  it  had  vanquished  had  formerly  affected  towards  the 
parliament  itself.  An  aristocratic  senate  is  the  most  difficult  of  masters.  All 
possess  the  supreme  power  in  it,  and  no  one  is  responsible  for  its  action." 

There  could  be  but  one  solution  of  this  difficult  problem,  and  that — the 
independence  of  the  colonists.  In  tracing  their  political  progress,  we  have 
constantly  before  us  the  collision  of  two  elements  alluded  to  in  the  outset ; 
the  tendency  to  self-government  natural  to  men  so  situated,  and  the  vain 
endeavour  by  the  mother  country  to  curb  this  tendency,  and  to  restrict  their 
growth  within  the  limits  required  by  a  short-sighted  policy. 

These  opposite  tendencies,  inherently  contradictory,  could  only  be  har- 
monized so  long  as  the  colonies  remained  feeble  and  threatened  by  French 
hostilities ;  and  at  the  height  of  wealth  and  power  they  had  now  reached,  the 
difficulty  of  maintaining  them  in  a  state  of  subserviency  became  every  day 
more  manifest  to  far-seeing  politicians.  In  this  relative  position  of  England 
and  her  dependencies  the  office  of  governor  for  the  crown,  essentially  a  false 
and  painful  one,  became  more  and  more  embarrassing.  Regarding  him  with 
jealousy  as  the  asserter  of  an  ill-defined  prerogative,  which  tended  to  check 
their  own  freedom  of  action,  the  constant  study  of  the  local  assemblies  was 
to  keep  the  minister  of  royal  power  in  a  state  of  humiliating  dependence  on 
their  own  authority,  to  vote  him  only  a  temporary  supply,  and  thus  to  force 
him  into  a  compliance  with  their  demands ;  and  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
home  government  were  urging  him  by  every  means  to  maintain  the  royal 
supremacy,  they  were  generally  unwilling  or  unable  to  invest  him  with  the 
necessary  power  to  do  so.  Under  trials  such  as  these,  poor  Burnet  had  died 
of  a  broken  heart ;  some  sunk  into  compliance  with  the  popular  will,  "  taking 
every  thing  and  granting  every  thing ; "  while  others,  irritated  at  the  con- 
tinual opposition  of  the  colonists,  denounced  them  as  factious  to  the  govern- 
ment, and  accused  them  of  a  steady  design  by  little  and  little  to  throw  off  the 
last  vestiges  of  an  allegiance  that  was  already  merely  nominal.  Nor  can  we  be 
surprised  that  such  should  have  been  the  uniform  tenor,  if  not  the  avowed  pur- 
pose, of  the  colonial  legislators.     With  the  instinct  of  liberty  they  struggled 

2*2 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  against  the  imposition  of  a  yoke  which  was  every  day  becoming  more  in- 

■ —  tolerable  and  unsuitable  to  their  circumstances,  by  labouring  in  every  way  to 

to  1V50.  grasp  into  their  own  hands  the  real  legislative  and  executive  power  of  their 
country,  and  to  reduce  the  exercise  of  royal  power  to  an  empty  form.  It  was 
in  Massachusetts  that  this  stubborn  tenacity  of  purpose,  this  jealous  watch- 
fulness and  persevering  agitation  against  even  the.  slightest  encroachment,  this 
subtlety  to  watch  for  and  improve  opportunities  of  gradually  extending  its  own 
influence,  and  of  nullifying  that  of  the  English  government,  was  most  con- 
spicuously displayed,  because  a  sense  of  liberty  and  a  shrewdness  of  intellect 
were  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  her  people,  and  because  she  had  grown  up 
at  the  first  under  a  system  of  self-government.  But  the  whole  colonies 
were  infected  with  the  same  spirit  long  before  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Revolution. 

Looking  from  the  colonists  to  the  home  government,  it  is  evident  that  no 
regular  and  systematic  plan  was  ever  followed,  either  to  remove  the  restric- 
tions that  were  felt  to  be  galling,  or  to  enforce  on  the  other  hand  a  more  de- 
cided dependence  on  the  king  and  parliament,  even  had  such  measures  been 
within  the  power  of  England  to  adopt.  Engaged  in  domestic  affairs,  she  be- 
stowed comparatively  but  little  attention  on  her  colonies,  which  were  by  turns 
capriciously  neglected  or  oppressed,  their  giant  growth  overlooked,  and  the 
capacity  and  courage  of  their  citizens  contemptuously  underrated.  How- 
ever some  might  believe  that  they  desired  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  mother 
country,  few  imagined  that  they  would  have  the  hardihood  to  try,  or  should 
they  make  the  attempt,  that  it  would  require  more  than  a  slight  exhibition  of 
the  national  power,  speedily  to  reduce  them  within  the  limits  of  dependency. 
We  have  already  alluded  to  the  establishment  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  This 
body  were  continually  complaining  that  "  the  chartered  colonies  evaded  the 
force  of  parliamentary  enactments  by  making  by-laws  of  their  own,  that  they 
encouraged  contraband  trade  and  domestic  manufactures,  thereby  injuring  the 
monopoly  of  the  mother  country ;  and  as  the  only  effectual  remedy,  proposed 
the  resumption  of  their  charters,  and  the  imposition  of  such  a  system  of  ad- 
ministration as  shall  make  them  duly  subservient  to  England;"  and  a  bill 
was  accordingly  brought  into  parliament  for  this  object.  But  the  strenuous 
opposition  made  by  the  colonists  to  a  scheme  which  would  have  deprived  them 
of  the  almost  practical  independence  which  they  enjoyed,  caused  it  eventually 
to  be  laid  aside.  In  1702,  the  Jersey  proprietors  however  ceded  their  rights 
of  sovereignty  to  the  crown.  After  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover, 
when  the  functions  of  the  Board  of  Trade  were  almost  superseded  by  the  secre- 
taryship of  the  colonies,  other  attempts  were  made  to  enact  a  bill  for  regulating 
the  chartered  governments.  The  disputes  between  the  proprietaries  of  South 
Carolina  and  their  colonists,  who  invoked  the  interference  of  the  crown,  furn- 
ished a  welcome  opportunity  for  vacating  the  charter,  which  was  accord- 
ingly done,  and  a  royal  governor  appointed,  who  however  soon  found  that 
the  assembly  left  to  him  little  more  than  the  shadow  of  power. 

The  population  of  the  States  had  reached  a  million  at  the  accession  of  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  221 

House  of  Hanover  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  Pennsylvania,  which,  had  ap-  chap. 

pcared  but  so  recently  on  the  list  of  States,  owing  to  the  absence  of  those ' — 

difficulties  with  which  the  other  States  had  to  contend,  had  increased  in  pro-  to  iVso. 
portion  far  more  rapidly  than  any  other.  Although  no  exact  estimate  of  the 
value  of  the  colonial  trade  can  be  given,  owing  to  the  clandestine  violation  of 
the  laws  of  trade,  no  register  of  which  could  be  expected,  it  is  supposed  that 
the  total  value  of  exports  must  have  amounted  to  not  less  than  ten  millions 
of  dollars.  Great  Britain  engrossed  the  principal  share  of  this  trade  ;  that  to 
the  West  Indies  came  next ;  that  with  the  Spanish  colonies  of  South  America, 
forbidden  both  by  English  and  Spanish  enactments,  was  most  profitable  in 
proportion  to  its  amount.  The  restrictions  imposed  by  English  jealousy  and 
cupidity  upon  this  vast  and  increasing  commerce  and  manufactures  of  the 
colonies,  were  the  frequent  source  of  bitter  dissatisfaction,  and  the  certain 
cause  of  a  rupture  that  could  not  much  longer  be  delayed. 

Upon  complaint  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  that  the  colonial  manufactures 
of  wool  and  iron,  paper,  hats,  and  leather,  were  highly  prejudicial  to  the 
home  trade,  the  most  unjust  and  vexatious  restrictions  were  placed  upon 
them.  In  regard,  therefore,  to  commercial  as  to  political  disabilities,  we 
cannot  be  surprised  that  there  should  have  been  the  same  persevering  dis- 
position to  evade  or  ignore  them  ;  that  the  customs'  agents  were  regarded 
with  such  dislike  as  to  have  complained  that  even  their  lives  were  not  always 
safe  in  enforcing  obnoxious  regulations ;  that  the  colonists,  who  regarded  the 
English  merchants  as  unjust  and  grasping,  should  have  been  less  punctual  in 
the  liquidation  of  their  claims,  and  the  protection  of  their  interests,  than  in 
the  case  of  their  own  brethren,  and  that  they  should  have  laid  a  tax  upon 
British  imports  and  ships.  This  state  of  things  was  becoming  insupportable  to 
the  Americans  ;  and  the  general  feeling  well  appears  in  a  private  letter  from 
a  citizen  of  Boston  to  the  Marquis  de  Montcalm,  governor  of  Canada :  "  We 
shall  soon  break  with  England"  he  says,  " for  commercial  considerations" 

It  had  always  been  a  special  instruction  given  by  the  Americans  to  their 
agents  in  England,  to  oppose,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  any  measure 
which  might  tend,  however  remotely,  to  impose  direct  taxation  upon  the 
colonies.  During  the  war  of  1739,  with  Spain,  such  a  scheme  was  proposed 
to  Walpole,  who  replied  as  follows : — "  I  will  leave  that  for  some  of  my  suc- 
cessors who  may  have  more  courage  than  I  have,  and  be  less  a  friend  to  com- 
merce than  I  am.  Nay,"  he  continued,  "  it  has  been  necessary  to  pass  over 
some  irregularities  of  their  trade  with  Europe,  for  by  encouraging  them  to 
an  extensive  foreign  growing  commerce,  if  they  gain  £500,000,  I  am  con- 
vinced that,  in  two  years  afterwards,  full  £  250,000  of  their  gains  will  be  in 
his  Majesty's  exchequer,  by  the  labour  and  product  of  this  kingdom,  as  im- 
mense quantities  of  every  kind  go  thither,  and  as  they  increase  in  their 
foreign  American  trade,  more  of  our  produce  will  be  wanted.  This  is  taxing 
them  more  agreeably  to  their  own  constitution  and  to  ours."  But  this  policy 
of  a  liberal  and  far-seeing  minister  was  contrary  to  the  narrow  notions  then 
prevailing  with  respect  to  commercial  monopoly  and  colonial  dependency. 


222 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


It  has  been  well  observed,  that  America  became  a  place  of  refuge  for  the 
different  extremes  of  sectarianism  which  were  driven  from  the  old  world, 
where  their  asperities  became  gradually  softened,  and  their  peculiarities  mo- 
dified, and  their  professors  fused  together  into  one  great  commonwealth.  Re- 
ligious enthusiasm  had  founded  New  England,  and  under  the  conduct  of  its 
theocracy  it  had  been  safely  nursed  through  the  perils  that  threatened  its 
childhood.  But  the  exclusive  influence  of  the  rigid  Puritans  was  much  weak- 
ened by  the  toleration  of  other  sects,  which  had  been  forced  upon  them  by 
the  English  government,  by  a  natural  reaction  against  the  extreme  rigour  of 
their  principles  and  manners,  and  by  the  influence  of  philosophic  progress  in 
Europe.  Even  before  the  witchcraft  delusion,  in  which  the  clergy  had  taken 
so  prominent  a  part,  many  were  their  complaints  of  the  growing  Sadduceeism 
and  latitudinarianism  of  the  times,  by  which  not  a  few  even  of  their  own 
body  gradually  became  infected,  until,  whilst  they  still  preserved  in  the  pulpit 
the  language  of  the  old  system,  which  the  people  were  accustomed  to  hear, 
they  secretly  put  upon  it  a  latitudinarian  construction,  which  it  would  have 
been  imprudent  openly  to  avow. 

From  this  period  religion  no  longer  exercised  a  predominating  influence 
in  political  affairs,  nor  shaped  after  its  own  exclusive  fashion  the  morals  and 
manners  of  the  community,  although  the  mass  of  the  people  still  retained  their 
Serious  bias.  The  growing  wealth  of  New  England,  and  her  intercourse  with 
the  mother  country  and  foreign  states,  gradually  introduced  a  more  liberal  way 
of  thinking,  with  the  arts  and  elegancies  of  polished  life.  The  early  days  of  re- 
ligious persecution  were  looked  back  upon  with  regret,  and  differing  sects 
were  fast  learning  to  live  together  in  harmony.  The  Quakers  were  no  longer  the 
same  fierce  and  noisy  enthusiasts,  whose  introduction  into  the  colony  had  oc- 
casioned such  sanguinary  scenes ;  but  while  they  still  retained  the  broad  and 
distinctive  features  of  their  creed,  as  if  ashamed  of  their  former  ebullitions, 
had  subsided  into  that  quiet  and  peaceable  demeanour,  and  that  sober  respect- 
ability, of  which  Penn  himself  was  the  type,  and  which  have  ever  since  re- 
mained the  characteristic  features  of  their  body. 

The  older  divines  were  fast  dropping  off.  Cotton  Mather,  whose  name  has 
repeatedly  occurred  in  connexion  with  the  maintenance  of  orthodoxy  and  the 
prosecutions  for  witchcraft,  died  in  1729,  in  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 
He  was  a  pattern  of  serious  piety,  a  perfect  storehouse  of  school  divinity,  and 
his  writings,  quaint  and  pedantic  in  style,  were  proportionally  voluminous ; 
but  his  confidence  and  conceit  were  boundless ;  and,  to  use  the  expressive 
words  of  one  of  his  brethren, "  lie  believed  more  and  discriminated  less  "  than 
belongs  to  a  writer  of  history. 

In  1710,  a  Quaker  meeting-house  was  erected  in  Boston.  Episcopalianism 
also,  once  so  odious,  had  now  acquired  a  legitimate  footing,  and  more  than 
one  church  for  that  form  of  worship  was  now  erected  in  Boston.  This  creed 
also  began  to  infect  even  some  of  the  theocratic  party,  Cullen,  principal  of 
Yale  college,  proving  a  convert.  With  a  view  to  check  this  tendency,  no 
less  than  "  the  great  and  visible  decay  of  piety,"  the  orthodox  ministry  peti- 


A.  D.  1700 
to  1750. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

tioned  for  a  synod,  but,  owing  to  tlje  influence  of  the  Episcopalians,  were  un-  c  ha  p. 
able  to  succeed  in  their  object.  An  abortive  attempt  had  even  been  made  by 
the  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  "  to  introduce 
an  episcopal  hierarchy,  as  in  the  southern  colonies.  These  attempts  to  pro- 
pagate episcopal  government  gave  bitter  offence  to  the  theocratic  clergy,  and 
in  the  impending  struggle,  naturally  inclined  them  to  promote  the  cause  of  in- 
dependence. Indeed,  among  the  grievances  cited  by  the  Bostonians  in  their 
quarrel  with  England,  that  of  endeavouring  to  plant  Episcopacy  in  New  Eng- 
gland  was  afterwards  distinctly  mentioned. 

The  growing  latitudinarianism  of  the  age  received,  however,  a  check,  by 
the  strenuous  exertions  of  Whitfield  and  others  of  his  stamp,  and  a  consider- 
able reaction  towards  the  old  system,  or,  to  use  the  proper  word,  "  a  great 
revival,"  took  place  among  the  churches.  It  is  in  connexion  with  this  move- 
ment we  find  the  name  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  one  of  the  greatest  intellects 
that  America  has  ever  produced.  Fervent  in  his  religious  feelings,  his  intel- 
lectual faculties,  which  were  of  the  highest  order,  were  occupied  in  the  de- 
fence of  the  Calvinistic  doctrines,  and  in  reconciling  the  denial  of  the  moral 
ability  of  man  with  the  assertion  of  his  moral  accountableness.  His  "  In- 
quiry into  the  Freedom  of  the  "Will "  has  been  pronounced  "  one  of  the 
greatest  efforts  of  the  human  mind."  Another  remarkable  divine  of  the 
same  class  was  David  Brainerd,  who  laboured  most  devotedly  as  a  missionary 
among  the  Indians,  and,  worn  out  with  toils  and  privations,  died  in  the  flower 
of  manhood.  But  the  principal  agent  in  promoting  this  resuscitation  of  piety, 
and  in  laying  the  foundation  of  Calvinistic  Methodism  in  America,  was  Whit- 
field himself,  the  contemporary  of  Wesley,  whose  visit  to  Georgia  has  been  al- 
ready described.  Whitfield's  purpose  in  coming  over  was  the  foundation  of  an 
orphan-house  for  destitute  children  in  Georgia,  for  which  he  had  collected  con- 
siderable sums.  Having  successfully  founded  this  establishment,  he  proceeded 
to  visit  the  northern  colonies,  where  the  fire  and  energy  of  his  character  pro- 
duced the  greatest  excitement.  Wesley,  notwithstanding  his  profound  enthusi- 
asm, was  calm,  grave,  and  reverend  in  appearance,  rational  and  persuasive  in  his 
manner  of  discourse.  Whitfield  was  vehement  and  passionate  in  his  style  of 
preaching,  his  gestures  were  striking  and  animated,  his  eye  flashed  with  almost 
supernatural  lustre,  and  the  torrent  of  his  eloquence  irresistibly  carried  away  all 
who  heard  him.  Wesley  was  in  tenets  an  Arminian — Whitfield  a  Calvinist. 
Wesley  appealed  to  the  judgment — Whitfield  to  the  feelings  of  his  audience. 
Ay  hile,  rapt  out  of  himself,  he  triumphantly  proclaimed  the  triumphs  of  Divine 
grace  over  the  stubborn  heart  of  man,  his  hearers,  unable  to  restrain  their 
emotions,  would  burst  forth  in  sobs  of  agony  or,  songs. of  thanksgiving,  their 
frames  would  become  convulsed  under  the  powerful  emotions  which  had  taken 
possession  of  their  souls.  The  infection  spread  rapidly ;  itinerant  preachers, 
calling  themselves  "  New  Lights,"  ran  every  where  about  the  land,  singing 
processions  and  revivalist  meetings  were  seen  on  all  sides.  The  orthodox 
ministers,  as  in  England  itself,  strenuously  opposed  themselves  to  the  prevail- 
ing excitement,  and  some  attempts  were  made  at  suppressing  it  by  enactments, 


224:  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C?n  P'  Dut  *n  vam — a^  sects  caught  something  of  the  prevailing  enthusiasm,  and  the 
D  1700  slumbering  churches  were  quickened  into  new  life  and  activity.     Whitfield 
to  1750.    visited  the  colonies  several  times,  and  died  and  was  buried  there  in  1770. 

The  progress  of  education  was  highly  satisfactory,  being  far  more  generally 
diffused  than  in  the  mother  country  herself.  At  the  time  of  the  revolution 
several  colleges  had  been  founded  in  the  colonies. 

Free-schools  were  established  in  Massachusetts  soon  after  the  establishment 
of  the  colony,  and  to  this  measure  was  in  a  great  extent  owing  the  superior 
moral  and  intellectual  character  of  her  citizens.  The  north  always  took 
the  lead  in  educational  establishments.  The  foundation  of  Harvard  college 
was  noticed  in  a  previous  chapter.  In  1701,  a  school  for  the  education  of 
ministers  was  established  at  Saybrook,  where  a  scheme  of  doctrine  and  church 
government  had  been  agreed  on,  known  as  the  Saybrook  platform,  which 
brought  the  churches  of  Connecticut  into  a  Presbyterian  form.  This  estab- 
lishment afterwards  received  great  benefactions  from  the  Hon.  Elihu  Yale,  a 
distinguished  son  of  Connecticut,  who  had  gone  over  to  England  when  young, 
acquired  a  large  fortune  in  India,  when  he  became  governor  of  Fort  St. 
George,  an,d  was  chosen  governor  of  the  East  India  Company.  To  this  college 
Bishop  Berkeley  also,  notwithstanding  his  Episcopalian  principles,  presented 
his  library  and  estate  in  America. 

We  should  not  here  omit  to  notice  one  who  exercised  considerable  influence 
in  the  cause  of  learning  and  the  humanities.  Berkeley  has  attained  universal 
renown  as  the  author  of  a  celebrated  treatise  on  the  non-existence  of  matter, 
a  theory  which  nobody  believes  in,  and  which  nobody,  it  is  said,  has  ever  been 
able  to  refute.  Visionary  as  he  might  be  in  the  region  of  metaphysical  ab- 
stractions, and,  as  Swift  satirically  called  him,  "  an  absolute  philosopher  with 
regard  to  money,  titles,  and  power  ; "  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  his  charac- 
ter justified  the  well-known  eulogium  of  Pope,  ascribing  to  him  "  every  virtue 
under  heaven."  Cherished  at  home  in  the  most  refined  circles,  and  wealthy 
in  a  deanery  worth  £  1100  a  year,  his  expansive  benevolence  sought  for  a 
wide  field  of  action  abroad,  and  he%proposed  to  the  ministry  a  project  for 
founding  a  college  in  Bermuda  for  the  education  of  missionaries,  to  convert 
the  Indians.  Of  this  college  he  offered,  resigning  his  preferment,  to  become 
rector,  on  a  salary  of  a  hundred  a  year.  Having  obtained  a  vote  of  £  10,000 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  crossed  over  to  Rhode  Island,  settling  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  little  town  of  Newport,  afterwards  the  residence  of  Channing, 
where  he  bought  a  farm,  and  resided  for  two  years  and  a  half,  with  a  view  of 
making  arrangements  for  the,  supply  of  his  projected  establishment.  Here  he 
often  preached  in  the  Episcopal  church,  to  which  he  presented  an  organ,  and 
in  this  rural  retirement  he  penned,  it  is  said,  his  Minute  Philosopher.  The 
virtues  and  accomplishments  of  such  a  man  had  no  small  effect  in  diffusing 
the  love  of  knowledge,  and  a  taste  for  social  refinement,  amidst  the  colonists, 
with  whose  unaffected  good  qualities  and  calm  existence  he  was  charmed.  His 
enthusiasm  was  awakened  by  the  vigorous  freshness  of  American  society,  and 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  225 

the  boundless  prospect  opening  before  it;  and  he  here  indited  those  celebrated   chap. 
verses,  which  have  proved,  in  some  respects  at  least,  remarkably  prophetic. 


A.  D.  1700 
to  1750. 


"  In  happy  climes,  the  seat  of  innocence, 

Where  nature  guides,  and  virtue  rules ; 
Where  men  shall  not  impose  for  truth  and  sense 

The  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools ; 

There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age, 

The  rise  of  empire  and  of  arts  ; 
The  good  and  great  inspiring  epic  rage, 

The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay : 

Such  as  she  bred  when  fresh  and  young, 
When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay, 

By  future  poets  shall  be  sung. 

Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way  : 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day  ; 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

Disappointed  of  the  promised  support  of  government,  Berkeley,  bestowing 
his  farm  and  library  upon  Yale  college,  though  under  the  exclusive  control 
of  a  denomination  opposed  to  his  own,  returned  to  England,  where  he  was 
shortly  afterwards  promoted  to  the  bishopric  of  Cloyne. 

A  high  school  was  established  at  Philadelphia  in  1689,  to  which  a  charter 
was  granted  by  Penn. 

New  York  was  less  active  in  the  work  of  education ;  and  it  was  not  till 
1748  that  a  college  called  "  King's "  was  founded.  About  the  same  time 
Princeton  college  in  New  Jersey  was  established. 

Maryland  had  organized  county  schools  about  twenty  years  before. 

Virginia  was  always  backward  in  general  education ;  and  a  greater  laxity 
of  morals  prevailed  there.  The  first  college  in  that  state  owed  its  origin  to 
the  zeal  of  James  Blair,  commissary  of  the  bishop  of  London,  who  founded  it 
by  the  assistance  of  King  William,  and  other  patrons,  chiefly  for  the  education 
of  a  succession  of  Episcopalian  ministers,  although  many  Indians  were  also 
taught  there,  in  whose  behalf  the  celebrated  Robert  Boyle  made  a  liberal 
donation. 

Education  was  sometimes  coeval  with  the  first  opening  of  a  road  or  clearing 
of  the  forest.  Dartmouth  college  originated  just  before  the  revolution,  in  an 
Indian  mission  school  at  Lebanon,  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Wheelock,  which 
attracted  considerable  attention,  and  drew  subscribers  even  from  England. 
This  school  was  afterwards  removed  to  Hanover,  where  the  doctor  resided  in 
a  log-hut  while  teaching  his  Indian  neophytes,  half  of  whom,  however,  re- 
turned to  the  savage  life,  for  which  they  had  an  unconquerable  bias.  En- 
larging then  the  number  of  his  white  missionaries,  and  retaining  but  a  few 
Indians,  he  founded  Dartmouth  college.  His  family,  who  travelled  in  a  coach 

2   G 


I 

226  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ch^ap.  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  a  London  friend,  had  the  greatest  dif- 
A  —  ficulty  in  making  their  way  to  the  spot,  an  extensive  plain  almost  covered 
to  irao.  with  lofty  pines,  with  but  one  or  two  log-huts,  and  not  another  habitation 
within  two  miles  of  dreary  forest.  The  Doctor,  having  collected  his  family 
and  scholars,  amounting  to  seventy  persons,  hastily  began  to  erect  habitations 
to  shelter  them  from  the  impending  winter,  which  soon  overtook  them  in  all 
its  rigour.  So  tall  and  thick  were  the  pines  around  their  little  clearing,  that 
the  sun  was  invisible  for  hours,  and  while  still  and  piercing  cold  below,  the 
tops  of  the  trees  were  seen  bending  under  the  fury  of  the  tempest,  while  for 
four  or  five  months  the  snow  lay  five  feet  deep  around,  through  which  they 
had  to  cut  and  keep  open  paths  of  communication  from  hut  to  hut.  There 
the  Doctor  passed  the  long  and  dreary  winter  with  his  pupils,  sustaining  his 
own  spirits  and  theirs  by  referring  to  the  smile  of  Heaven  that  had  so  evi- 
dently prospered  their  labours,  and  by  calling  to  mind  the  prophet  Elisha, 
who,  by  Divine  direction,  and  in  circumstances  that  to  his  pious  mird  offered 
a  remarkable  analogy,  had  founded  in  the  wilderness  of  the  Jorda~  a  school 
for  training  the  prophets  of  the  Lord. 

The  press,  that  mighty  engine  of  progress,  though  shackled  ev<m  in  the 
mother  country,  was  struggling  into  liberty  and  influence  in  the  colonies. 
Their  first  newspaper  was  published  in  Boston  on  April  24th,  1704,  by  John 
Campbell,  a  Scotchman,  bookseller  and  post-master  in  that  city.  It  bore  the 
title  of  the  "  Boston  News  Letter,"  and  was  printed  on  a  small  half-sheet  of 
paper,  in  small  type.  Its  first  page  contained  an  extract  from  the  "Iondon 
Flying  Post,"  respecting  the  Pretender's  sending  Popish  missionaries  from 
Prance  into  Scotland,  a  project  as  enormous  to  the  good  people  of  Massachu- 
setts as  it  was  to  the  English  themselves.  The  rest  was  filled  up  by  the  queen's 
speech,  four  short  local  articles  with  paragraphs  of  marine  intelligence,  and 
one  advertisement,  being,  in  fact,  that  of  the  proprietor  himself.  Small  as 
was  its  size,  and  meagre  its  list  of  contents,  it  might  almost  have  vied  with 
any  then  published  in  the  mother  country.  Its  infancy  was  feeble  and  lan- 
guishing, but  it  contrived  to  exist  through  many  momentous  changes,  until 
the  year  1776.  In  New  York,  Governor  Lovelace  had  been  anxious  to  estab- 
lish a  journal  as  early  as  1668,  and  even  sent,  without  success,  to  Bostoi?  for 
a  printer ;  but  James  II.  had  strictly  ordered  Donjan  to  allow  no  press  in 
the  colony.  The  first  paper  in  New  York,  called  the  New  York  Gazette, 
appeared  in  October,  1725,  and  fell  at  length  under  the  entire  control  of  the 
governor,  Cosby.  An  opposition  journal,  printed  by  John  Peter  Zenger,  was 
started,  as  it  is  believed,  under  the  auspices  of  Van  Dam,  lately  president  of 
the  council,  between  whom  and  the  governor  a  serious  dispute  had  rec(  ntly 
arisen.  Cosby  demanded  half  the  salary  received  by  his  predecessor,  in  virtue 
of  an  instruction  from  the  ministry,  during  the  thirteen  months  for  -»vhich 
he  had  been  commissioned  on  his  arrival.  As  the  governor  had  received  more 
than  this  amount  in  perquisites,  Van  Dam  retorted  by  demanding  the  balance. 
The  quarrel  agitated  the  legal  tribunals,  and  was  warmly  taken  up  by  the  two 

i  \ 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  227 

opposition  newspapers,  which  had  recently  been  established,  one  devoted  to   chap. 

the   governor's   cause,  the    other,   published    by   Zenger,  to   the    popular ^— 

party.  The  governor,  irritated  by  the  charges  and  lampoons  in  Zenger's  to  mo. 
journal,  succeeded  in  obtaining  his  imprisonment  on  a  charge  of  publishing 
seditious  libels.  As  the  grand  jury  would  find  no  bill  against  him,  the  at- 
torney-general filed  an  information.  The  counsel  of  the  prisoner  persisting 
in  denying  the  legality  of  the  judges'  commission,  on  the  ground  that  they 
had  been  arbitrarily  appointed  without  consent  of  the  council,  they  were 
struck  off  the  roll  of  the  advocates.  "When  the  trial  came  on,  an  aged  Quaker 
lawyer,  Andrew  Hamilton,  speaker  of  the  Pennsylvania  assembly,  who  had 
been  secretly  retained  for  the  purpose,  appeared  to  defend  Zenger,  alleging 
the  justice  of  the  charges  as  excusing  the  pretended  libel.  The  truth  of  a 
libel,  replied  the  chief  justice,  cannot  be  received  in  evidence.  Hamilton, 
however,  boldly  appealed  to  the  jury.  The  question  before  you,  he  said,  is 
not  the  cause  of  a  poor  printer,  nor  of  New  York  alone,  it  is  the  best  cause, 
the  cause  of  liberty.  Every  man  who  prefers  freedom  to  a  life  of  slavery, 
will  bless  and  honour  you  as  men  who,  by  an  impartial  verdict,  lay  a  noble 
foundation  for  securing  to  ourselves,  our  posterity,  and  our  neighbours,  that 
to  which  nature  and  the  honour  of  our  country  have  given  us  a  right — the 
liberty  of  opposing  arbitrary  power  by  speaking  and  writing  truth.  The  ver- 
dict of  the  jury,  "  Not  guilty,"  was  received  by  the  auditors  with  loud  shouts, 
which,  spite  of  the  threats  of  the  court  to  imprison  the  leaders  of  the  out- 
cry, resounded  with  louder  and  more  deafening  echoes  through  the  hall. 
The  triumphant  advocate  was  conducted  from  the  hall  to  a  public  entertain- 
ment, he  received  the  franchises  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box  for  his  generous 
defence  of  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  a  salute  of  cannon  was  fired  at  his 
departure  for  his  own  home. 

Poor  Zenger,  however,  was  left  to  struggle  with  costs  and  difficulties,  and 
appears  to  have  made  but  a  losing  affair  of  his  newspaper,  if  we  may  judge 
from  a  pathetic  complaint  not  unfrequently  echoed  by  modern  American 
journalists.  "  My  country  subscribers,"  he  says,  "  are  earnestly  desired  to 
pay  their  arrearages  for  this  journal,  which  if  they  don't  speedily,  I  shall 
leave  off  sending,  and  seek  my  money  another  way.  Some  of  these  kind 
customers  are  in  arrears  upwards  of  seven  years !  Now,  as  I  have  served 
them  so  long,  I  think  it  is  time,  ay  and  high  time  too,  that  they  gave  me  my 
outset,  for  they  may  verily  believe  that  my  e very-day  clothes  are  nearly 
worn  out.  N.  B.  Gentlemen,  If  you  have  not  ready  money  with  you,  still 
think  of  the  printer;  and  when  you  have  read  this  advertisement  and  con- 
sidered it,  you  cannot  but  say,  Come,  dame,  (especially  you  inquisitive 
wedded  men,  let  the  bachelors  take  it  to  themselves,)  let  us  send  the  poor 
printer  a  few  gammons,  or  some  meal,  some  butter,  cheese,  poultry,  &c." 

The  press  however  had  scarcely  as  yet  made  a  practice  of  taking  up  po- 
litical questions,  which  were  generally  discussed  in  pamphlets,  chiefly  printed 
at  Boston.  In  1740,  the  number  of  newspapers  had  increased  to  eleven ;  one 
in  Carolina,  one  in  Virginia,  three  in  Pennsylvania — one  of  them  in  German, 

2a2 


228  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chat,  one  in  New  York,  and  five  in  Boston.     In  1722,  the  controversies  between 

in. 
■ —  the  governor   and  people    encouraged  James    Franklin   to   set  up   another 

to  1V50.  newspaper  at  Boston,  styled  the  "  New  England  Courant,"  with  a  view  of 
discussing  subjects  of  popular  interest  in  a  liberal  spirit  of  inquiry.  Its 
commencement  however  was  any  thing  but  auspicious.  The  printer  was 
shortly  committed  to  prison  for  an  article  construed  into  contempt  of  the 
General  Court ;  and  a  still  more  unfortunate  mistake  was  made  by  the  pub- 
lisher's younger  brother,  Benjamin  Franklin,  whom  we  now  first  meet  with 
in  the  humble  guise  of  a  spirited  and  hard-working  journeyman  printer,  who 
carried  about  the  sheets  he  had  previously  been  engaged  in  writing  and 
clothing  in  type.  Some  biting  articles  of  the  boy  compositor,  glancing  at  cer- 
tain cases  of  religious  hypocrisy,  were  construed  into  fC  a  tendency  to  mock  reli- 
gion and  bring  it  into  contempt,"  and  the  venerable  Mather,  who  sighed  over 
the  latitudinarianism  of  the  times,  complained  that  he  "  remembered  the  time 
when  the  civil  government  would  have  effectually  suppressed  such  a  cursed 
libel."  Benjamin  Franklin  was  summoned  to  receive  a  suitable  admonition, 
and  his  brother,  after  being  imprisoned,  was  forbidden  to  publish  any  thing 
until  first  submitted  to  a  censorship.  The  paper,  thus  crippled,  soon  fell  for 
want  of  support.  Benjamin,  with  a  few  dollars  in  his  pocket,  sought  a  new 
field  of  employment  in  Philadelphia,  where,  putting  in  practice  his  own 
maxims  of  industry  and  frugality,  he  speedily  laid  the  foundation  of  his  future 
fortunes,  became  printer  to  the  Assembly,  and  established  a  newspaper  of  his 
own.  By  twenty  years'  assiduous  diligence  he  rendered  himself  independent, 
acquired  a  high  standing  among  his  fellow-citizens,  and  was  selected  to  fulfil 
offices  of  weight  and  responsibility  in  the  city  of  his  adoption. 

The  first  literary  periodical  Magazine  in  America  was  established  at  Phila- 
delphia by  his  efforts,  and  he  also  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  progress  of 
education  by  the  foundation  of  an  academy  and  free-school,  which  afterwards 
grew  up  into  the  University  of  Pennsylvania ;  while  his  discoveries  in  elec- 
tricity rendered  his  name  famous  throughout  Europe. 

"  At  the  time  when  I  established  myself  in  Philadelphia,"  he  observes  in 
his  Autobiography,  "  there  was  not  a  good  bookseller's  shop  in  any  of  the 
colonies  to  the  southward  of  Boston.  In  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  the 
printers  were  indeed  stationers,  but  they  sold  only  paper,  almanacs,  ballads, 
and  a  few  common  school-books.  Those  who  loved  reading  were  obliged  to 
send  for  their  books  from  England — the  members  of  the  Junto  had  each  a  few. 
Finding  the  advantage  of  this  little  collection,  I  proposed  to  render  the  benefit 
more  common  by  commencing  a  public  subscription  library."  At  first  there 
were  but  few  supporters,  but  at  last  reading  became  fashionable ;  and  having 
no  public  amusements  to  divert  their  minds  from  study,  the  citizens  of  Phila- 
delphia were  observed  to  be  better  instructed  and  more  intelligent  than 
people  of  the  same  rank  elsewhere. 

We  must  now  turn  to  an  institution,  the  ultimate  consequences  of  which  it 
is  impossible  to  foresee,  pregnant  as  it  is  with  the  seed  of  perpetual  dissension 


A.  1).  1700 
to  1753. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  229 

between  the  northern  and  southern  colonies.  The  first  introduction  of  slaves  chap 
into  Virginia  occurred  in  1620,  by  a  Dutch  trading  vessel.  The  Portuguese 
had  originated  the  practice  of  buying  negroes  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  sell- 
ing them  in  the  American  colonies,  a  traffic  so  gainful  that  the  Spanish, 
Dutch,  and  English  soon  followed  their  example.  For  some  time,  however, 
but  few  slaves  were  introduced. 

The  traders  of  Massachusetts  engaged  in  the  same  traffic,  disposing  of  their 
slaves  for  the  most  part  in  the  West  India  islands.  By  degrees  the  introduc- 
tion of  negroes  became  universal,  and  as  their  number  increased,  the  legisla- 
tion with  regard  to  them  became  more  defined  and  severe.  Slavery  was  de- 
clared hereditary,  and  while  the  intermarriage  of  free  white  women  with 
negroes  was  declared  "  shameful,"  and  the  offender  punished  by  being  held 
as  the  slave  of  her  husband's  master,  the  children  of  black  women,  by  pro- 
miscuous intercourse  with  their  white  masters,  followed  the  fortunes  of  the 
mother.  Runaways  who  refused  to  return  to  their  masters  might  be  lawfully 
put  to  death.  The  conversion  of  the  slave  to  Christianity,  it  was  decided, 
occasioned  no  rupture  of  his  bonds ;  though  it  was  indeed  at  one  time  sup- 
posed that  no  Christian  could  lawfully  be  brought  into  slavery.  The  number 
of  slaves  introduced,  though  as  yet  not  very  numerous,  was  often  felt  by'the 
planters  to  be  out  of  proportion  to  their  requirements,  especially  as  it  soon 
became  cheaper  to  breed  slaves  at  home  than  to  purchase  them  from  abroad. 
The  cessation,  in  1698,  of  the  monopoly  of  the  Royal  African  Company, 
and  the  Assiento  treaty,  by  which  the  South  Sea  Company  obtained  the  pri- 
vilege of  bringing  negroes  into  the  Spanish  territories,  gave  increased  impulse 
to  the  trade,  which  was  now  carried  to  its  height.  Henceforth  the  traffic 
became  extremely  lucrative ;  all  classes,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
engaged  in  it  without  scruple.  "  English  ships,"  says  Bancroft,  "  fitted  out 
in  English  cities,  under  the  special  favour  of  the  royal  family,  of  the  ministry, 
and  parliament,  stole  from  Africa,  in  the  years  from  1700  to  1750,  probably 
a  million  and  a  half  of  souls,  of  whom  one  eighth  were  buried  in  the  Atlantic." 
It  now  became  the  policy  of  government  and  the  interest  of  merchants  to 
flood  the  shores  of  America  with  importations  of  negroes,  in  spite  of  the 
repeated  protestations  of  the  colonists  themselves,  and  no  less  the  duty  of 
the  royal  governors  to  enforce  this  policy,  and,  to  use  the  words  of  an  English 
statesman  of  the  period,  "  not  to  allow  the  colonies  to  check  or  discourage  in 
any  degree  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  nation." 

Notwithstanding  the  deplorable  apathy  which  all  classes  exhibited  as  to  the 
atrocious  injustice  of  this  system,  and  the  plausible  arguments  with  which 
even  men  of  the  highest  reputation  contrived  to  reconcile  themselves  to  its 
existence,  there  were  never  wanting,  even  from  the  first,  a  few  clear-sighted 
and  faithful  men  who  denounced  it  in  its  real  light. 

When  the  lawfulness  of  slavery  was  first  discussed  in  an  English  court,  and 
it  was  alleged  that,  as  "  being  usually  bought  and  sold  among  merchandise, 
and  also  being  infidels,  there  might  lawfully  be  a  property  in  them,"  Chief 
Justice  Holt  repeatedly  declared  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  slave  by  the 


I).  1700 
,  1750. 


230  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  "n  P'  ^aw  °^  En8^anc^-  It  is  to  the  honour  of  Oglethorpe  that  he  steadily  set  him- 
self against  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  Georgia,  in  spite  of  all  the  re- 
quisitions of  his  colonists,  who  desired  to  follow  the  example  of  their  Caro- 
linian neighbours,  and  toasted  at  their  banquets  the  introduction  of  slavery 
as  the  "one  thing  needful;"  nor  could  it  be  established  until  after  his  de- 
parture from  the  country.  Yet  the  great  majority  were  abused,  and  lent 
themselves  to  the  traffic  without  suspicion.  Even  men  like  Whitfield,  losing 
sight  of  the  clear  principles  of  human  rights  in  the  blaze  of  religious  enthu- 
siasm, decided,  that  provided  slaves  were  but  taken  "  in  faith,  and  with  the 
view  of  conducting  them  to  Christ,"  the  action  will  not  be  a  sin,  but  prove  a 
benediction. 

In  the  northern  states,  slavery,  however,  never  became  part  and  parcel  of 
the  social  system,  but  was  a  mere  excrescence,  which  only  awaited  the  progress 
of  public  opinion  to  be  swept  away.  In  Massachusetts,  and  the  New  Eng- 
land States,  the  negroes  were  principally  used  as  domestic  servants.  Manu- 
mission was  not  unfrequent,  and  slavery  there  was  comparatively  mild.  In 
New  York,  the  proportion  of  slaves  was  larger,  and  the  code  for  their 
government  more  harsh.  In  Pennsylvania,  Penn  had  vainly  endeavoured  to 
obtain  laws  for  the  moral  improvement  of  the  slaves,  but  to  little  purpose,  since 
the  instinct  of  slaveholders  teaches  them  that  to  ameliorate  the  moral  and 
religious  condition  of  their  slaves  is  to  pave  the  way  for  their  eventual  en- 
franchisement. Some  of  the  Quakers  having  proposed  abolition,  the  assembly 
determined  that  this  measure  was  neither  "just  nor  convenient,"  though 
they  laid  an  import  duty  on,  intended  to  prevent  further  importations.  The 
southern  States,  especially  the  Carolinas,  were  the  stronghold  of  the  system. 
Here  the  negroes  amounted  to  one  third  of  the  entire  population,  and  the 
climate,  and  staples  of  cultivation,  tended  to  radicate  slavery  in  the  soil.  The 
cultivation  of  rice  and  indigo  rapidly  increased  the  wealth  of  the  planters, 
the  numbers  of  the  slaves  was  multiplied,  and  with  a  cruel  contradiction, 
just  in  proportion  as  their  labour  became  the  source  of  wealth,  their  bonds 
were  rendered  more  stringent,  and  their  condition  more  hopeless.  In  1740, 
an  act  was  passed,  which  still  remains  in  force,  by  which  all  "  negroes,  Indians, 
and  Mestitzoes,  and  all  their  issue,  shall  for  ever  hereafter  be  absolute 
slaves,  held  as  chattels  personal ;"  an  enactment  subjecting  even  the  most  dis- 
tant descendant  to  the  same  miserable  doom. 

Such,  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  treating,  was  the  condition  of  Ame- 
rica in  regard  to  slavery;  already  shaken  in  the  northern  colonies,  and  shortly 
destined  to  be  abolished,  but  no  less  firmly  rooted  in  the  south ;  partly  from 
local  necessity,  partly  from  the  cupidity  of  the  settlers  themselves,  and  partly 
by  the  commercial  avarice  of  the  mother  country.  Of  the  two  great  leaders 
of  the  impending  revolution,  Washington  and  Eranklin,  the  former  was  a 
slaveholder,  and  the  latter  was  an  abolitionist. 

Before  the  revolution,  as  Sullivan  observes,  the  distinctions  of  society  were 
more  marked  than  at  present.    The  royal  governors  often  lived  in  splendid  style, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  231 

and  formed  the  centre  of  a  society  composed  of  "  persons  in  office,  the  rich,  and  c  Ft  p. 

those  who  had  connexions  in  England,  of  which  they  were  very  proud."  ~ : 

These  were  the  gentry  of  the  country,  before  the  war.  Modes  of  life,  man-  to  1V50. 
ners,  and  personal  decoration,  were  the  indications  of  superiority.  As  most 
of  the  gentry  embraced  the  side  of  government,  the  commencement  of  hos- 
tilities drove  a  large  portion  of  them  from  the  colony ;  but  the  same  indica- 
tions continued  among  some  who  remained,  and  adhered  to  the  patriot  side. 
There  was  a  class  of  persons,  no  longer  known,  who  might  be  called  the 
gentry  of  the  interior.  They  held  Very  considerable  landed  estates,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  landowners  in  England.  These  persons  were  the  great  men  in 
their  respective  counties.  They  held  civil  and  military  offices,  and  were 
members  of  the  General  Court.  This  sort  of  personal  dignity  gradually  dis- 
appeared with  the  democratic  tendency  which  followed  the  revolution- 
ary war. 

The  "  wilderness  condition,"  as  the  Puritan  fathers  called  it,  during  which 
they  had  endeavoured  to  restrain  extravagance  and  excess  by  sumptuary 
regulations,  had  long  since  passed  away,  and  with  increasing  wealth,  display 
had  been  gradually  creeping  in  to  both  the  habitations  and  dress  of  the 
people.  There  is  a  quaint  and  old-fashioned  luxury  in  such  a  picture  as  the 
following  :  "  In  the  principal  houses  of  Boston,"  says  the  writer,  "  there  was 
a  great  hall,  ornamented  with  pictures,  and  a  great  lantern,  and  a  velvet 
cushion  in  the  window-seat  that  looked  into  the  garden.  A  large  bowl  of 
punch  was  often  placed  in  the  hall,  from  which  visitors  might  help  themselves 
as  they  entered.  On  either  side  was  a  great  parlour,  a  little  parlour,  or  study. 
These  were  furnished  with  great  looking-glasses,  Turkey  carpets,  window 
curtains  and  valance,  pictures  and  a  map,  a  brass  clock,  red  leather-back 
chairs,  and  a  great  pair  of  brass  andirons.  The  chambers  were  well  sup- 
plied with  feather-beds,  warming-pans,  and  every  other  article  that  would 
now  be  thought  necessary  for  comfort  or  display.  The  pantry  was  well 
filled  with  substantial  fare,  and  dainties — prunes,  marmalade,  and  Madeira 
wine.  Silver  tankards,  wine  cups,  and  other  articles  of  plate  were  not  un- 
common, and  the  kitchen  was  completely  stocked  with  pewter,  iron,  and  cop- 
per utensils.  Very  many  families  employed  servants,  and  in  one  we  see  a 
Scotch  boy,  valued  among  the  property,  and  invoiced  at  £14."  Negro  slaves 
also  often  formed  part  of  a  New  England  household  of  that  day.  Even 
before  this  period,  in  the  matter  of  dress,  certain  of  the  ladies  were  eager 
to  copy  the  London  and  Paris  fashions,  as  we  learn  from  a  splenetic  old 
writer.  "  Methinks,"  he  says,  "  it  should  break  the  heart  of  Englishmen  to 
see  so  many  goodly  Englishwomen  imprisoned  in  French  cages,  peering  out 
of  their  hood-holes  for  some  men  of  mercy  to  help  them  with  a  little  wit ; "  and 
bitterly  complains  of  their  eagerness  to  learn  what  dress  the  queen  is  in,  and 
to  copy  it  in  all  haste.  As  mention  is  here  made  of  pictures,  we  may  observe 
that  the  first  portrait  painter  in  America  was  John  Smibert,  a  Scotch  artist, 
who  came  over  with  Berkeley,  and  painted  that  picture  of  the  bishop  and  his 
family  which  is  preserved  at  Yale  College.     An  art  so  pleasing  was  not  long 


232  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  ^n  P*  *n  making  its  way  over  the  colonies,  and  has  preserved  to  posterity  the  youth- 
A  p  170Q  ful  appearance  of  Washington.  But  though  art  and  literature  were  making 
to  1750.  their  way,  public  amusements  were  still  frowned  upon  by  the  New  England 
magistrates.  Otway's  play  of  The  Orphan  was  acted  in  1750,  at  a  coffee-house 
in  Boston ;  but  such  exhibitions  were  forthwith  prohibited,  as  "  tending  to 
discourage  industry  and  frugality,  and  greatly  to  increase  impiety  and  con- 
tempt of  religion."  A  London  company  of  actors  contrived  however,  shortly 
afterwards,  to  gain  a  footing  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  different  towns 
of  the  south. 

Under  the  Dutch,  New  York  must  have  presented  a  curious  spectacle,  as 
though  some  town  of  the  old  country,  with  its  quaint  architecture  and  cum- 
brous costume,  had  been  transplanted  bodily  across  the  ocean,  and  set  down 
in  the  midst  of  the  swamps  and  forests  of  the  new  world.  An  old  engraving  of 
the  Stadt  Huis,  or  Town  Hall,  with  the  adjacent  buildings,  might  be  taken  for 
a  view  in  Amsterdam.  The  mayor  at  the  head  of  the  city  militia  was  accus- 
tomed to  parade  before  it,  and  every  evening  at  sun-set  received  from  the  prin- 
cipal guard  of  the  fort,  which  could  lodge  three  hundred  soldiers,  and  mounted 
forty  guns,  the  keys  of  the  city,  and  then  proceeded  with  a  guard  of  six  men 
to  lock  the  city  gates  and  place  a  Burger  wagt,  or  citizen  guard,  at  different 
posts.  Before  sun-rise  he  was  again  on  his  rounds  to  open  the  said  gates,  and 
restore  the  keys  to  the  officer.  Many  and  high-sounding  were  the  titles  of 
the  Dutch  officials ;  there  was  the  Heer  Officier,  or  high  sheriff,  De  Fiscael, 
or  attorney-general,  the  Wees  Meisters,  or  guardians  of  orphans,  and  the 
Roy  Meisters,  or  regulators  of  fences,  the  Groot  Burgerreicht  and  the  Klein 
Burgerreicht,  or  great  and  small  citizenship,  which  divided  society  into  aris- 
tocrats and  democrats,  with  more  than  we  can  here  enumerate.  With  the 
cession  of  the  colony  to  the  English,  their  habits  and  manners  gradually  pre- 
dominated over  those  of  the  Dutch.  A  century  ago  the  Broadway  of  New 
York  exhibited  all  the  picturesque  fashions  of  the  period.  A  New  York  beau 
then  wore  a  gorgeous  coat  of  red  plush,  with  large  cuffs,  and  huge  three- 
plaited  skirts,  stiffened  with  buckram  wadding ;  the  neck  was  studiously  low, 
to  exhibit  his  plaited  stock  of  fine  linen,  and  the  large  silver  buckle  behind ; 
ruffles  with  golden  sleeve  buttons  invested  his  wrists,  his  breeches  were  of 
the  same  material  as  his  coat,  with  silk  stockings,  and  high-heeled  shoes  adorned 
with  buckles.  The  little  boys  wore  nearly  the  same  ponderous  costume 
as  their  papas. 

Although  the  towns  along  the  seaboard  were  increasing  in  prosperity,  and 
the  country  intervening  between  them  was  gradually  filled  up  with  settlers, 
hardly  a  village  was  to  be  found  at  more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  the  coast, 
and  a  vast  wilderness  interposed  between  the  outposts  of  the  English  and 
the  forts  of  the  French  on  the  western  waters.  The  Blue  Ridge  long  con- 
tinued to  be  the  boundary  of  Virginia,  and  it  was  not  until  1710  that 
Lieutenant-Governor  Spotswood,  with  a  large  retinue,  penetrated  its  defiles, 
and  first  laid  open  the  mountains  and  vales  of  the  Alleghany  district  to  the 
enterprise  of  pioneers. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

As  the  population  of  Virginia  and  Carolina  pressed  eagerly  across  the  tracks  chap. 
thus  formed,  a  new  form  of  character,  the  American  backwoodsman,  began  to ' — 

.  .  .  .  .  °  ,    A.  D.  1700 

spring  up  among  the  western  forests.  As  none  but  the  most  vigorous  and  to  1750. 
athletic  ventured  to  establish  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  hostile  Indians, 
these  new  settlers  were  generally  men  of  extraordinary  physical  strength, 
and  nerved  into  tenfold  hardihood  by  a  continual  struggle  with  the  wilder- 
ness and  its  Indian  tenants,  who  resented  this  intrusion  upon  their  imme- 
morial hunting  grounds.  The  character  of  such  men  was  necessarily  half 
savage  and  half  civilized,  and  they  adopted  a  costume  greatly  resembling  that 
of  the  aborigines  themselves.  A  fur  cap,  buck-skin  pantaloons,  or  leggings  of 
dressed  deer-skin,  ornamented  after  the  Indian  fashion,  with  a  loose  hunting 
shirt,  in  the  capacious  bosom  of  which  were  stowed  away  a  store  of  jerked  beef 
and  bread,  with  other  hunter  requisites,  girt  round  the  waist  with  a  belt,  to  which 
were  fastened  the  tomahawk  and  the  scalping  knife,  with  Indian  mocassins,  or 
leathern  sandals  for  the  feet,  and  the  invariable  rifle  over  his  shoulder — such 
was  the  dress  of  one  of  these  western  pioneers.  Their  habitations  were  log-huts 
surrounded  by  a  stockade,  made  bullet  proof  for  protection  against  their  Indian 
foes.  The  furniture  was  of  the  rudest  description,  and  the  shaggy  skins  of 
the  bear,  buffalo,  and  deer  furnished  the  stock  of  bedding.  Their  food  con- 
sisted principally  of  the  rich  variety  of  game  furnished  by  the  chase,  among 
which  the  flesh  of  the  bear  was  highly  prized.  As  the  clearing  around  his 
hut  began  to  expand  its  boundaries,  many  were  the  farinaceous  delicacies 
that  covered  the  settler's  board ;  the  Johnny-cake,  made  of  corn  meal,  hom- 
mony,  or  pounded  corn  thoroughly  boiled,  and  other  savoury  preparations 
of  flour  and  milk.  Hunting  was  the  principal  winter  occupation  of  the  back- 
woodsman, and  "  as  soon  as  the  leaves  were  pretty  well  down,  and  the  weather 
became  rainy,  he  began  to  feel  uneasy  at  home.  Every  thing  about  him 
became  disagreeable.  The  house  was  too  warm,  the  bed  was  too  soft,  and 
even  the  good  wife  for  the  time  was  not  thought  a  good  companion."  A  party 
was  soon  formed,  and, on  the  appointed  day  the  little  cavalcade,  with  horses 
carrying  flour,  meal,  blankets,  and  other  requisites,  were  on  their  way  to  the 
hunting  camp.  This  was  always  formed  in  some  sheltered  and  sequestered 
spot,  and  consisted  of  a  rude  cabin,  with  the  log-fire  in  front,  and  moss  and 
skins  for  the  couches.  It  was  to  the  spoils  of  the  chase  that  the  backwoods- 
men trusted  for  the  skins  and  furs  to  barter  for  the  few  necessaries  they  re- 
quired from  the  eastern  states,  to  which  a  caravan  was  usually  despatched  for 
the  purpose.  As  the  settlements  increased,  every  neighbourhood  was  furn- 
ished with  a  strong  timber  fort,  to  which  the  inhabitants  might  return  in 
case  of  attack,  some  of  which  were  so  strong  as  to  resist  the  most  formidable 
Indian  army. 

Beyond  the  limits  of  civilization,  and  untrammeled  by  law  or  gospel,  every 
man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.  Yet  the  moral  feeling  of 
society  was  often  a  greater  terror  to  the  delinquent  than  judge  or  jury, 
for  if  he  offended  it  he  was  liable  to  be  "hated  from  the  place,"  or  in  grave 
cases,  subjected  to  the  summary  process  of  Lynch  law,  which,  though  some- 


o 


II 


234  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

C  nf  P'  tmies  abused,  was  no  doubt,  upon  the  whole,  a  salutary  terror  to  offenders. 
A  D  1700  A  body  of  citizens,  calling  themselves  regulators,  would  repair  to  the  dwelling 

to  1750.  of  the  culprit,  who  being  tied  to  a  tree,  Chief-justice  "Birch"  forthwith 
established  his  tribunal  and  pronounced  the  sentence,  which  was  carried  into 
execution  with  no  gentle  hand.  If  the  conduct  of  any  individual  was  im- 
peached by  another,  the  matter  was  decided  by  an  appeal  to  fisticuffs,  or 
"  rough  and  tumble,"  with  fists,  feet,  and  teeth,  but  knives  and  fire-arms 
were  not  allowed  to  be  used.  The  contest  decided,  both  parties  would  shake 
hands  and  be  better  friends  than  ever.  A  kindred,  but  still  more  lawless, 
race  were  the  hardy  boatmen,  who  now  began  to  explore  and  navigate  the 
western  waters,  propelling  their  rafts,  or  flat  boats,  with  incredible  toil  against 
the  current  for  thousands  of  miles  together.  Rejoicing  to  exhibit  the 
strength  they  acquired  in  these  Herculean  labours,  they  delighted  in  pugilistic 
encounters ;  keel-boatmen  and  flat-boatmen  regarded  each  other  as  their 
npfural  enemies,  and  their  meeting  was  always  signalized  by  a  general 
encounter,  and  their  riotous  and  lawless  assemblages  set  at  defiance  the  feeble 
arm  of  the  civil  power. 

These  western  people,  in  visiting  the  old  cities  on  the  sea-board,  were  re- 
garded by  the  inhabitants  as  a  sort  of  barbarians,  whom  they  in  their  turn 
despised  for  their  effeminate  habits.  "  Children  who  had  been  raised  on  the 
frontiers,"  says  Doddridge,  "when  they  reached  the  settlements  east  of  the 
mountains,  were  surprised  to  find  that  all  houses  were  not  made  of  logs  and 
chinked  with  mud,  that  all  dishes  and  table  ware  were  not  of  pewter  and 
wood.  To  them  the  luxuries  of  tea  and  coffee  were  nauseous  or  unknown, 
and  they  f  wondered  how  people  could  show  a  fondness  for  such  slops,'  which 
had  neither  gust  to  the  palate,  nor  stuck  to  the  ribs.'  The  cups  and  saucers 
from  which  it  was  drunk  were  themselves  but  emblems  of  a  depraved  taste 
and  unmanly  luxury,  or,  at  most,  were  adapted  to  the  effeminate  or  the  sick." 
No  settlement  was  effected  in  Vermont  until  the  year  1724,  when  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  built  Fort  Dummer,  on  the  Upper  Connecticut. 
This  was  the  western  outpost  of  civilization  in  this  direction,  and  the  rich 
lands  of  this  district  remained  unsettled  until  after  the  French  war,  when 
a  road  was  cut  by  the  New  England  troops  from  Charlestown  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, to  the  French  fort  at  Crown  Point  on  Lake  Champlain,  thus  discover- 
ing the  fertility  of  these  lands,  which  after  the  peace  were  eagerly  coveted 
and  rapidly  settled. 

The  town  of  Albany,  at  that  time  on  the  edge  of  a  boundless  uncleared 
wilderness,  was  the  western  outpost  of  civilization,  and  must  have  presented  a 
singularly  curious  and  picturesque  appearance.  Originally  founded  by  the 
Dutch,  it  had  successively  received  the  name  of  Fort  Orange,  Beverwyk,  and 
Williamstadt,  until,  after  the  English  conquest,  it  received  the  name  which  it 
has  ever  since  retained.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  stockade  of  pine  logs. 
The  fort,  a  post  of  no  small  importance  on  the  frontier  of  a  country  full  of  wild 
Indians,  was  massive  and  strong ;  just  below  it  was  the  English  church,  and 
the  old  Dutch  church,  of  quaint  and  antique  appearance.     The  architecture 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  235 

was  like  that  of  Delft,  or  Leyden ;  all  the  houses  stood  with  their  angular   c  ha  p. 
zigzag  gables  turned  to  the  street,  with  long  projecting  gutter  pipes,  which,  ^ 

like  those  of  the  towns  of  continental  Europe  at  the  present  day,  discharge  to  1750. 
their  unsavoury  current  of  dirty  water  or  melted  snows  upon  the  heads 
of  the  unwary  passengers.  The  stoopes,  or  porches,  were  furnished  with 
side-seats,  well  filled  in  the  evening  with  the  inmates,  old  and  young,  of  both 
sexes,  who  met  to  gossip  or  to  court,  while  the  cattle  wandered  almost  at  will 
about  the  streets  of  the  half-rustic  city.  In  the  interior  of  the  dwellings, 
Dutch  cleanliness  and  economy  were  established  ;  the  women,  as  at  the  present 
day  in  Holland,  were  considered  over-nice  in  scrubbing  their  floors,  and 
burnishing  their  brass  and  pewter  vessels  into  an  intensity  of  lustre.  From 
the  dawn  of  day  until  late  at  night  they  were  engaged  in  the  work  of  purifi- 
cation. They  lived  too  with  exemplary  sobriety ;  breakfasting  on  tea  without 
milk  and  sweetened  by  a  small  bit  of  sugar  passed  round  from  one  to  the 
other ;  they  dined  on  butter-milk  and  bread,  and  if  to  that  they  added  sugar, 
it  was  esteemed  delicious,  though  sometimes  they  indulged  in  broiled  and 
roasted  meats.  The  use  of  stoves  was  unknown,  and  the  huge  fire-places, 
through  which  one  might  have  driven  a  waggon,  furnished  with  ample  logs, 
were  grand  and  cozy  nestling-places  during  the  long  winter  evenings,  which  the 
wail  of  the  snow  storm  and  the  roar  of  the  forest  trees  rendered  more  deliciously 
secure.     Under  the  English  the  same  simplicity  of  manners  long  prevailed. 

Albany  was  the  grand  depot  for  the  western  fur  trade,  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury. Curiously  contrasted  with  the  quaint  and  prim  costume  of  its  Dutch 
inhabitants,  were  constantly  seen,  in  those  days,  the  dusky  face  and  savage 
finery  of  the  Indian  chiefs.  Here,  glorious  in  all  the  refinement  of  paint 
and  feathers,  and  armed  with  the  bow  and  the  tomahawk,  assembled  the  grave 
and  dignified  Sachems  of  the  once  powerful  Five  Nations.  Here  the  pipe  of 
peace  was  smoked,  and  treaties  of  peace  entered  into,  with  these  redoubtable 
chieftains.  Here,  too,  often  assembled,  with  a  rude  display  of  military  pomp, 
the  militia,  destined  to  act  against  the  French  in  Canada,  between  which 
country  and  the  Hudson  there  extended  a  vast  wilderness,  where  the  Indians 
yet  roamed  unmolested,  and  intersected  only  by  one  or  two  roads  leading 
through  interminable  morasses  and  forests. 

These  provincial  militia  were  "  strong  of  limb,  swift  of  foot,  and  excellent 
marksmen,  the  hatchet  was  as  familiar  to  them  as  the  rifle ;  in  short,  when 
means  and  arguments  could  be  used  powerful  enough  to  collect  a  people  so 
uncontrolled  and  so  uncontrollable,  and  when,  headed  by  a  leader  whom 
they  loved  and  trusted,  a  well-armed  body  of  New  York  provincials  had 
nothing  to  dread  but  an  ague  or  an  ambuscade."  To  the  foT  mer  they  were 
far  better  acclimated  than  the  British  regulars,  and  in  the  latter  dilemma 
displayed  greater  readiness  and  presence  of  mind.  The  provincial  troops  are 
contemptuously  described  by  an  English  authority  as  "a  poor,  mean,  ragged 
set  of  men  of  all  ages,  and  sizes,  and  costumes,"  but  their  officers  as  shrewd 
and  sensible,  making  "a  decent  appearance  in  blue  uniforms  faced  with 
scarlet,  gilt  buttons,  with  laced  waistcoats  and  hats.     The  active  and  enter- 


236  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  prising  corps  of  Rangers,  whose  exploits  are  so  often  heard  of  during  the 

'—  succeeding  wars,  adopted  a  costume  better  suited  for  bush-fighting,  something 

to  1*750.  resembling  that  of  the  Highlanders.  Their  uniform  was  made  of  black  frieze, 
faced  with  blue,  and  consisted  of  a  waistcoat,  with  a  jacket  without  sleeves, 
canvass  drawers,  and  long  leggings,  buttoning  like  spatterdashes,  and  blue 
bonnets.  To  these  provincials  were  shortly  after  added  large  detachments  of 
the  English  troops,  which  rendezvoused  at  Albany,  and  whose  gay  and  gallant 
officers  were  received  here  and  elsewhere  with  frank  hospitality  by  the  admiring 
colonists.  When  John  Adams  was  a  young  lawyer  at  Worcester  in  Massachu- 
setts, then  a  little  village  containing  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  the  British  army 
destined  for  Canada,  with  Lord  Londoun,  the  hopeless  procrastinator,  the 
youthful  Lord  Howe,  of  whose  fate  we  shall  shortly  have  to  speak,  and  Sir 
Geoffrey,  afterwards  Lord  Amherst,  passed  through  the  place.  "  Here," 
says  Mr.  Adams,  "  we  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  officers  and  army. 
The  officers  were  social,  spent  their  evenings  and  took  their  suppers  with 
such  of  the  inhabitants  as  were  able  to  invite  them,  and  entertained  us  with 
their  music  and  dances.  Many  of  them  were  Scotchmen  in  their  plaids,  and 
their  music  was  delightful,  even  the  bagpipe  was  not  disagreeable.  General 
Amherst  lodged  with  Colonel  Chandler  the  elder,  and  was  very  inquisitive 
concerning  his  farm,  insisting  on  rambling  over  the  whole  of  it.  The  excellent 
order  and  discipline  observed  by  these  troops  revived  the  hopes  of  the 
country,  which  were  ultimately  fully  satisfied  by  the  entire  conquest  of 
Canada  with  the  half  of  the  militia  of  the  country,  which  were  sent  on  to 
their  assistance  with  great  confidence." 

The  British  troops  were  regarded  with  pride  and  emulation  by  the  colonial 
militia,  although  the  latter  often  felt  their  proud  and  untamed  spirits  SAvell  at  the 
airs  of  superiority  assumed  by  their  better  appointed  and  disciplined,  but  not 
braver,  fellow-soldiers,  and  they  sometimes  refused  to  serve  under  any  but 
their  own  officers,  who  knew  and  valued  their  spirit.  It  was  in  the  ensuing 
wars,  and  in  serving  with  the  royal  troops,  that  these  colonial  officers  acquired 
that  military  experience  which  they  afterwards  turned  to  such  dear  account 
in  their  struggle  with  the  mother  country.  In  this  school  were  trained  not 
only  Gates,  and  Montgomery,  and  others,  who,  though  they  took  the  part  of 
the  colonists,  were  themselves  natives  of  Britain,  but  those  brave  sons  of  the 
soil,  who  afterwards  became  conspicuous  in  the  annals  of  the  revolutionary 
struggle,  Putnam,  Willett,  Stark,  Wooster,  Schuyler,  and  a  host  of  other 
chiefs,  whose  exploits,  although  less  prominent  in  the  general  outline  of  his- 
tory, contributed  not  a  little  to  the  ultimate  independence  of  their  country. 

It  may  be  well  imagined  that  the  intercourse  between  colonies  separated 
by  wide  intervals  of  country,  few  parts  more  than  half  settled,  and  in  many 
places  almost  a  profound  wilderness,  was  of  course  very  imperfect.  The  postal 
communication  of  America  seems  to  have  originated  in  Virginia  soon  after  the 
arrival  of  Andros,  who  succeeded  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  as  governor. 
By  royal  patent  Thomas  Neale  was  authorized  to  establish  a  post  for  the  de- 


A.  D.  1700 
to  1750. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  237 

spatch  of  letters  and  parcels,  and  this  example  was  slowly  followed  in  the  other    chap 
States,  although  it  was  not  until  the  revolution,  when  Franklin  became  post- 
master-general, and  the  colonies  were  more  vitally  united,  that  any  great 
improvement  took  place  in  this  important  establishment. 

At  the  period  of  Franklin's  first  appointment,  the  following  advertisement 
was  put  forth.  "  Oct.  27th,  1737.  Notice  is  hereby  given,  that  the  post- 
office  of  Philadelphia  is  now  kept  at  B.  Franklin's,  in  Market  Street,  and  that 
Henry  Pratt  is  appointed  riding  postmaster  for  all  the  stages  between 
Philadelphia  and  Newport  in  Virginia,  who  sets  out  about  the  beginning  of 
each  month,  and  returns  in  twenty-four  days,  by  whom  gentlemen,  merchants, 
and  others  may  have  their  letters  carefully  conveyed,  and  business  faithfully 
transacted,  he  having  given  good  security  for  the  same  to  the  Honourable 
Colonel  Spotswood,  postmaster-general  of  all  his  Majesty's  dominions  in 
America."  Improvement  was  not  very  rapid.  Six  years  afterwards  the  post  to 
New  York  went  once  a  week,  and  that  into  Virginia  once  a  fortnight.  Even 
in  England,  where  the  roads  are  now  brought  to  such  perfection,  they  were 
at  that  time  generally  in  a  very  bad  condition.  In  America  they  are  still  bad 
enough,  and  were  then  doubtless  so  bad  as  at  times  to  be  all  but  impassable 
for  carriages,  and  even  for  horsemen.  The  journey  from  Worcester  to 
Braintree,  a  distance  of  about  seventy  miles,  took  John  Adams  no  less  than 
five  days  to  accomplish. 

The  settlers  of  the  New  England  colonies  first  efTected  their  transactions 
by  barter,  and  afterwards  made  use  of  beaver-skins,  musket-balls,  and 
wampum  beads,  as  a  circulating  medium,  three  of  these  beads  passing  for  a 
penny.  In  Virginia,  tobacco  was  long  the  only  currency  of  the  colonists. 
By  degrees,  necessity  led  to  the  introduction  of  coin  and  paper  money.  The 
first  coin  was  struck  in  New  England  in  about  the  year  1650.  Much  bullion 
was  brought  to  that  province  by  the  buccaneers,  and  it  was  thought  advisable, 
in  order  to  prevent  fraud,  to  erect  a  mint  for  shillings,  sixpences,  and  three- 
pences, with  no  other  impression  at  first  than  NE.  on  one  side,  and  XII.,  VI.,  or 
III.  on  the  other;  but  in  October,  1651,  it  was  decreed  by  the  court,  that  the 
coinage  should  have  on  one  side  a  pine  tree  in  the  centre,  with  MASSACHU- 
SETTS around  it,  and  NEW  ENGLAND,  with  the  year  of  our  Lord,  upon  the 
other.  Little  notice  seems  to  have  been  taken  of  this  measure  by  the  home 
government,  and  this  currency  does  not  appear  to  have  been  much  circulated 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  colony  itself.  It  is  said  that  the  mint-master,  John 
Hull,  received  one  shilling  in  every  twenty  for  his  labours,  by  which  contract 
he  became  so  wealthy  as  to  give  his  daughter,  upon  her  marriage,  her  own 
weight  in  these  pine-tree  shillings,  as  her  portion.  The  expense  of  the  inter- 
colonial wars  occasioned  the  first  emission  of  paper  money.  The  troops  were 
mutinous  for  their  pay,  and  would  not  wait  until  a  tax  could  be  raised  for 
them  in  specie ;  and  their  claims  were  therefore  satisfied  by  these  new-coined 
notes,  which  in  spite  of  the  governor's  exchanging  a  large  number  of  them  at 
par,  soon  sunk  far  below  their  nominal  value,  but  were  raised  in  value  by  an 


238  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  ?n  P'  exPedient  °f  the  government  allowing  five  per  cent,  to  those  who  paid  the 
—      „     taxes  in  notes.     Hereafter  the  creation  of  paper  money  upon  any  emergency 

to  1750.    became  a  favourite  expedient  of  the  assembly,  who  generally  forced  the  go- 
vernor to  accede  to  it. 

"What  necessity  had  first  created,  was  now  continued,  partly  from  the  ab- 
sence of  a  sufficiency  of  metallic  currency,  which  was  drawn  off  for  payments 
to  the  mother  country,  and  partly  out  of  the  spirit  of  speculation  inherent  in 
a  new  colony,  where  capital  has  not  yet  had  time  to  accumulate.  In  spite  of 
the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  home  government,  successive  emissions  of 
paper  money  became  the  favourite  expedient  of  the  colonial  assemblies,  and 
though  its  immediate  effect  was  to  give  an  impulse  to  trade,  it  was  not  long 
before  the  enormous  evils  and  abuses  incident  to  its  unlimited  use  developed 
themselves  to  an  alarming  extent.  In  spite  of  every  legislative  contrivance, 
the  value  of  the  paper  rapidly  sank,  debtors  availed  themselves  of  it  as  legal- 
ized tender  to  escape  from  the  claims  of  their  creditors,  persons  with  fixed 
incomes  were  almost  ruined,  and  commerce  became  unsettled  by  the  very  ex- 
pedient designed  for  its  promotion.  At  length,  in  1751,  the  evil  became  so 
intolerable  in  Massachusetts,  that  it  was  decided,  though  not  without  great 
opposition  from  interested  parties,  to  redeem  the  paper  at  a  little  less  than 
its  current  value,  while  an  act  of  parliament  was  obtained,  prohibiting  the 
future  issue  of  any  bills  of  credit  for  which  provision  was  not  made  within 
the  twelvemonth.  These  restrictions  were  among  the  causes  that  tended 
to  produce  a  feeling  of  ill-will  to  the  mother  country. 

Having  thus  taken  a  general  though  imperfect  survey  of  the  condition  of 
the  colonies  at  the  close  of  the  intercolonial  wars,  we  next  proceed  to  narrate 
the  conquest  of  Canada;  which,  by  delivering  the  colonists  from  any  further 
apprehension  of  the  French,  tended  to  remove  the  principal  check  upon  their 
aspirations  for  independence,  and  to  bring  about,  almost  immediately  after- 
ward, the  memorable  revolution  by  which  it  was  successfully  achieved. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  239 


CHAPTER  IV. 


PINAL  STRUGGLE   BETWEEN  THE   FRENCH   AND  ENGLISH,  TERMINATING  IN  THE   CONQUEST  OP 
CANADA,   AND   THE   CESSION   OF  NORTH   AMERICA   TO   THE   BRITISH   CROWN. 


The  designs  of  the  French  had  long  given  serious  anxiety  to  the  English   chap. 
government.     The  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  great  lakes  by  the 


former  has  been  already  described,  and  to  this  vast  region,  including  even 
the  tributaries  of  the  great  river  which  extended  to  the  very  frontiers  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  they  now  laid  claim.  They  had  already  estab- 
lished numerous  military  and  trading  posts,  from  the  frontiers  of  Canada  to 
the  recently  founded  city  of  New  Orleans,  and  where  they  had  been  unable 
thus  to  take  formal  possession  of  the  soil,  they  had  endeavoured  to  found  a 
right  of  .pre-occupation,  by  sinking  plates  of  metal  in  the  ground,  or  carving 
the  lilies  of  France  upon  the  bark  of  the  forest  trees.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
different  English  grants  had  extended  in  theory  on  a  line  direct  westward  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  thus  setting  up  a  counter-pretension  to  the  same  lands  to 
which  the  French  asserted  a  right  by  the  more  direct  title  of  discovery.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say,  that  to  this  disputed  territory  neither  party  had  any 
fair  title  whatsoever,  since  the  lands  had  never  been  ceded  by  the  natives,  who, 
when  appealed  to  as  arbiters  of  a  dispute,  are  said  to  have  inquired  by  way 
of  reply,  "  where  lay  the  Indian  lands,  for  the  French  claimed  all  on  one 
side  of  the  river,  and  the  English  all  on  the  other."  So  long  as  the  latter 
confined  themselves  to  the  sea-board,  their  claims  attracted  comparatively  but 
little  attention  from  their  rivals,  but  as  they  began  to  push  their  settlements 
across  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and  to  encroach  upon  what  the  French  re- 
garded as  their  rightful  limits,  it  became  evident  that  a  collision  could  not  be 
much  longer  deferred. 

Soon  after  the  peace,  a  body  of  London  merchants  and  Virginian  land 
speculators  had  been  incorporated  as  the  "  Company  of  the  Ohio,"  for  settling 
the  borders  of  that  stream,  which,  from  the  fertility  of  its  shores  and  the  beauty 
of  its  scenery,  had  justly  obtained  from  the  French  the  appellation  of  "  La 
Belle  Riviere."  As  the  great  object  was  to  obtain  a  footing  in  the  soil,  this 
Company  forthwith  proceeded  to  establish  the  post  of  Redstone,  on  the 
Monongahela  river — a  step,  of  course,  regarded  as  an  aggression  by  the 
French,  who  built  a  new  fort  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  and  were  evidently 
preparing  to  drive  out  the  competitors,  and  take  possession  of  the  disputed 
territory.  In  anticipation  of  this  step,  Governor  Dinwiddie  had  already  sent 
out  a  messenger  in  the  guise  of  a  trader,  to  ascertain  the  temper  of  the 


240  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


ci*ap.  Indians,  and  to  spy  out  the  proceedings  of  the  French.  The  English  go- 
A  D  mg  vernment,  in  anticipation  of  a  war,  had  urged  him  to  lose  no  time  in  building 
two  forts,  for  which  purpose  artillery  and  munitions  were  sent  over ;  but  the 
French  had  been  beforehand  with  them,  and  both  from  the  north  and  the 
south,  bodies  of  men  had  already  been  concentrated  upon  the  beautiful  banks 
of  the  Ohio. 

It  is  in  connexion  with  these  transactions,  that  we  for  the  first  time  meet 
with  the  illustrious  father  of  American  liberty.  In  a  former  chapter  allusion 
has  been  made  to  John  Washington,  who  had  then  recently  emigrated  from 
England,  and  settled  down  among  the  planters  of  Virginia.  The  family  of 
which  he  was  a  scion,  were  established  at  Sulgrave,  in  Northamptonshire,  and 
numbered  many  personages  of  rank  and  consequence. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  the  great-grandson  of  the  above-named 
settler,  was  born  on  the  22nd  of  February,  1732,  being  the  first  offspring  of 
his  father's,  Augustine  Washington's,  marriage  with  Mary  Ball,  his  second  wife. 
George  was  but  a  lad  of  eleven  when  his  father  died,  leaving  him  with  five 
brothers  and  sisters,  all  however  tolerably  well  provided  for.  His  mother,  on 
whom  alone  now  devolved  the  serious  charge  of  shaping  the  character  and 
managing  the  interests  of  her  children,  was  a  woman  of  remarkable  mental 
and  bodily  energy,  in  whom  may  be  seen  the  same  qualities  which  were  more 
conspicuously  manifested  in  her  illustrious  son.  Although  she  lived  to  wit- 
ness his  translation  from  the  sphere  of  a  private  citizen  to  that  of  the  de- 
liverer and  first  magistrate  of  his  country,  it  worked  no  alteration  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  her  habits,  and  when  all  around  her  eagerly  sounded  his  praises 
in  her  ear,  she  was  accustomed  only  to  reply,  that  he  had  been  a  good  son  and 
had  performed  his  duty  as  a  man.  Under  her  strict,  but  not  severe  discipline, 
young  Washington  grew  up  towards  manhood  with  but  little  assistance  from 
scholastic  training.  Virginia  had  always  been  behind  the  northern  colonies 
in  the  means  of  education.  Latin  and  Greek  were  untaught  in  the  common 
schools  to  which  he  was  compelled  to  resort,  nor  is  it  probable,  from  the  turn 
of  his  mind,  that  he  would  ever  have  been  a  proficient  in  classical  accomplish- 
ments. But  the  more  severe  and  practical  cast  of  his  intellect  was  exempli- 
fied by  the  progress  he  made  in  arithmetic  and  the  elements  of  geometry,  his 
methodical  and  regular  habits,  and  the  singular  satisfaction  he  appears  to  have 
derived  from  writing  out  forms  and  abstracts  of  business  proceedings.  Not 
less  characteristic  of  his  early  sense  of  moral  responsibility  is  a  system  of 
maxims,  which,  strange  indeed  at  such  an  age,  he  had  drawn  up  for  his  be- 
haviour, and  which,  stranger  still,  he  ever  afterwards  carried  into  practice, 
terminating  with  the  solemn  memento,  "  Labour  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast 
that  little  spark  of  celestial  fire  called  conscience."  This  thoughtful,  elevated 
cast  of  mind,  and  a  certain  dignity  of  manner  and  appearance,  gave  to  him, 
even  in  school,  a  moral  ascendency  over  the  minds  of  his  fellows,  who  looked 
up  to  him  as  the  impartial  arbiter  of  their  disputes.  But  with  these  character- 
istics, young  Washington  combined  others  of  a  nature  directly  opposite. 
Robust  in  frame,  and  with  Virginian  fire  and  daring  in  his  blood,  he  de- 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  241 

lighted  iii  athletic  and  military  exercises.     Like  Napoleon  at  Brienne,  he  ciJap. 

would  form  his  schoolmates  into  companies,  and  engage  in  mimic  battles.  

After  he  left  school  this  military  turn  of  mind  grew  upon  him,  he  continued 
the  studies  of  mathematics  and  trigonometry,  associated  with  officers  who 
had  served  in  the  recent  wars,  studied  tactics  and  perused  treatises,  and 
became  expert  in  the  use  of  the  sword.  Such  was  the  remarkable  balance  of 
qualities  rarely  united  in  the  same  individual — prudence,  self-possession,  and 
conscientiousness,  with  ardour,  energy,  and  the  love  of  active  enterprise. 

The  destination  of  young  Washington  was  now  an  object  of  interest  to  his 
relatives,  and  looking  to  his  desire  for  active  service,  one  of  them  obtained 
for  him  a  birth  as  midshipman  on  board  a  British  man-of-war ;  but  this 
scheme,  to  which  he  is  said  to  have  looked  forward  with  all  the  buoyancy  of 
youthful  enterprise,  was  set  aside  by  the  authority  of  his  mother.  How  many 
instances  are  there  in  which  the  disappointment  of  early  plans  has  proved  to 
be  the  source  of  future  greatness!  Had  Washington  gone  to  sea,  what  a 
difference  would  it  have  made  to  his  own  glory,  and  to  the  future  fortunes  of 
his  country !  The  occupation  which  he  now  took  up,  though  both  useful  and 
lucrative  in  a  new  country,  where  vast  tracts  of  land  were  to  be  opened  and 
settled,  bore  in  it  no  promise  of  future  greatness,  being  simply  that  of  land- 
surveyor  and  agent  to  a  wealthy  nobleman,  Lord  Fairfax,  to  whose  family 
he  had  become  distantly  related.  This  nobleman,  who  had  been  edu- 
cated at  Oxford,  and  had  even  written  papers  in  the  Spectator,  on  a  visit  to 
some  estates  in  America  he  had  acquired  by  inheritance,  took  such  a  liking 
to  the  free  and  wild  life  of  the  country,  as  to  fix  his  residence  there  for  the 
remainder  of  his  days.  His  lands,  a  principality  in  themselves,  were  ex- 
tended over  the  Alleghany  and  its  ridges,  then  covered  with  primitive  forests, 
in  which,  as  the  population  increased,  a  few  squatters  had  set  themselves  down 
without  law  or  warrant.  To  check  these  encroachments,  and  facilitate  immi- 
gration, it  was  necessary  to  parcel  out  this  territory  into  saleable  portions, 
and  upon  George  Washington  this  task  was  now  devolved. 

Even  in  a  country  where  children,  by  being  early  thrown  upon  their  own 
resources,  acquire  precocious  energy  of  character,  this  enterprise  of  the  young 
surveyor  was  more  than  commonly  remarkable.  He  was  just  sixteen,  when,, 
accompanied  by  George  Fairfax,  the  eldest  son  of  a  relative,  he  set  off  at  the 
head  of  a  party,  compass  and  chain  in  hand,  to  penetrate  and  map  out  an 
almost  unbroken  wilderness.  This  was  precisely  the  sort  of  discipline,  if  it 
did  not  kill  a  youth  outright,  to  give  him  dauntless  hardihood  of  character, 
and  robust  vigour  of  constitution.  Young  Washington  was  soon  accus- 
tomed to  clamber  precipices  and  wade  morasses,  to  swim  his  horse  over 
swollen  streams,  to  sleep  for  nights  under  the  canopy  of  heaven,  wrapped  up 
in  a  bear-skin,  and  deem  a  seat  by  a  blazing  log-fire  a  place  of  luxury,  to 
live  hard  and  to  work  hard,  to  cook  his  own  rough  meal  with  a  wooden  fork, 
and  to  cope  betimes  with  the  wild  forests  and  their  wilder  tenants.  Amidst 
hardships  such  as  these,  he  fulfilled  his  task  so  successfully,  as  to  obtain  the 
post  of  public  surveyor,  which  he  continued  to  discharge  for  three  years  with 

2  i 


24.2  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  the  greatest  credit.     The  confidence  he  had  inspired  soon  led  to  his  pro- 

■ —  motion  to  a  post  of  still  higher  responsibility,  and  when  only  nineteen  he 

was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  one  of  the  districts  then  threatened  by  the 
encroachments  of  the  French,  to  call  out  and  review  the  militia,  and  organize 
matters  for  the  defence  of  the  frontier.  From  these  active  duties  he  was 
called  away  for  a  while  to  accompany  his  brother  Laurence  to  the  West 
Indies,  in  the  vain  hope  that  a  warmer  climate  would  check  the  progress  of  a 
consumption,  of  which  he  shortly  afterwards  died.  The  management  of  his 
deceased  brother's  estates  now  devolved  upon  him,  with  which  his  time  and 
attention  were  for  some  months  wholly  absorbed.  With  the  arrival  of 
Governor  Dinwiddie  came  a  fresh  accession  to  his  responsibilities,  in  an  ex- 
tension of  the  district  over  which  he  was  appointed  adjutant. 

His  admirable  character  and  efficient  training  had  already  conferred  upon 
the  youthful  Washington,  in  the  narrow  theatre  to  which  he  had  hitherto 
been  confined,  the  reputation  of  one  to  whom  much  might  be  trusted,  and 
from  whom  great  things  might  be  expected,  should  any  wider  field  of  action 
be  in  store  to  develope  his  remarkable  qualities.  That  opportunity  was  now 
in  some  measure  afforded  by  the  pending  hostilities. 

As  a  preliminary  measure  to  check  the  further  progress  of  the  French,  Go- 
vernor Dinwiddie  resolved  to  send  a  commissioner  to  confer  with  their  officers 
on  the  Ohio,  respecting  their  alleged  encroachment  on  his  Majesty's  terri- 
tories, and  at  the  same  time  to  ascertain  their  plans  and  estimate  their  force. 
The  experience  that  Washington  had  acquired,  and  the  courage  and  sagacity 
that  he  had  displayed,  pointed  him  out  as  the  fittest  person  for  this  responsible 
office.  To  seek  out  the  objects  of  this  delicate  diplomacy,  he  was  compelled 
to  traverse  a  distance  of  nearly  six  hundred  miles  of  wild  country,  half  of 
it  in  a  state  of  nature,  but  these  were  difficulties  which  his  previous  training 
rendered  comparatively  trivial.  With  but  eight  followers,  he  made  his  way 
to  Logstown,  about  twenty  miles  beyond  the  junction  of  the  Monongahela 
and  Alleghany  rivers,  where  he  had  a  conference  with  the  Indian  chiefs,  who 
at  his  request  gave  him  an  escort  to  Venango,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Lake 
Erie,  the  nearest  outpost  of  the  French.  Here,  after  forty-one  days'  travel 
through  an  almost  impassable  wilderness,  the  French  commandant  received 
him  with  characteristic  politeness,  but  respectfully  replied  that  it  would  be 
contrary  to  his  instructions  to  evacuate  the  fort,  or  abandon  the  territory. 
Washington  had  nothing,  therefore,  to  do  but  retrace  his  steps  to  Virginia, 
with  this  unpromising  reply.  He  had  however  so  improved  this  opportunity 
of  obtaining  the  desired  information,  that  his  journal  was  deemed  worthy  of 
being  printed,  not  only  in  the  colonies,  but  also  in  London;  and  thus,  by 
giving  assurance  of  the  enemy's  plans,  of  leading  to  immediate  and  vigorous 
efforts  to  counteract  them. 

Dinwiddie's  next  object  was  to  provide  the  sinews  of  war,  and  he  lost  no 
time  in  appealing  to  the  Virginian  legislature  to  vote  the  necessary  supplies, 
while  he  despatched  pressing  entreaties  to  the  other  colonics  to  afford  him 
their  a&sistance  in  repelling  the  common  enemy.     In  both  instances,  he  met 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  243 

with  but  very  partial  success.  Even  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  doubts  were  c  ha  p. 
expressed  as  to  the  king's  claim  over  the  disputed  lands,  and  though  the  sum  p  ^_- 
of  ten  thousand  pounds  was  ultimately  voted  for  "the  protection  of  the  settlers 
in  the  Mississippi,"  it  was  clogged  with  the  proviso  that  commissioners  should 
be  appointed  to  watch  over  its  appropriation.  The  other  colonies  received 
the  appeal  with  great  apathy,  and  held  out  but  little  hope  of  assistance. 
"With  the  means  at  his  disposal,  the  governor,  however,  increased  the  military 
establishment,  which  was  placed  under  Colonel  Fry,  an  Englishman,  "Washing- 
ton being  appointed  second  in  command,  with  the  title  of  Lieutenant-Colonel. 
To  stimulate  the  zeal  of  his  troops,  and  to  form  a  body  of  military  settlers, 
Dinwiddie  issued  a  proclamation,  granting  to  them  two  hundred  thousand 
acres  on  the  Ohio — a  measure  received  with  little  approbation  by  the  legisla- 
ture of  Pennsylvania,  who  laid  counter-claims  to  the  lands  in  question. 

Although  no  declaration  of  war  had  been  yet  published,  hostilities  could 
no  longer  be  delayed.  A  small  party  of  English  were  engaged  in  "building 
a  fort  at  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Monongahela,  when  their  labours  were 
interrupted  by  the  sudden  apparition  of  a  large  force  of  French  troops,  who  had 
descended  the  river  from  Venango,  provided  with  ammunition,  and  who  de- 
manded their  immediate  surrender.  Unable  to  resist,  they  were  compelled  to 
comply  with  their  requisition,  and  fell  back  to  Wells  Creek  with  intelligence 
of  the  disaster.  The  French  now  completed  and  strengthened  the  fort, 
which  they  called  Duquesne,  after  the  nobleman  who  then  held  the  govern- 
ment of  Canada,  and  which  has  since  grown  up  into  Pittsburg,  the  Birming- 
ham of  North  America. 

The  position  of  Washington  now  became  critical  by  his  superior  in  command 
not  having  yet  arrived ;  he  despatched  messengers  to  entreat  reinforcements, 
and  held  a  council  of  war,  at  which  it  was  resolved,  as  the  best  of  two  risks,  to 
advance  at  once  in  the  direction  of  the  Ohio.  Opening  a  road  before  them 
through  forests  and  morasses,  his  troops  had  reached  a  spot  to  which  Wash- 
ington gave  the  name  of  Great  Meadows,  and  where  he  proposed  to  erect  a 
fort,  when  his  scouts  reported  the  approach  of  a  body  of  hostile  French. 
Under  the  conduct  of  the  Indians,  he  came  suddenly  upon  them,  and  the 
French  ran  to  their  arms ;  a  smart  skirmish  ensued,  which  ended  in  the  death 
of  the  French  leader,  M.  de  Jumonville,  and  several  of  his  men,  upon  which 
the  remainder  surrendered,  and  were  sent  under  guard  to  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia. As  it  afterwards  appeared  that  Jumonville  was  the  bearer  of  a  summons 
to  evacuate  the  territory,  this  transaction  was  represented  in  France  as  an 
act  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  Washington ;  but  even  had  he  been  aware  of 
the  purpose  of  the  French  officer,  yet,  as  the  latter  was  approaching  with  an 
armed  body  and  a  threatening  message,  and  as  the  French  themselves  had 
already  commenced  hostilities,  it  is  evident  that  he  would  have  had  no  alter- 
native but  to  treat  them  as  enemies. 

No  sooner  had  the  French  learned  of  the  death  of  M.  Jumonville  and  the 
surrender  of  his  detachment,  than  they  prepared  to  avenge  it ;  and  having 
heard  that  large  reinforcements  had  arrived  at  Fort  Duquesne,  Washington 

2  i  2 


244 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


c  h^  p.  was  compelled  to  retreat.  Painfully  dragging  their  artillery  across  the  half- 
A  D  1755  opened  road,  and  enduring  the  severest  hardships,  his  men  at  length  reached 
Great  Meadows.  Where  it  had  not  been  at  first  intended  that  they  should  halt, 
but  they  were  incapable  of  continuing  the  retreat,  and  it  was  accordingly  deter- 
mined to  proceed  with  the  construction  of  Fort  Necessity  while  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  provisions  and  reinforcements.  But  while  thus  engaged,  they  were 
in  their  turn  surprised  by  the  approach  of  a  superior  French  force,  and  after 
a  conflict  of  some  hours,  obliged  to  surrender  on  honourable  terms.  Although 
untoward,  the  issue  of  this  campaign  did  not  detract  from  the  credit  bestowed 
upon  Washington  for  the  conduct  and  bravery  that  he  had  displayed  under 
very  trying  circumstances.  He  received  the  thanks  of  the  House  of  Assem- 
bly, and  made  rapid  progress  in  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his  fellow 
colonists. 

Hostilities  between  England  and  France  being  imminent,  applications  were 
made  by  the  royal  governors  in  the  colonies  for  a  levy  of  militia,  which  was 
warmly  responded  to  by  the  northern  colonies,  the  southern  displaying  far  less 
zeal.  As  it  was  known  that  a  French  squadron,  destined  to  carry  out  four 
thousand  troops,  under  Baron  Dieskau,  was  preparing  to  sail  from  Brest, 
Admiral  Boscawen  was  sent  to  intercept  it ;  but  the  greater  part  of  the  ships 
succeeded  in  throwing  their  forces  into  Canada  and  Louisburg,  although  one 
or  two  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  No  formal  declaration  of  war  had 
as  yet  been  issued,  but  each  party  was  using  its  utmost  efforts  to  injure  and 
annoy  the  other. 

The  French  had  lately  endeavoured  to  regain  possession  of  Acadia,  which 
had  been  originally  discovered  and  settled  by  them,  and  where  a  large  popu- 
lation of  French  origin  had  gradually  grown  up.  "With  this  view  they  had 
lately  erected,  besides  the  strong  fortress  of  Louisburg,  others  at  Beau 
Sejour,  and  Gaspereau,  on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  To  dislodge 
them  thence,  a  large  body  of  provincial  troops  was  sent,  raised  and  com- 
manded by  John  Winslow,  grandson  of  the  leader  who  stormed  the  Indian 
stronghold  in  the  war  with  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  together  with  a  small  force 
of  British  regulars  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Monkton.  The  forts  were 
easily  reduced  to  a  capitulation,  with  the  express  condition,  however,  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  neighbouring  district,  a  body  of  whom  had  been  found 
among  the  garrison,  should  not  be  molested  for  the  part  they  had  taken 
in  the  defence. 

The  situation  of  these  poor  people  was  very  trying,  and  the  treatment 
pursued  towards  them  illustrates,  as  nothing  else  can,  the  atrocities  involved 
in  this  intercolonial  and  frontier  warfare.  Their  forefathers  had  crossed  the 
ocean,  and  having  struggled  with  the  hardships  of  the  wilderness,  had  be- 
queathed to  their  descendants  the  lands  which  they  had  thus  colonised.  In 
this  remote  spot  they  lived  a  quiet  and  a  harmless  life  in  the  midst  of  much 
abundance,  maintaining  their  old  French  customs  and  worshipping  God 
after  their  hereditary  fashion.  All  this  however  could  not  prevent  their 
country   from  becoming   the    object   of   contention   between   rival  powers, 


! 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  245 

but  when  conquered  by  the  English,  it  had  been  expressly  stipulated  that  c  ha  p. 
they  should  be  allowed  to  retain  their  lands,  on  condition  of  never  assisting 
their  own  countrymen  to  recover  possession  of  the  territory.  But  it  is  mani- 
fest, that  however  they  might  have  been  disposed  to  remain  in  an  obscure  neu- 
trality, the  strict  observance  of  such  a  condition  was  almost  impossible  in  their 
case,  urged  as  they  were  by  the  intrigues  of  their  priests  to  assist  in  throwing 
off  the  English  yoke,  and  unable  to  restrain  the  impetuous  ebullitions  of  their 
more  adventurous  and  patriotic  members. 

As  it  became  evident  to  the  English  commanders  that  no  reliance  could 
be  placed  upon  the  professions  of  these  unfortunates,  it  next  became  a  question 
what  treatment  to  adopt  towards  them.  To  allow  them  to  remain  where  they 
were  would  entail  the  expense  of  watching  them ;  and  if  allowed  to  retire 
wherever  they  pleased,  they  would  probably  retire  to  Canada  or  Cape 
Breton,  and  swell  the  number  of  the  enemy.  There  remained  but  one 
hideous  alternative,  namely,  to  transport  them  from  their  ancient  homes,  and 
disperse  them,  like  the  captive  Jews,  among  the  territories  of  their  conquerors, 
by  whom,  aliens  as  they  were  in  blood,  religion,  and  manners,  they  were  re- 
garded with  intense  and  hereditary  hatred. 

The  inhuman  cruelty  of  such  a  scheme  was  only  equalled  by  the  miserable 
treachery  with  which  it  was  carried  into  execution.  Concealing  their  pur- 
pose until  the  unsuspecting  people  had  ended  the  labours  of  a  harvest,  the 
English  convened  them  to  assemble  in  the  temples  of  their  religion,  where 
being  suddenly  surrounded  with  troops,  the  doom  of  expatriation  was  pro- 
nounced, and  they  were  told  to  prepare  for  immediate  embarkation.  In  vain 
did  they  protest  that  the  great  majority  had  not  involved  themselves  in  the 
offence,  the  military  council  were  inexorable  in  their  purpose.  On  the 
tenth  of  September,  the  day  fixed  for  the  embarkation,  the  prisoners  were 
drawn  up  six  deep,  and  the  young  men,  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  in  number, 
were  ordered  to  go  first  on  board  of  the  vessels.  This  they  instantly  and 
peremptorily  refused  to  do,  declaring  that  they  would  not  leave  their  parents ; 
but  expressed  a  willingness  to  comply  with  the  order,  provided  they  were 
permitted  to  embark  with  their  families.  Their  request  was  immediately  re- 
jected, and  the  troops  were  ordered  to  fix  bayonets  and  advance  toward  the 
prisoners,  a  motion  which  had  the  effect  of  producing  obedience  on  the  part 
of  the  young  men,  who  forthwith  commenced  their  march.  The  road  from 
the  chapel  to  the  shore,  just  one  mile  in  length,  was  crowded  with  women 
and  children,  who  on  their  knees  greeted  them  as  they  passed  with  their  tears 
and  their  blessings;  while  the  prisoners  advanced  with  slow  and  reluctant 
steps,  weeping,  praying,  and  singing  hymns.  This  detachment  was  followed 
by  the,  seniors,  who  passed  through  the  same  scene  of  sorrow  and  distress. 
In  this  manner  was  the  whole  male  population  of  Minas  put  on  board  of  five 
transports,  stationed  in  the  river  Gasper eau,  each  vessel  being  guarded  by  six 
non-commissioned  officers  and  eighty  privates.  As  soon  as  the  other  vessels 
arrived,  their  wives  and  children  followed,  and  the  whole  were  transported 
from  Nova  Scotia. 


A.  D.  1755, 


246  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c "  a  p-  Hutchinson,  in  speaking  of  the  distresses  of  these  people,  says — "  In 
several  instances,  the  husbands,  who  happened  to  be  at  a  distance  from  home, 
were  put  on  board  vessels  bound  to  one  of  the  English  colonies,  and  their 
wives  and  children  on  board  other  vessels,  bound  to  other  colonies,  remote 
from  the  first.  One  of  the  most  sensible  of  them,  describing  his  case,  said, 
'  It  was  the  hardest  which  had  happened  since  our  Saviour  was  upon  earth.' " 

On  the  first  alarm  a  few  had  succeeded  in  escaping  to  the  woods,  but  the 
council  had  taken  effectual  precautions  against  their  re-occupation  of  their 
desolated  hearths.  As  they  looked  out  of  the  dreary  forests  upon  the  scene 
so  lately  the  abode  of  peace  and  happiness,  the  flames  of  two  hundred  houses 
warned  them  that  they  had  no  longer  a  home  to  look  for ;  and  when  they 
beheld  their  village  church  involved  in  the  same  fate,  they  rushed  with  the 
courage  of  despair  upon  their  inhuman  spoilers,  and  after '  killing  several  of 
them,  made  their  escape  to  the  woods  to  perish  of  cold  and  famine. 

To  the  unhappy  exiles,  the  bitterness  of  death  passed  not  with  their  first 
expulsion,  their  agony  was  long  and  lingering.  By  far  the  largest  body  of 
them  were  sent  to  Massachusetts,  where  the  very  exercise  of  their  religion 
was  forbidden  to  console  their  despair,  while  others  were  transported  to  the 
different  colonies.  Every  where  their  maintenance  was  regarded  as  a  burden, 
and  they  were  thence  hurried  off  to  a  still  greater  distance.  Some  sought 
out  their  fellow  countrymen  in  Louisiana,  a  few  succeeded  in  reaching 
France,  while  some  of  the  more  energetic  endeavoured  to  retrace  their  steps 
to  the  country  with  which  every  recollection  of  vanished  happiness  was  con- 
nected. Few  however  succeeded  in  this  attempt,  and  the  great  majority 
died  broken-hearted  exiles  in  a  foreign  land. 

Meanwhile  the  commissioners  for  the  plantations  had  addressed  a  circular 
to  the  colonies,  advising  them  to  send  delegates  to  hold  a  conference  with  the 
Six  Nations,  whose  alliance  at  this  crisis  was  felt  to  be  of  great  importance, 
and  also  to  organize  a  union  for  the  general  protection.  Accordingly  the 
delegates  met  at  Albany,  and,  after  settling  the  desired  treaty  with  the 
Indians,  took  into  consideration  the  plan  of  a  general  convention  for  the 
colonies,  drawn  up  by  the  pen  of  Franklin,  himself  a  delegate  from  Penn- 
sylvania. It  was  to  consist  of  a  council  of  forty-eight  members,  to  be  elected 
by  the  colonies,  with  a  president-general,  to  be  nominated  by  the  crown.  The 
functions  of  the  council  were,  to  undertake  the  levying,  paying,  and  managing 
the  colonial  armies,  to  defend  the  frontier  from  the  Indians,  and  to  obtain 
from  them  new  grants  of  land,  and  take  other  measures  for  the  security  and 
prosperity  of  the  colonies ;  and  to  secure  these  objects  they  were  to  be  em- 
powered to  levy  such  taxes  as  might  be  expedient.  The  legislative  power 
was  to  reside  in  the  council,  subject  to  a  veto  on  the  part  of  th«  royal 
governor,  or  even  if  passed  in  concert  with  that  functionary,  to  the  further 
approbation  of  the  king  himself.  Civil  officers  were  to  be  nominated  by  the 
council,  and  approved  by  the  president,  while  military  or  naval  ones,  by 
the  president,  subject  to  the  approbation  of  the  council.  This  scheme  ap- 
peared so  well  balanced  to   the  assembled   delegates,  that   they  passed  it 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


247 


unanimously,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  Connecticut,  and  copies  of  it  c  h  a  p. 
were  sent  to  the  different  colonial  legislatures,  as  well  as  to  the  home  govern-  - 

•  °  *  ,  1     i  1  A.  D.  \T5it 

ment.  Both  however  rejected  it;  the  latter,  because  it  conceded  too  large  a 
share  of  power  to  the  colonies ;  the  former,  because  it  conferred  too  much  upon 
the  crown.  The  levying  of  taxes,  even  by  a  colonial  assembly  thus  con- 
stituted, was  protested  against  as  "  a  very  extraordinary  thing,  and  against 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  Englishmen."  The  English  government  sug- 
gested a  general  council,  composed  of  colonial  governors  and  members  of  the 
council,  who  should  adopt  such  measures  as  were  deemed  advisable,  drawing 
on  the  British  treasury  for  the  sums  necessary  to  carry  them  out,  to  be  after- 
wards reimbursed  by  taxes  imposed  on  the  colonies  by  act  of  parliament. 
This  scheme,  as  might  have  been  expected,  proved  still  more  unpalatable 
than  the  former.  Earnest  instructions  were  sent  over  to  the  agents  for  Mas- 
sachusetts to  oppose  it;  while  Franklin,  on  being  privily  consulted,  exposed 
with  great  energy  the  reasons  why  it  would  produce  an  universal  ferment- 
ation ;  and  thus  the  idea  was  for  the  present  set  aside  by  the  English 
ministry. 

Governor  Dinwiddie,  zealous  as  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  colony, 
and  desirous  of  maintaining  the  honour  of  the  king's  prerogative,  was  deeply 
mortified  at  the  uncompliant  temper  of  the  Virginian  assembly,  and  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  other  colonies.  He  addressed  repeated  letters  to  the  home  govern- 
ment, complaining  of  the  factious  and  republican  tendencies  of  the  assemblies, 
and  urging  for  an  act  of  parliament  to  compel  the  different  colonists  to  contribute 
to  the  common  cause,  independently  of  the  local  legislature.  But  though  stub- 
bornly tenacious  of  their  local  rights,  the  Virginians  at  last  voted  a  sum  which 
enabled  Dinwiddie  to  place  the  military  force  upon  a  respectable  footing,  while, 
to  insure  unity  of  action  and  dependence  on  the  crown,  he  put  the  new  forces 
under  the  command  of  the  king's  officers,  allowing  no  native-born  officer  to 
take  higher  rank  than  a  captain.  Proudly  sensible  of  an  affront  so  degrading 
both  to  himself  and  his  brave  fellow  citizens,  Washington  resigned  his  com- 
mission, and  retired  to  the  management  of  his  estates.  He  was  destined  how- 
ever to  but  a  brief  repose,  for  shortly  afterwards,  General  Braddock  arrived 
from  England  with  fresh  regiments,  to  take  the  command  of  the  army,  and 
being  informed  of  Washington's  experience  and  energy,  offered  him  the  post  of 
aide-de-camp,  in  which  he  would  retain  his  former  rank.  With  this  request 
his  public  spirit,  and  his  desire  to  engage  in  active  service,  engaged  him  to 
comply.  "  The  sole  motive  which  invites  me  to  the  field,"  (he  thus  wrote 
to  one  of  his  friends,)  "  is  the  laudable  ambition  of  serving  my  country,  not 
the  gratification  of  any  ambitious  or  lucrative  plans.  This,  I  flatter  myself, 
will  appear  by  my  going  as  a  volunteer,  without  expectation  of  reward,  or 
prospect  of  obtaining  a  command,  as  I  am  confidently  assured  it  is  not  in 
General  Braddock's  poAver  to  give  me  a  commission  that  I  would  accept." 

After  arranging  a  plan  of  operations  with  the  governors  of  five  of  the 
colonies,  at  which  conference  Washington  was  received  with  much  distinc- 
tion, Braddock  advanced  to  Fort  Cumberland,  where  he  expected  to  meet 


IV. 


A.  D.  1755. 


248  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  with  a  collection  of  horses  and  waggons  to  transport  his  artillery  and  stores. 
Owing  to  the  indifference  and  tardiness  of  the  colonists,  and  the  malpractices 
of  the  contractors,  he  found  himself  suddenly  checked  in  his  onward  progress, 
and  loudly  exclaimed  against  the  faithlessness  and  incapacity  of  the  local 
assemblies,  and  the  apathy  of  the  people  at  large.  His  temper,  naturally 
proud  and  stubborn,  was  inflamed  by  this  neglect,  and  his  contempt  for  the 
colonists  and  their  counsel  became  more  inflexibly  rooted. 

It  was  while  Braddock  was  thus  detained  at  Fredericton  in  Maryland,  for  the 
want  of  carriages,  that  Franklin,  as  postmaster,  was  deputed  to  wait  on  him 
to  arrange  his  correspondence  with  the  provincial  governors.  He  found  the 
general  indignant  at  the  ministry  for  ignorantly  sending  him  into  a  country 
where  no  means  of  conveyance  were  to  be  procured,  only  five  and  twenty 
waggons  being  forthcoming,  instead  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  required. 
Franklin,  who  dined  with  Braddock  every  day,  happening  to  say,  it  was  a 
pity  he  had  not  landed  in  Philadelphia,  where  every  farmer  has  his  waggon  : 
"  The  general,"  he  remarks,  "  eagerly  laid  hold  of  my  words,  and  said, 
'  Then  you,  sir,  who  are  a  man  of  interest  there,  can  probably  procure  them 
for  us,  and  I  beg  you  will  undertake  it.'"  Franklin  did  so,  giving  his 
personal  security  to  the  farmers,  and  by  his  exertions  the  requisite  number  of 
waggons  was  collected,  an  act  which  Braddock  commended  in  his  letters 
home,  as  the  only  instance  of  address  and  integrity  he  had  witnessed  in  the 
colonies. 

Franklin  also  kindly  induced  the  assembly  to  make  a  handsome  present  of 
camp  necessaries  to  the  subalterns,  who  could  ill  afford  to  procure  them. 
"  One  day,  in  conversing  with  him,  Braddock  observed,  '  After  taking  Fort 
Duquesne,  I  am  to  proceed  to  Niagara;  and  having  taken  that,  to  Fron- 
tenac,  if  the  season  will  allow  time,  and  I  suppose  it  will;  for  Duquesne  can 
hardly  detain  me  three  or  four  days ;  and  then  I  see  nothing  that  can  obstruct 
my  march  to  Niagara.'  Having  before  revolved  in  my  mind,"  says  Franklin, 
"  the  long  line  his  army  must  take  in  their  march  by  a  very  narrow  road,  to  be 
cut  for  them  through  the  woods  and  bushes,  and  also  what  I  had  read  of  a 
former  defeat  of  fifteen  hundred  French,  who  invaded  the  Illinois  country,  I 
had  conceived  some  doubts  and  some  fears  for  the  event  of  the  campaign. 
But  I  ventured  only  to  say,  '  To  be  sure,  sir,  if  you  arrive  well  before 
Duquesne,  with  these  fine  troops,  so  well  provided  with  artillery,  the  fort, 
though  completely  fortified,  and  assisted  with  a  very  strong  garrison,  can  pro- 
bably make  but  a  short  resistance.  The  only  danger  I  apprehend  of  obstruc- 
tion to  your  march,  is  from  the  ambuscades  of  the  Indians,  who,  by  constant 
practice,  are  dexterous  in  laying  and  executing  them,  and  the  slender  line, 
near  four  miles  long,  which  your  army  must  make,  may  expose  it  to  be  at- 
tacked by  surprise  in  its  flanks,  and  to  be  cut  like  a  thread  into  several  pieces, 
which,  from  their  distance,  cannot  come  up  in  time  to  support  each  other.' 

"  He  smiled  at  my  ignorance,  and  replied,  f  These  savages  may  indeed  be  a  ' 
formidable  enemy  to  your  raw  American  militia;  but  upon  the  king's  regular 
and  disciplined  troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should  make  any  impression.' 


A.  D. 1755. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  249 

I  was  conscious  of  an  impropriety  in  my  disputing  with,  a  military  man  in  c  ha  p. 
matters  of  his  profession,  and  said  no  more."  The  event  however  proved  that 
the  "  raw  militia  "  were  better  at  bush-fighting  than  the  regular  troops. 

No  sooner  was  this  obstacle  removed  than  another  no  less  formidable  arose, 
in  the  tediousness  of  transporting  the  cumbrous  materials  of  a  large  force,  who, 
provided  after  the  European  fashion,  and  accustomed  to  meet  with  no  ob- 
structions on  their  march,  were  obliged  to  proceed  single  file  across  the 
half-made  roads  of  a  rugged  and  mountainous  country,  destitute  of  supplies 
and  covered  with  impenetrable  forests.  Braddock,  appalled  at  these  delays, 
which  threatened  to  consume  the  whole  season,  sought  the  advice  of  Wash- 
ington, who  advised  him  to  push  forward  with  a  light-armed  division,  and 
seize  Fort  Duquesne  before  the  French  could  throw  in  reinforcements, 
leaving  the  rest  of  the  troops  to  follow  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Dunbar. 
This  advice  was  adopted  by  the  general,  but  as  he  prepared  to  push  on  with 
his  division,  Washington,  who  was  to  have  accompanied  him,  was  seized  with 
a  violent  fever,  and  obliged  to  remain  behind.  Eager  to  rejoin  the  army 
before  it  should  encounter  the  enemy,  he  hurried  on  while  yet  in  a  weak 
condition,  suffering  much  from  the  jolting  of  the  waggon  in  which  he  was 
transported  over  the  rugged  and  broken  roads,  and  overtook  Braddock  on 
the  evening  of  July  8,  when  only  fifteen  miles  distant  from  Fort  Duquesne. 

Although  he  found  the  army  were  now  much  excited  at  the  near  vicinity 
tc  the  enemy,  over  whom  they  anticipated  a  signal  triumph,  there  was  much 
in  the  management  of  matters  that  gave  deep  uneasiness  to  the  mind  of 
Washington,  practised  as  he  was  in  the  wiles  of  Indian  warfare.  Fully  alive 
to  the  necessity  of  watching  against  surprise,  he  viewed  with  alarm  the 
infatuated  indifference  of  Braddock,  who,  confident  in  the  bravery  of  his  troops, 
and  rootedly  attached  to  the  European  mode  of  discipline,  disdained  to  give 
heed  to  any  remonstrance,  that  the  experience  of  others  dictated.  During 
the  march  he  had  remained  obstinately  deaf  to  the  advice  repeatedly  press- 
ed upon  him  even  by  his  own  officers,  that  he  should  observe  more  caution 
in  his  progress,  and  send  out  a  body  of  provincials  and  Indians  to  scour 
the  woods  in  the  flank  of  his  advancing  troops.  The  very  night  before  the 
battle,  several  Indians  repaired  to  the  commander's  tent,  and  offered  their  ser- 
vice for  this  very  purpose  ;  an  offer  which  Washington  used  every  effort  to 
induce  the  general  to  accept,  but  he  persisted  in  a  peremptory  and  contemp- 
tuous refusal. 

The  most  beautiful  spectacle  he  had  ever  beheld,  as  Washington  was  often 
heard  to  say,  was  the  departure  of  the  British  troops  the  following  morning. 
They  advanced  in  perfect  order,  the  sun  was  reflected  back  from  their 
polished  arms,  and  gave  lustre  to  their  brilliant  scarlet  regimentals  in  con- 
trast with  the  solemn  obscurity  of  the  virgin  forest.  The  drum  and  fife 
struck  up  their  thrilling  strains,  and  in  the  highest  spirits  and  most  perfect  dis- 
cipline the  troops  continued  their  march  upon  Fort  Duquesne,  then  but  a  few 
miles  distant.  In  front  was  an  advanced  guard  of  three  hundred  men,  with 
guides  and  flanking  parties ;    a  little  behind  followed  a  second  division,  and 


250  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

°  *i  *  P'  next  came  tne  mani  body  under  Braddock  himself,  while  the  Virginian  militia 

A^Ti^  brouSnt  UP  the  reai'. 

In  this  order  the  army  forded  the  Monongahela,  advanced  across  an  open 
plain,  and  about  one  o'clock  began  to  ascend  a  hill  beyond,  the  road  being 
every  where  closely  hemmed  in  with  forests  and  encumbered  with  brushwood, 
when  on  a  sudden  a  heavy  volley  of  musketry  was  poured  upon  the  foremost 
body  from  an  invisible  foe — a  small  body  of  French  with  a  considerable 
number  of  Indians  detached  by  the  commandant  of  Fort  Duquesne,  who  had 
concealed  themselves  in  some  sunken  ravines  which  closely  bordered  the  road. 
Staggered  and  terrified,  the  vanguard,  after  losing  half  their  number,  and 
firing  at  random  into  the  forest,  fell  back,  just  as  Braddock,  alarmed  at  the 
noise,  hastened  forward  with  the  rest  of  the  troops.  The  terrific  yells  of  the 
Indians,  the  volleys  incessantly  poured  in  by  the  ambushed  French,  the  im- 
possibility of  making  head  against  an  invisible  enemy,  soon  threw  the  English 
regulars  into  hopeless  confusion,  which  Braddock,  now  too  late  conscious  of 
his  infatuation,  vainly  sought,  for  three  terrible  hours,  to  retrieve  by  displaying 
the  most  desperate  bravery.  Four  horses  had  been  killed  under  him,  and 
he  was  still  urging  on  his  men,  when  he  received  a  shot  in  the  lungs,  and, 
though  anxious  to  be  left  to  die  upon  the  scene  of  his  discomfiture,  was  car- 
ried off  into  the  rear.  Two  of  his  aide-de-camps  were  already  disabled,  Sir 
Peter  Halket  and  his  son  fell  together  mortally  wounded,  and  Washington, 
who  displayed  the  utmost  courage  and  presence  of  mind,  as  he  hurried  to  and 
fro  with  Braddock's  orders,  was  a  repeated  mark  for  the  enemy's  bullets, 
four  of  which  passed  through  his  coat,  while  two  horses  were  shot  under 
him.  Horatio  Gates,  the  future  conqueror  of  Saratoga,  was  also  severely 
wounded.  Washington's  escape  might  well  have  seemed  miraculous,  and 
there  is  a  well-attested  tradition,  that  many  years  afterwards  he  was 
visited  by  an  aged  and  venerable  Indian  chief,  who  declared  that  during 
the  battle  he  had  repeatedly  taken  aim  at  him,  and  directed  several  of  his 
warriors  to  do  the  same,  but  finding  that  none  of  these  balls  took  effect, 
he  concluded  that  the  young  hero  was  under  the  special  guardianship  of 
the  Great  Spirit,  and  could  never  perish  in  battle,  and  reverentially  ceased 
from  further  attempts  to  cut  him  off.  The  Virginians  fought  most  bravely, 
and  in  a  manner  which,  if  generally  adopted,  would  probably  have  given  a 
different  turn  to  the  day — dashing  among  the  brushwood,  and  firing  like  the 
Indians  from  behind  the  trees.  But  all  was  in  vain,  and  at  length,  having 
lost  half  their  number  from  a  handful  of  the  ambushed  foes,  which,  face  to 
face,  a  single  column  would  have  sufficed  to  annihilate,  the  British  army, 
covered  by  Washington  and  his  Virginians,  retreated  in  panic  and  confusion 
across  the  Monongahela,  and  never  halted  night  and  day  until  they  had 
rejoined  the  rear-guard,  under  Colonel  Dunbar,  after  a  retreat  of  fifty 
miles.  The  artillery  and  baggage  fell  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  but  the 
Indians  were  so  busy  in  plundering  and  scalping  the  wounded  and  the 
dead,  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  follow  the  fugitive  army.  The  un- 
happy commander,  borne  along  in  their  hurried  rout,  suffered  the  intensest 


IV. 


A.  D. 1755. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  251 

tortures  both  of  mind  and  body.  As  his  end  approached,  he  dictated  a  de-  chap. 
spatch  acquitting  his  officers  of  blame,  and  his  last  words  were,  "  Who  would 
have  thought  it  ? — we  shall  know  better  how  to  deal  with  them  another  time." 
Thus  perished  General  Braddock,  the  victim  of  military  pedantry.  With 
his  death  vanished  the  last  remains  of  discipline,  and  the  wretched  remains 
of  the  army  hurried  with  frantic  precipitation  to  Fort  Cumberland,  without 
a  solitary  foe  in  pursuit.  Hence  the  commanding  officer,  in  spite  of  the 
protestations  of  the  exposed  Virginian  colonists,  shortly  after  returned  with 
his  forces  to  Philadelphia. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  sensation  occasioned  both  in  England  and 
the  colonies  by  this  deplorable  and  disgraceful  defeat.  In  the  former  the 
memory  of  the  unfortunate  chief  was  covered  with  obloquy ;  in  the  latter,  the 
prestige  of  British  invincibility  was  at  an  end.  Washington  alone  gained 
laurels  for  his  conduct  amidst  disasters  which  his  counsel,  had  it  not  been 
despised,  would  have  prevented  altogether,  and  rapidly  rose  in  the  estimation 
of  his  grateful  fellow  citizens.  On  one  occasion  Samuel  Davies  propheti- 
cally exclaimed,  while  preaching  a  sermon  to  the  militia  of  Virginia,  "  I  must 
give  you  a  glorious  example — that  heroic  young  man,  Colonel  Washington, 
whom  Providence  his  preserved  in  so  remarkable  a  manner,  doubtless  for 
some  important  service  which  he  is  called  upon  to  render  his  country." 
"Your  health  and  good  fortune,"  wrote  Colonel  Fairfax  to  him  in  1756, 
"  are  the  toast  of  all  the  tables."  When,  in  1759,  he  was  elected  for  the  first 
time  to  the  house  of  representatives,  at  the  moment  when  he  entered  the  hall, 
the  speaker,  Mr.  Robinson,  warmly  expressed  to  him  the  gratitude  of  the  as- 
sembly for  the  services  he  had  rendered  to  the  province.  Washington  arose 
to  return  thanks,  but  was  so  overcome  with  agitation  that  he  was  unable  to 
utter  a  syllable.  The  speaker  came  to  his  assistance.  "  Be  seated,  Mr. 
Washington,"  he  said,  "  your  modesty  equals  your  valour,  and  that  surpasses 
all  the  powers  of  expression  at  my  command."  His  further  exertions  were 
now  required  to  check  the  incursions  of  the  Indians,  who,  stimulated  by 
French  influence,  kept  the  now  unprotected  frontiers  in  such  a  state  of  alarm, 
that  the  outlying  farms  were  abandoned,  and  scalping  parties  advanced  even 
within  thirty  miles  of  Philadelphia. 

While  these  disasters  were  occasioned  by  contempt  for  the  services  of 
the  Indians,  some  important  advantages  were  gained  in  the  north  by  the  adop- 
tion of  an  opposite  system,  under  the  guidance  of  an  individual,  whose  flex- 
ibility of  character  curiously  contrasted  with  the  stubborn  obstinacy  of  the 
unfortunate  Braddock.  William  Johnson  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and 
nephew  of  Sir  Peter  Warren,  who,  after  distinguishing  himself  at  Louisburg, 
married  a  lady  of  New  York,  and  bought  large  estates  upon  the  Mohawk 
river,  at  that  time  on  the  outlying  verge  of  civilization.  Young  Johnson 
was  invited  over  to  take  charge  of  his  uncle's  affairs.  The  territory  acquired 
was  on  the  edge  of  the  vast  wilderness  occupied  by  the  Five  Nations ;  to  gain 
their  good  will,  and  to  obtain  still  larger  concessions  from  them,  was  there- 
fore the  prime  object  of  solicitude,  and  for  this  young  Johnson  soon  displayed 

2  k  2 


A.  D. 1755. 


252  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  extraordinary  aptitude.  For  this  lie  was  fitted  alike  by  a  natural  taste  for 
half-wild  life,  and  by  physical  and  mental  qualities.  His  person  was  tall  and 
imposing,  his  countenance  sedate  and  somewhat  melancholy,  and  while  in 
general  he  affected  the  taciturn  gravity  of  the  Indians,  he  could  burst  forth 
on  occasion  into  strains  of  stirring  eloquence.  He  was  perfect  master  of  his 
temper  and  countenance,  plausible  in  his  manners,  and,  though  strictly  a 
man  of  his  word  in  dealing  with  his  Indian  neighbours,  super-subtle  in  his 
transactions  beyond  the  measure  of  even  Indian  craft.  To  add  to  his  in- 
fluence he  adopted  their  dress,  and  formed  a  left-handed  connexion  with  some 
of  their  dusky  beauties.  He  built  two  large  and  substantial  residences  in  the 
midst  of  this  romantic  but  half-savage  tract,  where,  being  wisely  appointed 
British  agent  with  the  Five  Nations,  he  lived  in  a  sort  of  rude  and  feudal  pomp. 
Around  his  board  were  to  be  seen  sometimes  the  aristocratic  British  officer, 
whom  his  duty  might  lead  into  these  remote  wilds,  the  sturdy  provincials  and 
farmers  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  the  rude  fur-trader  of  the  distant  west. 
Above  all,  his  chateau  became  the  great  rendezvous  for  the  Indian  sachems 
from  the  neighbouring  forests,  who  here  indulged  in  luxuries  which  their  wig- 
wams could  not  afford.  In  these  rude  revelries,  Johnson  freely  participated, 
sleeping  for  nights  together  on  the  floor,  the  only  white  man  in  a  house  filled 
with  valuable  property,  amidst  a  horde  of  five  hundred  Indians  who  had 
intoxicated  themselves  npon  his  liquors.  By  arts  such  as  these  he  had 
acquired  extraordinary  influence  over  the  Indians,  which  he  had  sense 
and  sagacity  to  turn  to  account,  not  only  for  his  private  advantage,  but  for 
the  conduct  of  those  wars  in  which  his  country  was  then  engaged.  Sensible 
that  a  campaign  amidst  morasses  and  forests  filled  with  savages  required  a 
totally  different  system  of  tactics  from  that  pursued  in  an  open  country,  he 
not  only  succeeded  in  gaining  the  assistance  of  the  Indians,  but  put  them 
prominently  forward  in  all  his  military  operations ;  and  to  this  wholesome 
tact,  rather  than  to  any  extraordinary  skill  or  bravery,  he  owed  the  suc- 
cesses which  acquired  for  him  both  fame  and  honours,  and  in  some  measure 
redeemed  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the  English  troops. 

Among  his  half-savage  confederates  was  one  Hendrich,  commonly  called 
king  Hendrich,  a  famous  old  sachem  of  the  Mohawks,  distinguished  for  his 
shrewdness  and  bravery.  Hendrich  had  been  sent  over  to  England  and  pre- 
sented to  the  king,  who  had  bestowed  upon  him  a  full  court  suit.  He  had 
adopted  in  some  measure  the  costume  of  a  British  officer,  and  was  smitten 
with  the  love  of  military  finery,  for  which  he  was  destined  to  pay  somewhat 
too  dearly.  Of  the  two  men  the  following  characteristic  anecdote  is  related. 
Having  seen  at  Johnson's  castle,  one  morning,  a  richly  embroidered  coat,  he 
determined  upon  a  cunning  expedient  to  gain  possession  of  it.  "  Brother," 
he  said  to  Sir  William,  as  he  entered  one  morning,  "  me  dream  last  night." 
"Indeed,"  answered  Sir  William,  "what  did  my  red  brother  dream?" 
u  Me  dream  that  coat  be  mine."  "  It  is  yours,"  frankly  replied  Johnson. 
Soon  after  he  was  visited  by  the  baronet,  who  looking  abroad  upon  the  wide- 
spread landscape,  calmly  observed  to  Hendrich,  "  Brother,  I  had  a  dream 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  253 

last  night."     "  What  did  my  English  brother  dream,"  rejoined  the  sachem,  chap. 

"  I  dreamed  that  all  this  tract  of  land  was  mine,"  pointing  to  a  district  some  ■ — 

twenty  miles  square  in  extent.  Hendrich  looked  very  grave,  but,  determined 
not  to  be  outdone  in  generosity,  replied,  "  Brother,  the  land  is  yours,  but 
you  must  not  dream  again."  Such  were  the  men  who,  with  a  force  of 
militia  and  Indians,  now  went  forward  together  to  the  encounter  of  the 
French. 

The  scene  of  pending  hostilities,  one  which  afterwards  became  still  more 
famous  in  the  annals  of  the  revolutionary  war,  is  among  the  wildest  and  most 
romantic  on  the  continent  of  North  America.  Between  the  outposts  of  the 
English  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Hudson,  and  the  French  settlements  on 
the  St.  Lawrence,  extended  a  wilderness  two  hundred  miles  in  depth,  covered 
with  dense  forests,  the  secret  tracks  of  which  were  then  only  known  to  the  In- 
dians, who  were  its  exclusive  tenants.  In  the  centre  of  this  tract  were  set  two 
beautiful  lakes,  communicating  with  one  another  by  a  short  inlet.  The 
northern,  and  more  extensive,  was  Lake  Champlain,  so  called  after  the 
famous  French  explorer  by  whom  it  was  first  discovered.  This  lake  was  of 
considerable  extent,  its  waters  in  some  places  some  miles  across,  its  shores 
were  open  and  undulating,  and  graceful.  The  other,  called  by  the  French 
St.  Sacrament,  from  the  exquisite  purity  of  its  waters,  and  afterwards  by  the 
English  denominated  Lake  George,  was  but  thirty-five  miles  long,  and  rarely 
more  than  half  a  mile  in  width ;  and  sunk  as  it  was  among  lofty  mountains, 
whose  leafy  forests  nodded  over  its  silent  waters,  and  studded  with  a  maze  of 
wooded  islets,  it  presented,  as  it  presents  at  the  present  day,  a  scene  of 
romantic  loveliness  and  fairy  beauty,  which  it  might  be  supposed  had  never 
been  visited  by  the  foot  of  man,  still  less  selected  as  the  scene  of  his  angry  and 
blood-stained  encounters.  From  the  southern  extremity  of  this  beautiful 
lake,  and  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Champlain,  it  was  but  a  few 
miles  to  the  shores  of  the  Hudson  river,  which  then  formed  the  uttermost  out- 
posts of  civilization  in  the  state  of  New  York.  Beyond  Albany,  which,  as 
before  stated,  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  English  and  colonial  troops,  a  feAv 
settlements  extended  westward  up  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk  river,  past  the 
little  town  of  Schenectady,  with  a  few  more  northward  up  the  valley  of  the 
Hudson  itself;  but  beyond  this  all  was  a  region  of  dense  and  almost  im- 
penetrable forests.  The  French  had  been  the  first  to  establish  themselves  in  the 
heart  of  this  region  by  the  erection  of  the  fortress  of  Crown  Point,  on 
Lake  Champlain,  to  which  they  afterwards  added  that  of  Ticonderoga, 
on  a  promontory  commanding  the  junction  of  the  two  lakes ;  and  at  the 
period  of  which  we  are  treating,  these  were  the  only  ones  erected  within  this 
immense  extent  of  wilderness. 

Johnson  having  joined  the  northern  militia  at  Albany,  he  sent  a  large  body 
forward  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Lyman,  to  establish  a  strong 
fort,  called  Fort  Edward,  in  an  advantageous  situation  on  the  Hudson, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  carrying-place  from  that  river  to  Lake  George. 
Having  completed  his  preparations,  he  joined  his  forces  at  this  spot,  and 


254  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  leaving  a  garrison  in  the  newly-erected  fort,  advanced  to  the  southern  edge 
A  -  m5  of  Lake  George,  where  he  prepared  to  advance  to  Ticonderoga,  now 
scarcely  finished  by  the  French,  on  the  narrow  interval  between  Lakes  George 
and  Champlain.  His  onward  progress  was  however  checked  by  learning  the 
advance  of  Baron  Dieskau  from  Canada  with  a  body  of  French  troops,  and 
thus  while  he  despatched  urgent  requests  for  reinforcements,  he  prepared  to 
act  on  the  defensive.  Hearing  by  his  scouts  that  the  French  commander  was 
at  hand  with  his  forces,  a  council  of  war  was  called,  when  it  was  deter- 
mined to  send  out  a  small  force  to  check,  if  possible,  the  enemy's  advance. 
Johnson  now  asked  the  opinion  of  Hendrich,  who  had  joined  the  militia  with  a 
body  of  his  Indians.  Referring  to  the  smallness  of  the  detachment  the  sachem 
shrewdly  observed,  "  if  they  are  to  fight,  they  are  too  few,  if  they  are  to  be 
killed,  they  are  too  many ; "  and  the  folly  of  a  proposal  to  divide  them  into 
three  bodies,  he  illustrated  after  the  fashion  of  the  old  fable,  by  taking  three 
sticks  in  his  hand :  "  Put  them  together,"  he  said,  <e  and  you  can't  break 
them ;  take  them  one  by  one,  and  they  are  easily  snapped."  His  laconic  ad- 
vice was  adopted,  and  a  body  of  twelve  hundred  men  under  Colonel  Wil- 
liams immediately  ordered  out.  As  they  were  about  to  start,  Hendrich 
leaped  on  a  gun  carriage,  and  harangued  his  Indians,  who  listened  to  him 
with  the  deepest  veneration.  His  long  white  hair  flowed  down  in  elf-locks  over 
his  dusky  face  and  aged  shoulders,  and  heightened  the  wildness  of  his  flashing 
eye ;  and  such  was  the  loftiness  of  his  manner,  and  the  vehemence  of  his  dis- 
course, that  the  British  commanders,  who  understood  not  a  word  of  what  he 
said,  were  no  less  deeply  affected  than  the  Indians  themselves. 

Meanwhile  the  French  were  advancing  towards  Johnson's  encampment  with 
as  much  haste  as  the  density  of  the  forest,  which  concealed  all  but  what  was 
immediately  before  them,  would  allow.  The  same  obstacle  entirely  prevented 
Williams  and  his  force  from  a  knowledge  of  the  enemy's  position;  thus,  just 
where  the  road  passed  a  stream  called  Rocky  Brook,  about  four  miles  from  the 
lake,  they  suddenly  found  themselves  in  the  centre  of  the  French  line, 
which  was  spread  out  around  them  in  the  shape  of  a  half  moon.  A  murder- 
ous fire  was  instantly  opened  upon  them  both  in  front  and  flank,  Williams 
fell  mortally  wounded  near  a  huge  fragment  of  rock,  which  still  retains  his 
name,  and  the  gallant  Hendrich  received  a  ball  through  his  back  from  the  ex- 
treme wing,  only  regretting  in  his  death  that  this  circumstance  might  lead  to 
a  belief  that  he  had  been  shot  while  endeavouring  to  fly.  After  the  first 
discharge,  Captain  Whity  succeeded  in  effecting  his  retreat  with  little  loss 
toward  the  camp.  Johnson,  who  had  been  alarmed  by  the  firing,  sent  out  an 
additional  force,  who,  meeting  their  flying  countrymen,  fell  back  upon  the 
camp,  which  Johnson  began  hastily  to  fortify. 

The  memory  of  this  disaster  was  long  preserved.  At  a  short  distance  from 
the  spot  where  Williams  fell,  is  a  small  and  gloomy  pool,  overmantlecl  with 
the  broad  leaves  of  the  water  lily,  into  which  the  bodies  of  the  slaughtered 
English  were  thrown.  The  spot  was  long  regarded  with  fear.  From  the  dark 
tinge  which  its  waters  were  believed  to  take  from  the  deadly  burden  they 


A.D.  1755. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  £55 

concealed,  it  was  called  "the  Bloody  Pond/'  and  in  the  gloom  of  twilight  the  chap. 
belated  wanderer  fancied  that  the  ghostly  forms  of  the  slaughtered  soldiers 
might  be  seen  hovering  about  its  brink. 

The  advantage  gained  by  the  French  was  but  temporary.  Ignorant  of 
the  strength  of  Johnson's  position,  they  eagerly  pressed  on  to  attack  him,  before 
the  English  should  recover  from  the  panic  caused  by  their  recent  defeat. 
Johnson,  however,  had  been  busily  engaged  in  strengthening  his  intrenchments, 
upon  which  he  had  planted  two  pieces  of  artillery,  with  which  his  assailants 
were  totally  unprovided.  About  noon  they  were  seen  emerging  from  the 
forest  upon  the  little  clearing  in  good  order,  the  regulars  in  the  centre,  and 
flanked  by  the  Canadians  and  Indians.  Their  fire  however  took  little  effect, 
while  as  soon  as  they  rushed  in  to  storm  the  place,  the  English  opened  upon 
them  with  their  artillery,  and  a  heavy  and  well-directed  stream  of  musketry. 
A  bomb-shell  bursting  in  their  midst  completed  the  rout  of  the  militia  and 
savages.  The  regular  troops  stood  their  ground  bravely  for  some  time, 
but  at  length  turned  their  backs,  closely  pursued  by  the  English,  who,  leaping 
over  the  breastwork,  drove  back  their  enemies  into  the  cover  of  the  forest. 
Dieskau  received  a  mortal  wound.  Johnson  himself  was  disabled,  and  the 
command  devolved  on  Lyman,  who  heavily  avenged  the  death  of  Williams 
upon  the  fugitives.  The  Canadians  and  Indians  who  had  fled  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  repulse,  halted  on  the  battle-ground  of  the  morning,  and 
were  debating  whether  to  renew  the  attack,  when  Captain  Macginnis,  who  had 
been  sent  with  a  small  body  from  Fort  Edward,  suddenly  found  himself  close 
upon  them,  and  after  sustaining  their  attack  for  two  hours,  made  his  way  to 
Johnson's  camp,  where  he  died  three  days  after  of  a  mortal  wound.  The 
remainder  of  the  discomfited  French  made  their  way  through  the  forests  to 
their  newly  erected  fort  at  Ticonderoga. 

Johnson  at  the  time  was  strongly  urged  by  Lyman  to  pursue  them  to  this 
rallying  place,  a  request  afterwards  enforced  by  General  Shirley,  who  had 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  Braddock.  He  had  not  however  sufficient  con- 
fidence in  his  troops,  or  was  not  adequately  provided  with  artillery  and  stores, 
to  venture  on  this  measure,  but  contented  himself  with  building  a  fort  on  the 
spot  whence  he  had  repulsed  the  French,  on  which  he  bestowed  the  name  of 
"William  Henry,  and  leaving  a  small  garrison,  returned  to  Albany,  where 
he  disbanded  his  forces  for  the  winter. 

In  pursuance  of  a  plan  agreed  upon  in  the  conference  at  Alexandria  with 
Braddock,  Governor  Shirley,  of  Massachusetts,  had  marched  through  the 
wilderness  with  a  small  force,  destined  for  the  reduction  of  the  French  forts 
Niagara  and  Frontenac.  Arrived  at  Oswego,  he  received  the  news  of  Brad- 
dock's  disaster,  by  which  the  chief  command  devolved  upon  himself.  His 
first  measure  was  to  strengthen  Oswego  by  the  erection  of  two  new  forts 
of  good  and  solid  construction,  and  to  build  vessels  in  order  to  convey  his 
troops  to  Niagara ;  but  although  he  was  warmly  seconded  by  the  colonists,  he 
was  unable  to  assume  the  offensive  before  the  end  of  the  season  cut  short  his 
operations,  and  the  militia  returned  to  their  homes  for  the  winter. 


A.  D. 1756. 


£56  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  With  these  operations  terminated  the  campaign  of  1755.  On  the  whole  it 
was  rather  disastrous  than  favourable  to  the  colonists,  who  responded  but 
faintly  to  a  further  call  made  upon  them  by  Shirley,  to  whose  inexperience  in 
war  the  unfortunate  result  was  attributed.  During  the  interval  of  winter  some 
ineffectual  attempts  at  negociation  had  taken  place ;  but  these  having  failed, 
war  was  formally  declared  by  England  in  the  spring  of  1756.  General 
Abercrombie,  who  had  acquired  some  reputation  on  the  continent,  was  shortly 
after  sent  out  with  an  additional  force,  but  the  Earl  of  Loudon,  the  new 
commander-in-chief,  did  not  arrive  till  about  the  end  of  July.  A  garrison 
having  been  left  in  Oswego,  to  reinforce  this  became  the  immediate  object  of 
solicitude.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bradstreet  was  detached  thither  with  a  small 
body  of  forces,  and  succeeded  in  making  his  way  across  the  wide  intervening 
wilderness  to  the  Onondaga,  at  the  influx  of  which  river  into  Lake  Ontario 
the  fort  was  situated.  A  large  body  of  French  were  sent  to  intercept  him, 
but  he  succeeded  in  effecting  his  passage  before  they  could  reach  the  banks 
of  the  stream.  Nevertheless,  as  they  were  aware  he  must  return  by  the  same 
route,  with  but  a  very  slender  force,  they  resolved  to  lay  in  wait  and  inter- 
cept him. 

Few  scenes  could  be  more  wild,  or  at  the  same  time  better  adapted  for  such 
a  purpose,  than  the  solitary  banks  of  the  Onondaga.  In  some  places  huge 
trees,  undermined  by  the  flood,  hang  over  its  darkened  waters,  which  en- 
countering some  pebbly  shoal,  suddenly  break  into  rapids  and  eddy  round 
the  angle  of  some  woody  islet  which  intercepts  their  flow.  All  around  was 
unbroken  forest,  and  it  was  impossible  to  penetrate  any  distance  along  the 
tangled  banks  of  the  stream,  intersected  with  tributary  torrents,  or  broken  by 
weedy  swamps.  Bradstreet  cautiously  ascended  the  river,  wisely  dis- 
tributing his  canoes  in  three  divisions,  of  which  he  led  the  foremost,  his  eye 
intently  fixed  upon  every  angle  which  might  conceal  a  lurking  foe.  Just 
where  the  stream  broke  round  a  woody  islet,  a  sudden  volley  flashed  out  from 
the  trees,  accompanied  by  the  wild  yells  of  the  Indians.  Bradstreet  instantly 
made  for  the  islet,  where  a  party,  dashing  through  the  shallows,  had  arrived 
before  him  to  cut  off  his  retreat.  With  resolute  valour  he  drove  them  into  the 
water,  and  some  more  of  the  canoes  hurrying  up,  his  little  band  was  now  in- 
creased to  twenty  men.  A  second  and  third  time  did  the  French  with  treble 
numbers  dash  across  the  stream,  only  to  meet  with  a  repulse ;  and  the  rest  of 
the  boatmen  now  coming  up,  together  with  fresh  bodies  of  the  enemy,  a  run- 
ning bush-fight  was  maintained  on  both  sides  with  desperate  fury,  till  the  French 
at  length  fled  into  the  woods,  having  lost  a  hundred  of  their  number,  leaving 
numerous  prisoners  and  a  large  quantity  of  arms  as  the  prize  of  their  intre- 
pid victors.  Scarcely  was  the  fight  concluded,  when  the  latter  were  joined 
by  a  fresh  body  of  troops,  who  descended  the  river  to  Oswego,  which  by 
these  successive  reinforcements  was  placed  in  a  temporary  posture  of  defence. 
Bradstreet,  on  joining  Abercrombie,  warned  him  of  the  intentions  of  the 
French  to  seize  Oswego,  and  fresh  troops  were  accordingly  despatched  thither; 
but  so  long  was  their  departure  delayed  by  the  jealousy  and  fears  of  the 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  257 

colonists,  that  before  it  had  arrived,  the  fort  had  already  fallen  into  the  hands   chap. 
of  the  enemy.  ' — 

For  in  the  mean  while  a  new  governor,  and  more  enterprising  commander-in- 
chief,  had  been  sent  over  to  Canada  from  France.  Louis  Joseph,  Marquis  de 
Montcalm  de  St.  Veran,  was  born  at  the  Chateau  de  Candiac,  near  Nismes, 
in  1712,  of  a  family  illustrious  not  only  for  its  extraction,  but  for  its  prowess. 
Though  destined  for  the  profession  of  arms,  he  had  received  so  excellent  an 
education,  that,  like  his  competitor  Wolfe,  he  ever  afterwards  retained  a  taste 
for  scientific  and  literary  pursuits,  and  had  his  career  not  been  suddenly 
terminated,  would  have  been  chosen  a  member  of  the  French  Academy.  Like 
the  English  commander  too,  he  was  not  chosen  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
French  armies  in  North  America  until  he  had  previously  distinguished  him- 
self in  many  a  gallant  encounter.  Such  was  the  general  who  now  arrived  at 
Quebec  with  a  large  reinforcement  of  troops,  and  who,  after  sustaining  the 
honour  of  the  French  arms  with,  unexampled  success,  fell  gloriously  in  the 
field  of  battle,  and  is  associated  with  his  victor  in  an  enduring  monument 
of  their  common  fame.  His  first  exploit  was  the  seizure  of  Forts  Ontario 
and  Oswego,  where  vast  magazines  had  been  assembled  without  any  adequate 
protection,  which  having  learned,  he  stole  a  march  upon  them,  and  surprised 
them  before  any  succour  could  be  obtained. 

Thus  had  passed  another  season  of  hostilities,  which  left  matters,  if  any 
thing,  in  a  position  still  less  favourable  to  the  English.  During  the  winter, 
a  military  council  was  held  at  Boston,  by  Loudon,  in  which,  it  was  resolved, 
next  year,  merely  to  defend  the  frontiers,  and  to  undertake  an  expedition  to 
Louisburg,  which  had  been  ceded  again  to  the  French.  It  was  not  until 
July  that  Loudon  sailed,  just  a  little  too  late  to  prevent  a  French  fleet  from 
entering  the  harbour,  and  he  sailed  back  to  Boston  from  this  abortive 
expedition,  only  to  learn  that  serious  disasters  had  befallen  the  defenders  of 
the  frontier,  owing  to  the  unaccountable  dilatoriness  and  want  of  decision 
with,  which  all  the  civil  and  military  affairs  appear  to  have  been  conducted  at 
this  period. 

During  the  absence  of  Loudon,  Montcalm  determined  on  striking  a  vigor- 
ous blow  at  Fort  "William  Henry,  which  had,  as  before  said,  been  built  by 
Johnson  at  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  George.  The  fort,  which  was 
far  from  strong,  was  garrisoned  by  two  thousand  men  under  Colonel  Monro ; 
while  Colonel  Webb  was  stationed  at  Fort  Edward,  with  a  force  of  double 
that  amount. 

While  Webb  remained  thus  inactive,  Montcalm  was  concentrating  his 
troops  at  Fort  Ticonderoga,  at  the  northern  extremity  of  Lake  George.  He  had 
succeeded  in  gaining  over  a  large  body  of  Indian  allies,  which  with  his  regular 
troops  formed  a  body  of  eight  thousand  men,  well  provided  with  artillery  for 
the  siege  of  Fort  William  Henry.  Descending  the  lake,  he  encamped  on  the 
shore  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  fort,  which  rested  its  bastions  on  the 
limpid  waters,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  small  clearing,  seemed  buried 
among  a  region  of  lofty  mountains  and  ravines  clothed  with  trackless  forests. 

2  l 


A.  D. 1757 


258  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c"  ap.  Having  reconnoitred  the  fort,  Montcalm  pushed  his  trenches  close  to  the  ram- 
parts and  opened  a  heavy  cannonade  upon  the  body  of  the  fort;  while  the 
woods  around  swarmed  with  his  sharp-shooters  and  Indians,  who  kept  up  a  gall- 
ing fire  on  the  defenders  as  they  manned  the  batteries.  Unable  to  offer  any 
protracted  resistance,  Monro  sent  repeated  and  pressing  messages  to  Webb, 
who  had  already  examined  the  place,  and  though  pressed  by  the  daring 
Rogers  to  allow  him  to  attack  the  enemy  with  his  Rangers,  seemed  to  have 
made  up  his  mind  that  it  could  not  be  successfully  defended.  The  French 
commander  issued  a  peremptory  summons  to  surrender,  but  Monro  declared 
he  would  defend  his  trust  to  the  uttermost  extremity.  At  length  his  artillery 
failed,  and  when  Montcalm  sent  in  an  intercepted  letter,  in  which  Webb 
affirmed  his  inability  to  offer  any  succour,  and  desired  him  to  make  the  best 
terms  in  his  power,  the  brave  commandant  reluctantly  signed  a  capitulation, 
by  which  he  was  to  march  out  with  all  the  honours  of  war,  and  to  be  es- 
corted to  Fort  Edward  by  a  body  of  French  soldiers. 

The  Indian  allies  of  Montcalm,  deprived  of  their  promised  plunder  by  the 
terms  of  this  capitulation,  could  hardly  be  kept  in  restraint,  a  fact  of  which 
Montcalm  had  already  informed  the  English  commander.  To  the  chivalrous 
officers,  accustomed  to  the  conduct  of  European  warfare,  the  necessity  of  em- 
ploying these  savage  allies  must  have  been  degrading,  and  the  impossibility 
of  restraining  their  atrocities  without  provoking  their  hostility  has  often 
exposed  their  reputation  to  unmerited  obloquy.  It  proved  so  on  this  occasion. 
The  British  soldiers,  still  armed,  and  escorted  by  a  small  French  force,  with 
their  wives  and  children  marched  with  heavy  hearts  out  of  the  works  to  take 
their  way  towards  Fort  Edward,  and  scarcely  had  the  head  of  the  column  en- 
tered the  forest,  and  become  entangled  in  a  narrow  pass,  which  still  retains 
the  name  of  the  "  Bloody  Defile,"  than  a  body  of  two  thousand  savages,  con- 
cealed in  the  surrounding  thickets,  raised  the  dreadful  and  thrilling  war- 
whoop,  and  bursting  upon  them,  commenced  an  indiscriminate  massacre. 
Seized  with  sudden  panic,  the  English  fell  almost  without  resistance,  and  the 
French  escort  was  either  unable  cr  unwilling  to  offer  them  any  effectual  aid. 
It  is  said  Montcalm  with  several  of  his  officers  rushed  into  the  midst,  and 
vainly  endeavoured  to  stay  the  butchery;  he  bared  his  breast  and  called 
upon  the  savages  to  slay  himself  rather  than  his  prisoners,  and  urged  the 
latter  to  defend  themselves ;  but  all  his  efforts  were  in  vain.  The  terrified 
fugitives  were  pursued  into  the  forest,  where  many  fell  victims  to  the  toma- 
hawk or  were  carried  away  into  slavery ;  the  rest,  after  much  difficulty,  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  Fort  Edward.  The  fort  was  then  destroyed  by  the 
French,  who  had  hardly  embarked,  when  Major  Rogers,  who  had  been 
hovering  with  his  Rangers  about  their  track,  descended  to  the  spot,  and  has 
vividly  described  the  scene  of  desolation  and  horror  before  him.  "  The  fort 
was  entirely  demolished,  the  barracks,  and  outhouses,  and  buildings  were  a 
heap  of  ruins,  the  cannon  stores,  boats,  and  vessels  were  all  carried  away. 
The  fires  were  still  burning ;  the  smoke  and  stench  offensive  and  suffocating. 
Innumerable  fragments,  human  skulls,  and  bones  and  carcasses  half  con- 


A.D.  1758. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  259 

sumed,  were  still  frying  and  broiling  in  the  decaying  fires.  Dead  bodies  man-  ch'a  p 
gled  with  scalping  knives  and  tomahawks,  in  all  the  wantonness  of  Indian 
fierceness  and  barbarity,  were  every  where  to  be  seen.  More  than  one  hun- 
dred women  butchered  and  shockingly  mangled  lay  upon  the  ground,  still 
weltering  in  their  gore.  Devastation,  barbarity,  and  horror  every  where  ap- 
peared, and  the  spectacle  presented  was  too  diabolical  and  awful  either  to  be 
endured  or  described." 

This  affair  created  the  greatest  consternation  throughout  the  northern  pro- 
vinces. Twenty  thousand  militia  were  called  out  in  Massachusetts  in  the 
apprehension  of  a  further  blow ;  but  Montcalm,  satisfied  with  the  advantages 
he  had  gained  and  the  terror  he  had  occasioned,  withdrew  his  forces  into 
Canada  for  the  winter. 

As  it  is  darkest  just  before  the  coming  of  the  day,  so  the  termination  of 
the  campaign  of  1757  left  matters  in  a  more  gloomy  state  than  any  of  the 
preceding.  The  French  retained  Louisburg,  had  mastered  Oswego,  and  com- 
manded- not  only  Lake  Champlain,  but  Lake  George,  threatening  even  the 
settlements  on  the  Hudson.  The  Six  Nations  had  been  obliged  to  enter  into 
a  treaty  of  neutrality.  By  the  possession  of  Fort  Duquesne,  the  French 
menaced  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania,  which  were  continually 
ravaged  by  their  Indian  allies.  In  the  mother  country,  no  less  than  in  the 
colonies,  the  bitterest  discontent  prevailed.  The  Newcastle  ministry  was 
declared  to  be  venal  and  incapable,  and  a  change  imperiously  demanded  by 
the  nation. 

It  was  by  this  current  of  popular  feeling,  more  than  by  the  desire  of  the 
king,  that  a  new  minister  now  appeared  on  the  scene  of  action,  gifted  with  a 
grasp  of  mind  and  energy  of  purpose  that  equalled  the  emergency  which 
called  him  into  notice.  This  was  William  Pitt,  afterwards  Earl  of  Chatham, 
who  now  assumed  the  entire  control  of  foreign  and  colonial  affairs.  Conscious 
that  he  alone  could  save  the  country  if  any  man  could,  his  measures  were 
characterized  by  a  vigour  commensurate  to  the  necessity,  while  the  agents 
appointed  to  carry  them  into  execution  were  selected  with  the  wisest  dis- 
crimination. His  plans  for  the  conquest  of  Canada  infused  new  life  into  the 
colonists,  and  as  they  were  besides  to  be  repaid  for  the  expense  of  their  levies, 
large  forces  of  provincials  were  soon  collected,  while,  by  the  arrival  of  fresh 
reinforcements  from  England,  Abercrombie,  who  remained  commander-in- 
chief,  soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  splendid  army,  destined  to  advance 
upon  Canada  by  way  of  the  lakes,  and  also  to  wrest  Fort  Duquesne  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  French. 

Among  the  leading  officers  of  Abercrombie,  was  the  young  Lord  Howe, 
who  although  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  British  aristocracy,  had  endeared 
himself  to  the  whole  army  by  the  courtesy  and  gentleness  of  his  manners, 
no  less  to  the  provincials  than  the  British,  and  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
shared  every  hardship  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  troops.  Disregarding 
the  pomp  of  military  display  to  which  the  major  part  of  the  army  tenaciously 
clung,  he  was  even  among  the  first  to  set  an  example  of  wearing  a  suitable 

2  l  2 


A.  D. 1758. 


260  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

c  "VA  P'  dress,  an^  submitting  to  the  regulations  required  by  a  campaign  in  the  forests. 
He  cropped  his  long  powdered  hair,  wore  a  short  jacket  and  leggings,  and 
ordered  the  barrels  of  the  men's  muskets  to  be  blackened,  that  they  might  not 
attract  the  watchful  eye  of  the  enemy.  Unlike  most  disciplinarians  and 
innovators,  he  had  the  art  of  making  himself  tenderly  beloved  by  the  whole 
army,  and  he  was  regarded  with  no  less  attachment  by  the  Americans  among 
whom  he  was  quartered  at  Albany.  Aunt  Schuyler,  as  he  familiarly  called 
his  maternal  friend,  a  lady  whose  hospitable  house  was  always  open  to  the 
English  officers,  took  the  deepest  interest  in  him,  and  watched  the  prepar- 
ations for  his  departure  with  an  unaccountable  presentiment  of  evil.  On  the 
morning  he  left,  he  was  surprised  at  finding  her,  though  so  early,  already  up, 
having  prepared  his  breakfast  for  him.  He  playfully  remarked  that  he  would 
not  disappoint  her,  "  as  it  might  be  hard  to  say  when  he  might  again  break- 
fast with  a  lady."  Urging  upon  him  the  precautions  which  her  knowledge 
of  the  country  suggested  to  her  anxious  mind,  she  embraced  him  with  all  the 
tenderness  of  a  mother,  and  wept  bitterly  as  he  took  what  proved  indeed  to  be 
a  lasting  and  a  sad  farewell. 

The  army  which  now  advanced  to  Lake  George  was  the  finest  ever  seen  in 
America,  amounting  to  seven  thousand  regulars  and  nine  thousand  provin- 
cials, including  the  regiment  of  the  Royal  Americans,  and  was  furnished  with 
a  fine  train  of  artillery  and  abundance  of  military  stores ;  more  than  a  thousand 
boats  were  required  for  their  conveyance,  and  the  artillery  was  mounted  upon 
rafts.  On  the  5th  of  July  they  embarked  on  the  lake,  and  threading  its  ro- 
mantic maze  of  islets,  advanced  as  far  as  a  projecting  point,  more  than  half- 
way towards  their  destination,  to  give  a  few  hours'  refreshment  to  the  troops, 
and  make  final  arrangements  for  the  morrow.  To  this  spot,  from  their  quit- 
ting it  on  Sunday  morning,  Abercrombie  gave  the  name  of  Sabbath-day 
Point,  which  it  has  ever  since  retained. 

The  eve  of  the  attack  was  dark  and  sultry,  and  it  was  determined  to  proceed 
under  cover  of  the  night,  while  the  glare  of  the  watch-fires  deceived  the 
enemy  by  the  appearance  of  a  nocturnal  bivouac.  It  was  a  moment  of  intense 
anxiety.  Lord  Howe  in  particular,  as  with  a  presentiment  of  some  pending 
calamity,  invited  the  provincial  Captain  Stark,  afterwards  distinguished 
in  the  revolutionary  war,  to  sup  with  him,  and  closely  questioned  him 
as  to  the  position  of  Ticonderoga  and  its  defences.  Soon  after  midnight 
the  whole  fleet  was  again  in  movement,  Howe  leading  the  van,  accompanied 
by  a  guard  of  Rangers  and  boatmen.  It  was  a  strange  spectacle,  that  noc- 
turnal passage  of  so  large  an  army  along  the  solitary  waters  of  the  lake.  The 
boats  conveying  the  regulars  occupied  the  centre,  those  of  the  provincials  the 
wings,  and  in  this  order,  with  muffled  oars,  they  slowly  swept  across  the  un- 
ruffled expanse,  under  the  solemn  shadows  of  the  overhanging  mountains,  and 
o'er-canopied  by  the  starlit  sky.  Their  progress  was  unobserved  by  the  French 
scouts  until  dawn,  when,  on  suddenly  sweeping  round  the  point  where  they 
were  to  effect  a  landing,  the  glitter  of  arms,  and  the  blaze  of  scarlet  uniforms, 
betrayed  their  vicinity  to  the  fortress.  At  a  spot  called  Howe's  landing,  Brad- 


A.  D. 1758. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  261 

street  first  jumped  ashore,  with  an  advanced  guard  of  two  thousand  men  CIJ*P- 
under  Lord  Howe ;  but  no  opposition  was  offered,  and  the  rest  of  the  forces 
were  soon  landed,  with   a  distance  of  but  four  miles  intervening  between 
them  and  the  object  of  attack. 

Short  as  was  this  interval,  however,  it  was  covered  at  that  time,  like  the 
whole  region  around,  with  tangled  and  almost  trackless  forest,  bewildering  alike 
to  the  besiegers  and  besieged.  Rogers  and  Stark  pushed  through  the  woods 
with  their  Rangers  to  flank  the  advance  of  the  regulars,  who,  destitute  of  guides, 
were  soon  thrown  into  considerable  disorder ;  but  Abercrombie,  who  knew 
that  reinforcements  were  to  be  thrown  into  the  fort,  pressed  forward  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  without  carrying  his  artillery  with  him.  As  the  army 
struggled  on  in  this  confused  fashion,  the  advanced  guard  under  Lord  Howe, 
soon  after  passing  a  bridge  over  the  stream  uniting  the  two  lakes,  suddenly 
came  upon  the  abandoned  outposts  of  the  French.  Major  Putnam,  with  a 
scouting  party,  advanced  to  reconnoitre,  and  Howe  eagerly  desired  to  accom- 
pany him,  and  reap  the  glory  of  the  first  attack.  Putnam  urged  the  young 
nobleman  to  remain  behind,  observing  to  him,  "  My  Lord,  if  I  am  killed  my 
life  will  be  of  little  consequence,  but  the  preservation  of  yours  is  of  infinite 
importance  to  this  army."  Howe  rejoined,  "  Putnam,  your  life  is  as  dear  to  you 
as  mine  is  to  me.  I  am  determined  to  go."  As  they  made  their  way  through 
the  thick  woods,  the  yell  of  the  Indians  struck  upon  their  ears,  and  they  were 
suddenly  confronted  by  five  hundred  Frenchmen  and  their  savage  allies,  who 
had  lost  their  way  while  endeavouring  to  fall  back  upon  the  fortress.  A 
fierce  encounter  ensued,  and  almost  at  the  first  discharge,  Howe  received  a 
musket-shot  in  the  breast,  and  instantly  fell  dead.  The  French  defended 
themselves  with  extraordinary  courage,  and  four-fifths  of  them  were  slain 
before  they  yielded  the  battle-ground  to  the  infuriated  and  disheartened 
English. 

The  loss  of  Lord  Howe  fell  like  an  ominous  cloud  over  the  spirits  of 
the  army,  by  whom  he  was  universally  beloved.  The  news  flew  rapidly 
to  Albany,  and  cast  a  gloom  over  the  place.  A  few  days  after  his  departure, 
in  the  afternoon,  a  courier  was  seen  galloping  violently  from  the  north  without 
his  hat.  One  of  the  Schuyler's  family  ran  out  to  inquire,  when  the  man  hastily 
rode  on,  crying  out  that  Lord  Howe  was  killed,  and  shrieks  and  sobs  for  his 
untimely  death  re-echoed  through  the  house  so  lately  enlivened  by  his  gentle 
and  graceful  presence.  No  death  was  more  regretted  during  the  seven  years' 
war  than  that  of  this  unfortunate  young  nobleman,  and  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts voted  a  monument  to  his  memory  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

At  dawn  the  next  day,  in  consequence  of  the  general  confusion  and  alarm, 
Abercrombie  marched  back  his  forces  to  the  landing-place,  while  Bradstreet 
was  sent  forward  to  seize  some  sawmills  which  formed  a  French  outpost,  in 
which  enterprise  he  was  entirely  successful ;  and  the  ground  being  now  clear, 
on  the  following  night  the  army  advanced  and  took  up  a  position  close 
under  the  walls  of  Ticonderoga. 

This  fort,  so  celebrated  in  both  the  intercolonial  and  revolutionary  wars,  and 


262  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CIJv.P'  the  crumbling  and  picturesque  ruins  of  which  now  attract  the  interest  of  the 
A  D  1758  tourist,  stood  upon  a  bold  point  of  land  above  the  stream  which  unites  Lakes 
George  and  Champlain,  the  navigation  of  which  it  thus  commanded.  It  took 
its  name  from  the  Indian  word  cheonderoga,  signifying  "the  sounding  water," 
and  from  the  noisy  rapidity  of  the  stream  that  flowed  beneath  its  walls,  the 
French,  who  erected  the  place  in  1776,  conferred  on  it  the  appellation  of  Fort 
Carillon.  It  was  strongly  and  solidly  built,  and  within  was  Montcalm  with  a 
garrison  of  three  thousand  men.  On  three  sides  it  was  surrounded  by  water, 
and  the  other  was  defended  by  a  swamp.  Here  intrenchments  were  thrown 
up  for  nearly  a  mile  in  front,  there  was  a  breastwork  nine  feet  high ;  but  the 
most  formidable  obstacle  was  an  abattis,  or  barrier,  one  hundred  yards  deep, 
composed  of  felled  forest  trees,  with  their  jagged  branches  pointing  outward 
towards  the  foe,  and  so  entangled  as  to  be  almost  impenetrable. 

Abercrombie  was  anxious  to  attack  the  fort  without  delay,  having  heard  that 
a  large  force  under  M.  de  Levi  was  approaching  to  join  Montcalm,  the  num- 
ber of  whose  forces  was  exaggerated  by  the  accounts  of  prisoners.  Engineers 
immediately  proceeded  to  reconnoitre  the  works,  but  from  the  width  of  the 
intervening  swamp  and  brushwood,  were  unable  to  come  to  any  decided 
conclusion.  Some  reported  them  as  trifling,  others  as  formidable ;  and 
under  the  pressure  of  the  emergency,  the  general  either  inclined  to  the  latter 
opinion,  or  determined  to  trust  all  to  the  bravery  of  his  troops,  without  waiting 
for  his  artillery,  the  arrival  of  which  must  have  insured  to  him  a  certain 
triumph.  Had  success  been  the  result  of  this  rash  measure,  Abercrombie, 
whose  good  services  on  the  continent  had  led  to  his  promotion,  would  have 
obtained  the  reputation  of  a  hero — its  disastrous  issue  has  covered  his  memory 
with  shame. 

On  the  morning  of  the  fatal  8th  of  July,  the  army  was  formed  for  the 
attack.  The  provincials  formed  the  wings ;  and  the  centre,  upon  whom  the 
brunt  of  the  onset  devolved,  was  composed  of  the  British  regulars,  with  the 
brave  42nd  Highlanders,  and  the  55th,  which  had  been  commanded  by  Lord 
Howe.  At  one  o'clock,  under  a  burning  sun,  those  regiments  received  the 
order  to  attack,  and  to  reserve  their  fire  until  they  had  surmounted  the  sum- 
mit of  the  breastwork.  The  order  was  strictly  obeyed,  and  though  the  French 
opened  a  galling  discharge  upon  them  as  they  made  their  way  across  the  tangled 
morass,  not  a  shot  had  been  fired,  when  they  reached  the  outermost  extremity 
of  the  abattis,  which  now  developed  itself  in  all  its  unsuspected  extent  and 
formidable  strength.  Nothing  daunted,  however,  the  troops,  leaping  upon  the 
prostrate  trunks,  endeavoured  to  surmount  the  obstacle,  but  soon  became  hope- 
lessly entangled  amidst  the  wilderness  of  jagged  branches,  entwined  together 
into  inextricable  confusion.  While  thus  endeavouring  to  force  their  way,  the 
French,  sheltered  by  the  breastwork,  picked  them  off  one  by  one,  without 
the  slightest  difficulty,  and  though  a  few  of  the  more  active  and  lightly  clad 
Highlanders  contrived  to  clamber  over  the  abattis,  and  to  force  their  way  over 
the  breastwork,  they  were  instantly  despatched  with  the  bayonet.  It  seems  al- 
most incredible,  though  true,  that  this  hopeless  struggle  should  have  continued 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


for  four  hours,  until  nearly  two  thousand  men  had  fallen  victims  to  a  struggle,  c  ha  p. 

which  for  dogged  perseverance  against  insuperable  obstacles,  has  scarcely  a 

parallel  in  history.  At  length  an  English  detachment  having  by  mistake 
fired  upon  their  own  countrymen,  a  general  panic  took  place,  and  the  rout 
became  universal.  Abercrombie  having  issued  an  order  for  retreat  to  the 
landing-place,  the  troops  crowded  down  towards  the  boats,  but  were  pre- 
vented from  rushing  into  them  by  the  presence  of  mind  of  Bradstreet,  who 
occupied  the  landing-place  with  a  small  force,  and  here  accordingly  the  army 
encamped  after  this  most  terrible  reverse. 

Stupified  by  this  disaster,  Abercrombie,  who  appears  to  have  been  unequal 
to  the  emergency,  remained  inactive,  although  his  army  was  still  far  superior 
to  that  of  the  enemy.  Some  indemnification  for  his  defeat  was  found  in  the 
capture  of  Fort  Frontenac  by  Colonel  Bradstreet,  an  active  and  energetic 
officer,  formerly  lieutenantrgovernor  of  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  and  lately 
appointed  commissary -general,  with  the  onerous  charge  of  keeping  up  a  com- 
munication across  the  wilderness  from  Albany  to  Oswego.  Fort  Frontenac, 
now  Kingston,  has  been  already  described  as  on  the  northern  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario,  commanding  the  descent  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  menacing  the  fron- 
tiers of  New  York.  It  was  built  in  1673,  by  the  enterprising  governor  whose 
name  it  bears,  and  hence  La  Salle  departed  to  discover  the  Mississippi.  The 
capture  of  the  place  had  been  pressed  upon  General  Abercrombie  by  Brad- 
street, who  received  his  permission  to  make  the  attempt,  which,  owing  to  his 
vigour  and  foresight,  was  crowned  with  entire  success.  Leaving  a  small  gar- 
rison behind,  he  returned  to  erect  Fort  Stanwix,  commanding  the  important 
passage  between  the  Mohawk  river  and  Wood  Creek,  which  communicated 
with  Oneida  Lake  and  the  passage  of  the  Onandaga  river  to  Oswego. 
This  fort  on  the  southern  shore  of  Ontario,  immediately  opposite  to  Fron- 
tenac, had  been  built  by  Governor  Burnet  in  1722,  in  order  to  establish 
English  influence  on  the  lake.  At  this  encroachment,  as  they  deemed  it, 
the  French  took  great  offence,  and  after  vainly  endeavouring  to  compel 
Burnet  to  retire,  built,  as  a  countercheck,  a  fort  commanding  the  waters  of 
Lake  Champlain,  which  they  called  Fort  St.  Frederick,  afterwards  known  as 
Crown  Point. 

For  the  reduction  of  Fort  Duquesne,  which  continued  to  be  the  centre  of 
French  influence  on  the  Ohio,  and  whence  they  continued  to  instigate  the 
Indians  to  disturb  the  English  frontiers,  an  army  of  seven  thousand  men  had 
now  assembled  under  the  command  of  General  Forbes,  who  disregarding  the 
advice  of  Washington  to  advance  by  the  road  already  opened  by  Braddock, 
ordered  a  new  one  to  be  cut  from  Raystown.  The  vanguard  to  whom  this 
work  was  committed,  had  been  nearly  cut  off,  like  Braddock's,  by  a  sudden 
surprise,  having  lost  two  hundred  men,  when  Forbes  came  up  with  the  re- 
mainder of  the  forces.  With  fifty  miles  of  road  to  open  across  the  forests,  the 
winter  rapidly  approaching,  and  the  disheartened  troops  beginning  to  desert,  it 
was  resolved  to  retrace  their  steps,  and  abandon  the  enterprise,  when,  by  the  acci- 
dental capture  of  some  prisoners,  they  learned  the  weakness  and  distress  of  the 


A.  D.  1758. 


£64  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  French  garrison,  and  nerved  by  this  intelligence  determined  on  making  a 
vigorous  effort  to  gain  possession  of  the  place  ere  it  could  be  reinforced. 
Leaving  their  artillery  behind,  and  pushing  into  the  trackless  forest,  through 
which  with  their  utmost  efforts  they  were  not  able  to  advance  more  than  a 
few  miles  a  day,  they  had  advanced  within  a  few  hours'  march  of  the  place, 
when  the  French  garrison,  having  set  fire  to  the  works,  retreated  down  the 
Ohio.  The  abandoned  fort  now  received  an  English  garrison,  and  its  name  was 
changed  from  Duquesne  to  Pitt :  the  rest  of  the  army  retraced  their  steps,  and 
the  harassed  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  were  now  freed  from  the 
incursions  of  the  Indians. 

Three  years  had  elapsed  since  the  dreadful  defeat  of  Braddock  near  the 
spot,  and  the  scene  of  his  disaster  had  remained  unvisited.  It  was  now  for  the 
first  time  sought  out.  Nothing  perhaps  in  the  annals  of  history  or  the  pages 
of  romance  can  surpass  the  following  description,  which  is  taken  from  the 
pages  of  Gait's  "Life  of  West." 

"  After  the  successful  expedition  against  Fort  du  Quesne  in  1758,  General 
Forbes  resolved  to  search  for  the  relics  of  Braddock's  army.  As  the  Euro- 
pean soldiers  were  not  so  well  qualified  to  explore  the  forest,  Captain  West, 
the  elder  brother  of  Benjamin  West  the  painter,  was  appointed,  with  his 
company  of  American  Sharpshooters,  to  assist  in  the  execution  of  this  duty ; 
and  a  party  of  Indians  were  requested  to  conduct  him  to  the  places  where  the 
bones  of  the  slain  were  likely  to  be  found.  In  this  solemn  and  affecting  duty 
several  officers  belonging  to  the  42nd  regiment  accompanied  the  de- 
tachment, and  with  them  Major  Sir  Peter  Halket,  who  had  lost  his  father  and 
brother  in  the  fatal  destruction  of  the  army.  It  might  have  been  thought  a 
hopeless  task  that  he  should  be  able  to  discriminate  their  remains  from  the 
common  relics  of  the  other  soldiers,  but  he  was  induced  to  think  otherwise, 
as  one  of  the  Indian  warriors  assured  him  that  he  had  seen  an  officer  fall  near 
a  remarkable  tree,  which  he  thought  he  could  still  discover ;  informing  him  at 
the  same  time  that  the  incident  was  impressed  on  his  memory  by  observing  a 
young  subaltern,  who,  in  running  to  the  officer's  assistance,  was  also  shot  dead 
on  his  reaching  the  spot,  and  fell  across  the  other's  body.  The  Major  had  a 
mournful  conviction  in  his  own  mind  that  these  two  officers  were  his  father 
and  brother;  and,  indeed,  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  his  anxiety  on  the  subject 
that  this  pious  expedition,  the  second  of  the  kind  that  is  on  record,  was 
undertaken. 

"  Captain  West  and  his  companions  proceeded  through  the  woods  and  along 
the  banks  of  the  river,  towards  the  scene  of  the  battle.  The  Indians  regarded 
the  expedition  as  a  religious  service,  and  guided  the  troops  with  awe  and  in 
profound  silence.  The  soldiers  were  affected  with  sentiments  not  less  serious ; 
and  as  they  explored  the  bewildering  labyrinths  of  these  vast  forests,  their 
hearts  were  often  melted  with  inexpressible  sorrow,  for  they  frequently  found 
skeletons  lying  across  the  trunks  of  fallen  trees,  a  mournful  proof  to  their 
imaginations  that  the  men  who  sat  there  had  perished  with  hunger  in  vainly 
attempting  to  find  their  way  to  the  plantation.    Sometimes  their  feelings  were 


A.  D. 1758. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  265 

raised  to  the  utmost  amount  of  horror  by  the  sight  of  bones  and  skulls  scattered  chap. 
on  the  ground,  a  certain  indication  that  the  bodies  had  been  devoured  by  wild 
beasts;  and  in  other  places  they  saw  the  blackness  of  ashes  amid  the  relics, 
the  tremendous  evidence  of  atrocious  rites.  At  length  they  reached  a  turn 
of  the  river  not  far  from  the  principal  scene  of  destruction,  and  the  Indian 
who  remembered  the  death  of  the  two  officers  stopped :  the  detachment  imme- 
diately halted.  He  then  looked  round  in  quest  of  some  object  which  might  re- 
call distinctly  his  recollection  of  the  ground,  and  suddenly  darted  into  the  wood. 
The  soldiers  rested  their  arms  without  speaking,  a  shrill  cry  was  soon  after 
heard,  and  the  other  guides  made  signs  for  the  troops  to  follow  them  towards 
the  spot  from  which  it  came.  In  a  short  time  they  reached  the  Indian  war- 
rior, who,  by  his  cry,  announced  to  his  companions  that  he  had  found  the 
place  where  he  was  posted  on  the  day  of  battle.  As  the  troops  approached  he 
pointed  to  the  tree  under  which  the  officers  had  fallen.  Captain  West  halted 
his  men  round  the  spot,  and  with  Sir  Peter  Halket  and  the  other  officers 
formed  a  circle,  while  the  Indians  removed  the  leaves  which  thickly  covered 
the  ground  (the  leaves  of  three  seasons).  The  skeletons  were  found  as  the 
Indian  expected,  lying  across  each  other.  The  officers  having  looked  at  them 
for  some  time,  the  Major  said  that,  as  his  father  had  an  artificial  tooth,  he 
thought  he  might  be  able  to  ascertain  if  they  were  indeed  his  bones,  and  those 
of  his  brother.  The  Indians  were  therefore  ordered  to  remove  the  skeleton 
of  the  youth,  and  to  bring  to  view  that  of  the  old  officer.  This  was  done,  and 
after  a  short  examination  Major  Halket  exclaimed,  It  is  my  father  !  and  fell 
back  in  the  arms  of  his  companions.  The  pioneers  then  dug  a  grave,  and  the 
bones  being  laid  in  it  together,  a  Highland  plaid  was  spread  over  them,  and 
they  were  interred  with  the  customary  honours." 

While  Abercrombie,  defeated  and  disgraced,  was  wasting  the  season  in  in- 
action upon  Lake  George,  Louisburg  had  fallen  before  a  well-concerted  expe- 
dition under  General  Amherst,  associated  with  whom  was  the  youthful  chief 
who  shortly  afterwards  effected  what  so  many  of  his  predecessors  had  failed  to 
accomplish,  the  capture  of  Quebec,  and  the  consequent  reduction  of  Ca- 
nada. This  was  James  Wolfe,  the  second  son  of  a  colonel  who  had 
served  under  Marlborough,  and  born  at  the  vicarage  of  Westerham  in 
Kent,  on  the  2nd  of  January,  1727.  When  first  he  entered  the  army  in  his 
father's  company,  he  was  a  lad  of  fourteen,  and  so  delicate  that  he  was  obliged 
to  be  landed  at  Portsmouth.  On  his  recovery  he  joined  the  troops,  was 
engaged  at  Dettingen  and  Fontenoy,  and  at  the  engagement  of  La  Feldt  was 
publicly  thanked  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  on  the  battle-field.  His  re- 
markable merit  soon  attracted  the  eye  of  Pitt,  who,  overleaping  the  ordinary 
rules  of  the  service,  made  him  a  brigadier-general,  and  associated  him  with 
Amherst  in  the  command  of  the  army  destined  against  Louisburg.  His 
natural  character  displayed  a  union  of  qualities  but  seldom  united;  deli- 
cate in  frame,  excitable  in  temperament,  refined  in  tastes,  and  with  a  love  of 
domestic  enjoyments,  he  was  no  less  daring,  energetic,  and  desirous  of  obtain- 
ing distinction  in  the  service  of  his  country.    It  was  his  own  opinion  that  his 

2  M 


%66  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

c  ^y  P'  cnaracter  was  0Iuy  to  be  called  forth  by  remarkable  emergencies,  that  it  was 
A  p  1759  his  faculty  to  triumph  over  obstacles  that  would  drive  an  ordinary  mind  to 
despair ;  and  the  issue  proved  that  this  confidence  in  his  own  powers  was  not 
unduly  great. 

The  fleet  arrived  at  Cape  Breton  on  the  morning  of  the  2nd  of  June, 
while  a  thick  mist  shrouded  the  surrounding  shores.  Every  precaution  had 
been  adopted  for  landing  unobserved,  but  as  the  fog  cleared  off  it  disclosed  a 
line  of  formidable  breakers,  that  for  several  days  prevented  all  attempt  to  land. 
The  boats  at  length  put  off,  but  as  they  neared  the  awful  surf,  through  which 
it  seemed  impossible  to  pass  and  live,  Wolfe  waved  his  hat  as  a  signal  to  put 
back  again  to  the  ships.  Three  young  subalterns  mistaking  the  order,  pushed 
through  the  breakers,  and  though  some  of  their  boat's  crew  were  sucked  back 
by  the  roaring  surf  never  to  rise  again,  succeeded  in  making  good  their  landing. 
Wolfe  and  the  rest  now  followed,  exposed  to  a  galling  fire  as  they  neared  the 
shore.  It  was  some  days  before  the  sea  was  calm  enough  to  admit  of  the 
artillery  being  landed ;  when  the  town  was  closely  invested,  and  a  heavy  fire 
directed  upon  the  works,  which  were  in  very  bad  repair.  Drucour,  the  French 
commandant,  protracted  the  defence  with  skill  and  bravery,  but  most  of  the 
French  ships  of  war  in  the  harbour  being  set  on  lire  by  a  shell,  and  the 
remaining  two  being  boarded  and  destroyed  by  the  Eiaglish  boats,  (an  exploit 
in  which  the  celebrated  Cook,  then  a  petty  officer,  co-operated,)  he  was  at  length 
obliged  to  capitulate.  This  brilliant  achievement  strengthened  the  hands  of 
the  ministry,  and  gained  laurels  for  all  engaged  in  it,  of  which  Wolfe  de- 
servedly obtained  a  considerable  share.  A  painful  duty  was  now  devolved 
upon  him,  that  of  expelling  the  French  from  the  different  settlements  they  had 
formed  in  Acadia  and  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  wretched  inhabitants  were 
driven  from  their  farms  and  fisheries  into  the  wilderness.  Such  are  the 
chronicles  of  war.  The  exploits  of  the  hero  are  written  in  brass  and  marble, 
the  miseries  involved  by  them  forgotten  in  the  blaze  of  national  exultation. 
After  executing  this  cruel  order  with  as  much  humanity  as  possible,  Wolfe 
repaired  to  Halifax  to  winter  with  the  troops ;  while  Amherst  hastened  to 
Boston,  to  carry  reinforcements  to  the  discomfited  Abercrombie. 

Next  year  the  fleet  left  Louisburg  with  eight  thousand  men  on  board,  under 
the  command  of  Wolfe.  Towards  the  end  of  June,  it  ascended  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  on  the  25th,  anchored  off  the  beautiful  Isle  of  Orleans,  within 
sight  of  the  castled  crag  of  Quebec,  the  object  of  the  expedition. 

This  city,  magnificent  in  position  as  it  is  heroic  in  associations,  was  founded 
by  the  first  French  settlers  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  river  that  bathes 
its  walls — the  mighty  St.  Lawrence — is  the  outlet  of  a  chain  of  fresh-water 
lakes,  whose  extent  imagination  almost  labours  to  grasp — the  inland  seas  of  a 
vast  continent,  rapidly  passing  from  the  wildness  of  primeval  nature  into  the 
cultured  dwelling-place  af  civilized  millions  of  British  blood  and  British 
hearts.  The  noble  stream  which  expands  before  the  crested  heights  of 
Quebec  has  been  churned  into  foam  over  the  rocks  of  Niagara,  and  threaded 
its  mazy  course  among  the  romantic  intricacies  of  "the  Thousand  Isles."     It 


A.  D. 1759. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  Zbt, 

has  yet  a  course  of  some  hundreds  of  miles  to  fulfil  before  it  pours  into  the  chap. 
Atlantic  its  immense  accumulation  of  waters,  the  drainage  of  half  a  continent. 
The  rock  on  which  Quebec  is  built  is  provided,  as  it  were,  expressly  by 
nature  to  guard  and  sentinel  the  passage  of  the  river,  and  to  command  the 
surrounding  territory,  as  from  a  throne.  Viewed  from  below,  nothing  can 
be  more  striking  than  its  black  and  perpendicular  ridges,  crested  with  frown- 
ing battlements  and  quaint  foreign-looking  steeples,  covered  with  tin. 
Crouching  at  the  foot  of  these  embattled  bulwarks  is  a  singular  mass  of 
antique  constructions,  resembling  some  dilapidated  feudal  town  on  the  Euro- 
pean continent,  with  pointed  roofs  and  curious  gables,  and  so  completely 
French  in  style  as  to  carry  us  at  once  from  the  remote  banks  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  those  of  the  Loire  or  the  Garonne.  It  consists  of  wharfs,  warehouses, 
and  a  maze  of  dark  and  narrow  streets,  perilously  overhung  by  the  perpendi- 
cular rock,  of  which  an  avalanche  of  mighty  fragments  has  more  than  once 
fallen  and  crushed  all  beneath  into  a  heap  of  ruins.  The  whole  of  this  part 
of  the  city  has  been  gradually  won,  by  piles  and  embankments,  from  the  bed 
of  the  river,  which  formerly  washed  the  base  of  the  precipice.  All  sorts  of 
craft  are  grouped  about  the  bustling  quays,  from  the  hollow  "  dug  out,"  or 
bark  canoe  of  the  Indian,  and  light  market  boats,  conveying  hay  or  provisions 
to  vessels  of  large  burden  from  Europe,  and  the  noble  ships  of  war  which 
guard  the  passage,  and  which,  huge  as  is  their  bulk,  seem  almost  insignificant 
from  the  immensity  of  the  stream  on  which  they  are  anchored.  In  the  midst 
of  the  river,  in  the  distance,  appears  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  where  Jacques 
Cartier,  the  first  explorer  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  founder  of  Quebec,  first 
anchored  his  roving  bark,  and  where  Wolfe  now  landed  with  his  troops.  The 
main  channel  of  the  river  appears  between  this  and  the  village  of  Point  Levi, 
on  the  right  of  the  picture,  while  on  the  opposite  shore  is  seen  a  long  suburb 
of  white  cottages,  leading  to  the  Falls  of  Montmorenci.  A  range  of  dusky 
mountains  encloses  the  whole  scene  as  with  a  magnificent  frame. 

The  city,  which  is  not  of  any  great  extent,  is  exceedingly  irregular,  with 
steep  and  winding  streets,  break-neck  flights  of  steps,  and  the  most  picturesque 
and  fantastic  variety  of  dwellings.  Nothing  here  of  the  "  Jack  of  the  Bean- 
stalk "  towns  of  the  United  States,  as  Mrs.  Trollope  calls  them,  all  bran  new 
and  shining,  and  looking  as  if  built  in  a  night,  or  chopped  off  per  mile  to 
order,  with  churches,  hotels,  and  museums  ready  made  to  hand.  Quebec  has 
a  dingy  old-world  look  about  it,  particularly  refreshing  to  the  lover  of  the 
picturesque,  as  we  come  from  the  gay  but  formal  cities  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  The  population  is  equally  curious  and  mixed ;  here  are  few  or 
none  of  the  spruce  and  active  American  citizens,  but  a  motley  collection  of 
Indians,  now  submissive  to  the  faith  whose  first  apostles  they  tortured  and  ate  ; 
half-breeds  and  voyageurs,  who  cut  and  conduct  the  rafts  of  timber  from  the 
distant  recesses  of  the  forests,  in  fantastic  variety  of  costume;  Canadian 
"  habitans,"  descendants  of  the  original  French  settlers,  the  very  counterpart 
of  the  peasants  of  some  remote  corner  of  France,  haters  of  innovation  and  in- 
vincible in  their  prejudices ;  while  groups  of  hardy  Scotch  or  squalid  Irish 

2  m  2 


CHAP. 
IV. 


A.  D. 1759. 


268  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

emigrants  linger  about  the  quays,  whose  forlorn  appearance  might  well  excite 
our  pity,  did  we  not  know  that  a  few  years  will  witness  a  change  in  their 
condition,  from  pauperism  to  competence;  from  the  saddening  consciousness 
that  they  are  the  miserable  outcasts  of  an  overburdened  land,  to  the  proud 
feeling  that  they  are  become  the  founders  of  future  states.  Among  this  min- 
gling crowd  are  seen  the  more  aristocratic  inhabitants,  traders  or  merchants, 
Catholic  priests  in  long  black  robes,  the  noblesse  of  French  origin,  and  espe- 
cially the  military,  who  move  among  the  denizens  of  the  land  to  which  they  are 
for  a  while  exiled,  with  proud  independence,  like  the  Roman  legionaries  upon 
a  distant  and  barbarous  frontier. 

But  one  should  see  Quebec  in  winter,  fully  to  appreciate  its  picturesque 
peculiarities.  From  the  heights  of  the  citadel,  the  eye  then  rests  upon  what 
seems  one  boundless  lake  of  milk ;  all  irregularities  of  ground,  fences,  bounda- 
ries, and  copsewoods  are  obliterated ;  the  tops  of  villages,  with  their  Catholic 
steeples,  from  which  the  bell  booms  plaintive  and  solitary  through  the  wintry 
air,  and  scattered  farms,  peep  up  like  islets  in  an  ocean,  with  here  and  there 
dark  lines  of  pine-forest,  the  mast  of  some  ice-locked  schooner,  or  the  curling 
smoke  of  a  solitary  Indian  wigwam.  The  town  has  its  strange  dark  gables 
and  pointed  roofs  all  relieved  with  the  lustrous  white  snow ;  its  rugged  streets 
are  one  day  choked  with  heaped-up  ice  and  drift,  and,  upon  a  slight  thaw, 
flooded  with  dirty  kennels  and  miniature  cascades,,  which  the  next  frost  con- 
verts into  a  dangerous  and  slippery  surface.  Clofch  or  carpet  boots,  goloshes 
with  spikes  to  their  heels,  iron-pointed  walking  sticks,  are  the  only  weapons 
defensive  against  broken  limbs  and  necks.  All  the  world  are  muffled  in  furs 
and  skins :  the  Indian  is  seen  with  his  singular  snow-shoes,  and  the  gay 
sledging  parties  dash  about  to  the  merry  music  of  the  jingling  bells  upon  their 
horses,  over  the  glittering  and  frosty  waste.  That  branch  of  the  river  to  the 
north  of  the  Isle  of  Orleans  is  always  frozen  over,  and  sometimes,  but  rarely, 
the  main  channel,  when  produce  of  all  sorts  is  conveyed  across  the  river  to 
the  city  from  the  surrounding  country,  and  groups  of  habitans  and  Indians 
are  seen  tracking  their  way  across  the  far-stretching  expanse  of  snow-covered 
ice.  In  general,  however,  the  main  channel  remains  open,  and  encumbered 
with  vast  masse*s  of  ice  ;  and  a  strange  sight  it  is,  to  see  the  dexterous  and  fear- 
less boatmen  striving  with  iron-pointed  poles  to  raise  their  vessels  upon  the 
surface  of  these  floating  ice-bergs,  and  thus  descend  the  stream  with  them, 
till  they  find  open  water  on  which  to  launch  their  barks  anew  upon  the 
troubled  and  perilous  flood. 

Quebec,  as  the  bulwark  of  British  America,  is,  as  may  be  supposed,  forti- 
fied with  the  greatest  care.  About  forty  acres  of  the  level  table-land  which 
crowns  the  precipice  are  covered  with  works,  carried  to  its  edge,  and  con- 
nected by  massive  walls  and  batteries  with  the  other  defences  of  the  place. 
Both  the  upper  town  and  the  steep  streets  of  the  lower  are  abundantly  de- 
fended, and  the  place  may  be  pronounced  almost  impregnable. 

Such  are  the  features  of  the  scene  at  the  present  day,  and  in  all  essential 
respects  they  were  the  same  when  "Wolfe  stood  on  the  shore  of  the  Isle  of 


IV. 


A.D.I  759. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

Orleans  and  surveyed  the  tremendous  strength  of  the  fortress,  which  he  had  chap. 
staked  his  reputation  on  reducing.  The  lilies  of  France  waved  from  the  crest 
of  the  citadel,  to  the  west  of  the  place  was  an  inaccessible  precipice,  on  the 
north-east  it  was  covered  by  the  river  St.  Charles,  while  every  spot  where 
the  invader  might  attempt  to  land  was  fortified  with  all  the  skill  of  Montcalm, 
who  awaited  the  attack  with  a  force  of  twelve  thousand  men.  Nothing  had 
been  heard  of  Gage  or  Amherst,  who  were  to  have  fallen  down  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  assisted  in  the  reduction  of  the  city,  and  but  four  or  five  short 
months  remained  before  frost  and  snow  must  compel  the  besiegers  to  retreat. 
'  Such  a  prospect  might  well  have  appalled  a  less  determined  spirit,  but  Wolfe 
was  one  whose  courage  and  resources  only  rose  with  the  emergency,  and  he 
determined  to  lose  no  time  in  striking  a  decisive  blow. 

The  day  had  been  wild  and  stormy,  but  the  night  fell  serene,  though  some- 
what overcast.  About  midnight  a  crashing  discharge  of  artillery  disturbed 
the  bivouac  of  the  British  army,  and  the  sudden  glare  of  several  exploding 
fire-ships  lighted  up  the  river,  the  city,  the  fleet,  and  the  anxious  faces  of 
the  soldiery.  The  terrible  missives  of  destruction  were  seen  to  drift  down 
upon  the  English  ships,  when  suddenly  a  fleet  of  boats  put  off,  with  daring 
courage  approached  the  burning  vessels,  and  towed  them  to  the  distant 
shore,  beyond  the  power  of  inflicting  any  injury. 

The  first  measure  adopted  by  Wolfe  was  to  detach  a  force  to  take  possession 
of  Point  Levi,  a  village  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  immedi- 
ately opposite  to  Quebec,  an  operation  which  was  performed  with  entire 
success ;  and  here  batteries  were  commenced  for  the  purpose  of  bombarding 
the  city.  It  was  with  feelings  of  deep  vexation  that  Montcalm  beheld  the 
enemy  establish  themselves  in  this  threatening  position,  which  he  had  pro- 
posed to  occupy  with  a  strong  force,  but  had  been  overruled  by  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Marquis  of  Vandreuil,  the  French  governor  of  Canada. 

Meanwhile  the  English  general  endeavoured  to  effect  a  landing  to  the 
eastward  of  the  town,  whence  he  might  carry  on  operations  against  the  city. 
This  plan  presented,  however,  many  formidable  difficulties.  Three  miles 
from  Quebec,  the  rapid  river  Montmorency  intersects  the  lofty  plain,  and 
suddenly  throwing  itself  headlong  over  its  precipitous  edge,  forms  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  cascades  in  North  America.  While  the  fleet  drew  as  near 
the  shore  as  possible,  and,  to  mask  the  real  design,  opened  a  fire  on  Mont- 
calm's defences,  Wolfe  crossed  over  from  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  landed 
his  forces  near  the  foot  of  this  fall.  At  the  present  day  the  river  is  spanned 
by  a  bridge  close  above  it,  but  at  that  time  there  was  no  ford  nearer  than 
three  miles,  through  a  woody  country,  and  the  enemy's  Hangers  picked  off  the 
parties  sent  to  reconnoitre.  The  prospect  in  this  quarter  was  very  dis- 
couraging, nor  was  any  decisive  effect  produced  by  the  batteries  of  Point 
Levi,  which,  though  they  inflicted  great  injury  upon  the  lower  town,  fell 
harmless  upon  the  lofty  embattled  crags  of  the  citadel.  Wolfe  now  deter- 
mined to  examine  the  ground  above  the  town.  A  little  before  midnight  a 
few  ships  of  war  sailed  past  the  walls,  and  were  not  discovered  until  too  late 


270  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ?/ p*  to  point  the  guns  at  them,  though  Wolfe  nearly  fell  a  victim  to  his  temerity, 
.  p  t  the  mast  of  the  barge  in  which  he  was  reconnoitring  being  shot  away.  The 
difficulties  of  the  ground  were  so  great  in  this  quarter  also,  that  he  con- 
tented himself  with  ordering  Carleton  to  take  possession  of  Point  aux 
Trembles,  a  short  distance  above  the  city,  and  thence  to  keep  up  a  harassing 
warfare  upon  the  surrounding  neighbourhood. 

Time  was  now  fast  slipping  away,  and  yet  no  sensible  effect  had  been  pro- 
duced, and  in  his  situation,  Wolfe  well  knew  that  inaction  must  be  fatal.  Nor 
was  the  anxiety  of  Montcalm  less  harassing ;  the  place  was  short  of  provisions, 
the  discontented  provincials  with  difficulty  kept  together,  while  with  the  forces' 
of  Amherst  on  the  west,  and  the  English  fleet  blockading  the  river,  all  hope 
of  succour  was  impossible.  But  winter,  even  more  than  its  impregnable  po- 
sition, had  always  been  the  great  defence  of  Quebec,  and  could  he  but  hold 
out  until  its  advent,  the  enemy,  he  well  knew,  must  be  forced  to  an  igno- 
minious retreat,  and  this  attempt  to  gain  possession  of  the  stronghold  of  the 
French  power  in  America  prove  equally  abortive  with  the  former. 

Strong  as  were  the  intrenchments  of  the  French  army  between  the  Mont- 
morency and  St.  Charles,  Wolfe  determined  on  the  desperate  attempt  to 
storm  them.  The  vigilance  of  Montcalm  had  not  overlooked  a  single  point 
where  attack  was  practicable.  Wolfe  selected,  however,  what  appeared  the 
weakest,  to  penetrate  the  lines  of  his  indefatigable  opponent.  He  accord- 
ingly moved  over  a  large  force  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Falls  of  Montmorency, 
on  the  eastern  side  of  which  he  had  already  established  his  batteries.  The 
attempt  was  most  gallantly  made,  but  a  succession  of  unforeseen  disasters 
concurred  to  render  it  entirely  unsuccessful. 

Whilst  Wolfe  was  anxiously  looking  for  the  arrival  of  Amherst,  the  lat- 
ter had  been  vainly  endeavouring  to  repair  to  his  assistance.  Having  as- 
sembled his  forces,  among  whom  was  a  body  of  Rangers  under  Major  Rogers, 
at  Fort  Edward,  he  passed  up  Lake  George,  and  on  the  26th  of  July  appeared 
before  the  walls  of  Ticonderoga,  the  siege  of  which  was  rapidly  urged  forward. 
The  garrison  however  did  not  await  the  issue,  but  having  blown  up  the  fort, 
retreated  upon  Crown  Point,  whither  Amherst  lost  no  time  in  following  them. 
This  fort,  of  which  the  remains  are  still  preserved  with  care,  was,  as  already 
observed,  built  by  the  French,  and  before  the  erection  of  Ticonderoga  was  the 
frontier  stronghold  of  their  power  on  the  south.  Its  position  on  a  peninsula  in 
Lake  Champlain  was  exceedingly  well  chosen,  but  the  works  were  in  a  very 
dilapidated  state,  and  when  Amherst  approached  it  with  his  forces,  he  found 
that  the  French  had  evacuated  it  and  fallen  back  upon  Isle  aux  Noix  in  the 
river  Sorel,  where  they  resolved  to  make  a  final  stand,  to  prevent  the  English 
general  penetrating  to  the  St.  Lawrence  and  advancing  to  the  assistance 
of  Wolfe.  Amherst  made  every  effort  to  overcome  the  difficulties  of  his  posi- 
tion, but  without  success.  Some  delay  was  occasioned  by  the  construction  of 
vessels  to  carry  his  munitions  and  troops  to  attack  the  French,  but  a  succes- 
sion of  storms  and  disasters  rendered  all  his  plans  abortive,  and  he  was  re- 
duced to  the  alternative  of  risking  the  loss  of  his  army  from  the  severity  of 


A.  D. 1759. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  £71 

winter  in  a  wild  and  hostile  country,  or  of  remaining  in  a  state  of  inglorious   chap. 
inaction  till  the  next  season.      Accordingly  he  laid  up  his  army  at  Crown 
Point,  where  he  had  already  begun  the  construction  of  a  new  fortress,  which 
was  afterwards  completed  by  the  English  government,  at  an  expense  of  two 
millions  sterling. 

Neither  could  the  third  detachment  of  the  army,  destined  to  co-operate  in 
the  siege  of  Quebec,  succeed  in  effecting  a  junction  with  Wolfe.  Its  com- 
mand devolved  on  General  Prideaux,  who,  accompanied  by  a  large  force  of 
Indians,  brought  together  by  the  influence  of  Johnson,  and  commanded  by 
him,  sailed  from  Oswego,  to  besiege  Fort  Niagara,  already  so  often  alluded  to 
as  being  built  by  the  French  to  command  the  passage  to  the  upper  lakes. 
Prideaux  being  killed  by  the  bursting  of  a  gun  soon  after  the  opening  of  the 
siege,  the  command  next  fell  upon  Johnson,  who  learning  that  a  body  of  twelve 
hundred  French  troops  and  as  many  Indians  were  advancing  to  raise  the 
siege,  took  up  a  well-chosen  position  to  intercept  them,  and  put  them  to  an 
entire  rout,  taking  a  large  body  of  prisoners  ;  which  compelled  the  garri- 
son shortly  afterwards  to  surrender.  Having  accomplished  this  first  object, 
he  was  to  have  descended  Lake  Ontario  and  the  river  St.  Lawrence  to 
Quebec,  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  Wolfe,  but  was  prevented  from  doing  so 
by  shortness  of  provisions  and  the  want  of  suitable  shipping. 

The  failure  of  these  joint  expeditions,  which  looked  so  plausible  upon  paper, 
not  from  incapacity  on  the  part  of  the  military  commanders,  but  from  the  ob- 
stacles inherent  to  a  campaign  in  a  wild  country,  where  vast  distances  must  be 
traversed,  and  where  munitions  of  every  sort  must  be  carried  by  an  army,  and 
where  the  season  for  operations  is  extremely  short,  fully  justified  the  earnest  en- 
treaty of  Walpole  to  Pitt,  that  he  would  look  chiefly  to  the  enterprise  by  way 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  as  the  only  reliable  means  of  reducing  the  Canadian 
capital  within  the  twelvemonth. 

Meanwhile,  the  bitter  disappointments  he  had  experienced,  acting  upon  the 
already  enfeebled  constitution  of  Wolfe,  produced  an  attack  of  fever,  which  for 
some  weeks  laid  him  entirely  prostrate.  During  his  gradual  recovery,  he  re- 
ceived intelligence  of  the  successes  of  Amherst  and  Johnson,  but  learned  that 
no  co-operation  was  to  be  looked  for  at  their  hands  during  the  present  season. 
Upon  this  co-operation  the  ministry  had  fully  calculated  for  the  reduction  of 
Quebec,  and  thus  no  disgrace  could  fairly  have  befallen  Wolfe,  because  un- 
able to  accomplish  it  singlehanded.  Determined  nevertheless  to  leave  no 
stone  unturned  that  could  afford  a  hope  of  success,  though  unable  to  leave 
his  bed,  he  called  a  council  of  war  to  deliberate  upon  the  anxious  position  of 
affairs,  and  the  best  mode  of  attacking  the  enemy,  still  himself  suggesting 
various  plans  for  storming  their  intrenchments  to  the  eastward  of  the  town, 
convinced  that  the  defeat  of  the  French  army  must  inevitably  lead  to  the  sur- 
render of  the  city.  The  brigadiers,  however,  after  mature  deliberation,  adopted, 
at  the  suggestion  of  Colonel  Townsend,  a  plan  for  attacking  the  city  on  its  west- 
ern side  ;  and  to  this  plan,  daring  as  it  was,  Wolfe  at  once  acceded.  His  confi- 
dence in  the  result,  if  we  may  judge  by  his  last  despatch  to  the  ministry  at  home, 


272  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  "y  P*  was  ver)'  ^ar  from  implicit ;  yet,  while  the  plan  itself  was  kept  a  profound 
A  D  175g  secret,  he  issued  his  orders  for  carrying  it  into  immediate  execution. 

On  the  night  of  the  12th  of  September  the  remaining  ships  of  war  sailed  up 
the  river  past  the  city,  and  rejoined  those  already  assembled  at  Cape  Rouge, 
while  Brigadiers  Monkton  and  Murray  advanced  from  Point  Levi  up  the 
southern  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  until  they  were  abreast  of  the  fleet.  A 
number  of  flat-bottomed  boats  had  been  prepared,  in  which  the  first  divisions 
of  the  army  were  now  embarked.  Although  their  immediate  destination  was 
unknown,  general  orders  had  been  issued  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to 
attack  the  enemy,  and  they  took  their  places  in  the  boats  with  a  glow  of 
courageous  anticipation.  As  the  tide  ebbed,  about  an  hour  before  daylight, 
the  boats  fell  down  the  river,  keeping  in  the  dark  shadow  of  its  lofty  and  pre- 
cipitous banks,  for  some  miles  above  Quebec  penetrated  but  by  one  solitary 
cove  which  afforded  a  practicable  landing.  Orders  had  been  given  to  main- 
tain profound  silence,  and  the  soldiers  sat  still  as  statues  in  the  boats.  The 
weather  was  calm,  and  the  stars  were  reflected  in  the  broad  bosom  of  the 
majestic  river.  The  circumstances  were  exciting,  the  aspect  of  nature  solemn 
and  serene.  The  heart  of  Wolfe  was  peculiarly  alive  to  such  influences,  and 
the  tide  of  his  feelings  sought  vent  in  the  pathetic  verses  of  Gray.  As  the 
muffled  oars  broke  drowsily,  he  repeated  in  a  low  trembling  voice  the  Elegy 
in  a  Country  Church-yard,  and  carried  away  with  enthusiasm,  exclaimed  to 
his  companions,  "  Now,  gentlemen,  I  had  rather  be  the  author  of  that  poem 
than  take  Quebec."  Soon  afterwards  the  boats  swept  into  the  shadowy  cove, 
the  thread  of  emotion  was  rudely  snapped,  and  Wolfe  leaped  ashore  with 
the  determination  to  conquer  or  to  die. 

The  cove,  which  still  retains,  and  will  ever  retain,  his  name,  is  about  two 
miles  from  Quebec,  and  though  a  few  houses  are  now  gathered  around  its 
semicircular  basin,  is  still  a  romantic  and  solitary-looking  spot.  It  is  a  nook 
in  the  long  and  perpendicular  line  of  cliffs  which  extends  unbroken  and  inac- 
cessible for  miles  together.  Its  little  round  basin  is  overhung  with  steep 
precipices,  covered  with  tall  trees,  through  which  a  rough  steep  path 
ascended  then,  as  it  now  ascends,  from  the  margin  of  the  water  to  the  level 
of  the  plain  above. 

The  boats  containing  the  78th  Highlanders  were  swept  by  the  tide  a  little 
beyond  the  cove,  and  landed  at  a  point  where  the  steep  precipice,  some  two 
hundred  feet  high,  was  thickly  covered  with  a  growth  of  forest  trees  and 
brushwood,  which  till  that  hour  had  never  been  disturbed  by  the  foot  of  man. 
Up  they  scrambled  nevertheless,  by  aid  of  the  boughs,  and  concealed  from 
observation  by  the  impenetrable  darkness  of  the  foliage.  As  they  neared  the 
top,  however,  the  rustle  of  the  leaves  betrayed  the  vicinity  of  a  human  foot  to 
the  watchful  sentinel  who  paraded  at  the  summit.  "  Qui  vive,"  he  instantly 
exclaimed — ( '  La  France,"  was  the  ready  answer ;  and  the  sentinel  paced  on  as 
before.  At  length,  alarmed  by  the  increasing  noise,  he  called  the  guard,  who, 
after  firing  a  volley  down  into  the  trees,  fled,  with  exception  of  M.  Verger, 
their  captain,  who  refused  to  surrender,  but  was  almost  instantly  overpowered. 


HISTORY   OP   AMERICA.  273 

Meanwhile  the  first  division  under  Wolfe,  Monckton,  and  Murray  had  land-  c  ha  p. 
ed,  the  others  rapidly  followed,  and  clambered  up  the  narrow  and  rugged 
path  which  ascended  from  the  cove  below  to   the  plain  above,  laboriously 
dragging  after  them  a  single  piece  of  artillery,  and  as  the  morning  dawned  the  . 
whole  force  stood  ready  for  action  upon  the  Plains  of  Abraham. 

As  the  French  outpost  hurried  back  with  the  news  to  Quebec,  Montcalm 
could  scarcely  credit  it,  so  completely  had  he  been  deceived  by  the  feigned 
attacks  of  the  English  below  the  town.  He  had  been  heard  to  say  that  he  had 
no  fears  for  the  place  unless  Wolfe  should  gain  the  heights  on  a  level  with 
the  city,  and  attack  him  from  thence,  a  contingency  which  he  had  deemed 
almost  impossible.  When  however  he  beheld  the  enemy  in  this  position,  he 
either  felt  or  affected  to  feel  a  confidence  that  Wolfe  had  taken  a  false  and 
perilous  step.  "  I  see  them,"  he  said,  "  where  they  ought  not  to  be  ;  if  we  must 
fight,  I  will  crush  them."  Probably  he  thought  that  with  a  strong  effort  he 
could  succeed  in  driving  them  over  the  precipice  into  the  St.  Lawrence  before 
they  could  get  up  their  artillery  and  invest  the  city.  Whatever  might  be  his 
motive,  which  has  been  much  criticized  by  military  men,  and  indeed  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  infatuation,  instead  of  remaining  quietly  within  the  walls,  he  gave 
orders  for  the  immediate  advance  of  his  troops. 

While  Montcalm  was  preparing  for  the  attack,  Wolfe,  after  a  rapid  survey 
of  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  was  engaged  in  forming  his  line  of  battle,  which 
extended  from  the  inaccessible  precipices  above  the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  right 
to  the  valley  of  the  St.  Charles  on  the  left,  with  a  reserve  in  the  rear. 
The  entire  English  force  consisted  of  somewhat  less  than  five  thousand  trained 
soldiers,  while  that  of  Montcalm  amounted  to  seven  thousand  five  hundred, 
but  of  these  only  a  portion  were  regulars,  the  rest  militia,  upon  whom  no  re- 
liance could  be  placed. 

The  battle  began  with  an  attempt  to  turn  the  English  left,  which 
Townsend  parried  by  adopting  another  disposition  of  the  line.  The  two 
generals  were  now  almost  in  presence  of  each  other,  Wolfe  commanding 
the  right  and  Montcalm  the  centre,  where  he  had  placed  his  veteran  regi- 
ments. Montcalm  by  throwing  forward  his  light  troops  succeeded  in  producing 
some  confusion  in  the  British  ranks,  to  whom  a  retrograde  movement  must 
inevitably  have  been  fatal ;  but  this  dangerous  tendency  was  checked  by  Wolfe, 
who  ran  to  and  fro,  and  exhorted  his  men  to  stand  firm.  This  desultory  sort 
of  attack  not  succeeding,  Montcalm  directed  a  more  formidable  advance  of  his 
regulars  against  the  British  right.  As  they  delivered  their  volley,  Wolfe  was 
struck  in  the  wrist,  but  wrapping  a  handkerchief  around  it,  hastened  from  rank 
to  rank,  urging  his  men  to  reserve  their  fire  until  the  enemy  were  close  upon 
them.  Then  indeed  it  was  poured  in  with  deadly  and  destructive  effect, 
fairly  shattering  the  heads  of  the  advancing  columns,  and  carrying  dismay 
among  the  raw  Canadian  militia,  who,  panic-struck,  broke  and  fled  on  all  sides. 
Montcalm's  presence  of  mind  did  not  desert  him  in  this  terrible  emergency, 
for  availing  himself  of  a  small  redoubt,  he  succeeded  in  presenting  a  second 
front  to  the  enemy.     On  seeing  this  Wolfe,  without  the  loss  of  a  moment, 

2  N 


CHAP. 
IV. 


274  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ordered  the  whole  British  line  to  advance,  which  they  did  with  such 
A  D  1759  simultaneous  impetuosity,  that  in  spite  of  a  fierce  resistance  at  certain  points, 
the  French  and  Canadians  were  swept  away  like  chaff  before  the  whirlwind, 
in  spite  of  repeated  attempts  made  to  rally  them  by  their  chivalrous  commander, 
who  falling,  at  length,  mortally  wounded,  was  carried  within  the  city. 

An  attempt  made  by  Bougainville,  who  arrived  with  his  forces  on  the  field 
when  the  fate  of  the  battle  was  decided,  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  the  day, 
was  defeated  by  the  able  dispositions  of  Townsend,  and  the  broken  and 
panic-stricken  fugitives,  pursued  and  cut  down  by  the  fiery  Highlanders  with 
their  trenchant  claymores,  sought  safety  within  the  walls  of  Quebec. 

While  the  resistless  tide  of  victory  was  thus  flowing  on,  the  faintness  of 
dissolution  was  falling  upon  the  senses  of  the  British  general.  His  first  wound 
in  the  wrist  had  been  but  slight,  but  he  received  a  second  soon  after  in  the 
body,  and  a  ball  from  the  redoubt  struck  him  a  third  time  on  the  breast. 
Unable  to  stand,  he  desired  an  officer  to  support  him,  "  that  his  brave  fellows 
might  not  see  him  fall,"  and  sinking  down,  was  borne  a  little  in  the  rear. 
Carleton  was  also  desperately  wounded,  as  was  also  Colonel  Barre,  the  inti- 
mate friend  of  Wolfe,  and  who  afterwards  became  so  celebrated.  Townsend  had 
taken  the  further  direction  of  the  field,  and  completed  the  total  rout  of  the 
enemy.  Some  grenadiers  exclaimed,  "  See,  they  run  !  "  "  Who  run  ? " 
faintly,  but  eagerly  inquired  the  dying  man.  "  The  enemy,  sir,"  answered  the 
officer,  "  they  give  way  every  where."  "  Now,  God  be  praised,  I  die  happy," 
he  feebly  uttered — the  last  words  that  ever  passed  his  lips,  which  in  a  few 
moments  became  closed  in  the  silence  of  death. 

The  gallant  Montcalm,  who  had  been  carried  within  the  city,  did  not  long 
outlive  his  victor.  It  had  been  his  presentiment  that  he  should  not  survive  the 
fall  of  the  colony ;  his  militia,  he  well  knew,  would  give  way  at  the  first  shock ; 
and  he  is  reported  to  have  said  ere  he  died,  "  Since  it  was  my  misfortune  to  be 
discomfited  and  mortally  wounded,  it  is  a  great  consolation  to  me  to  be  van- 
quished by  so  great  and  generous  an  enemy.  If  I  could  survive  this  wound, 
I  would  engage  to  beat  three  times  the  number  of  such  forces  as  I  commanded 
this  morning,  with  a  third  of  their  number  of  British  troops."  When  informed 
that  he  could  hardly  survive  through  the  day,  he  replied,  "  So  much  the  better, 
I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  surrender  of  Quebec."  The  governor  of  the  city 
desiring  to  have  his  commands  for  the  defence,  he  replied,  "  My  time  is  short, 
so  pray  leave  me.  I  wish  you  all  comfort,  and  to  be  happily  extricated  from 
your  present  perplexities."  His  remaining  hours  were  spent  in  religious 
offices,  and  late  in  the  evening  he  expired.  He  might  justly  entertain  the 
proud  conviction,  that  "  posterity  would  have  no  reproach  to  bring  against 
his  memory."  From  a  remarkable  letter  to  his  cousin,  he  appears  to  have 
well  foreseen  that  "his  defeat  would  one  day  be  more  serviceable  to  his 
country  than  a  victory, — that  the  victor,  in  aggrandizing  himself,  would  find 
his  tomb  even  in  that  very  aggrandizement ;"  and  he  uttered  a  remarkable 
prediction,  that  was  realized  perhaps  even  before  he  had  himself  expected. 

"  What  I  advance  here,  dear  cousin,"  he  observes, "  may  appear  paradoxical, 


^ 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  275 

but  on  a  moment's  cautious  reflection,  a  single  glance  at  the  position  of  things  in   chap 

America,  and  the  truth  of  my  opinion  will  appear  undeniable.     Men  are ! — 

obedient  to  force  and  necessity  alone,  that  is,  when  they  see  before  their  eyes 
an  armed  power,  always  ready  and  able  to  constrain  them,  or  when  the  chain 
of  their  necessities  dictates  to  them  a  law.  Beyond  that  point,  no  yoke,  and 
no  obedience;  they  desire  to  be  their  own  masters,  and  to  live  freemen,  because 
there  is  nothing  within  or  without  which  obliges  them  to  give  up  that  liberty, 
which  is  the  fairest  appanage,  and  the  most  precious  prerogative  of  humanity. 
Such  is  mankind,  and  on  this  point  the  English,  whether  by  education  or  by 
sentiment,  feel  far  more  strongly  than  other  men.  The  sense  of  constraint 
torments  them,  they  must  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  freedom,  and  without 
this  they  feel  out  of  their  element.  But  if  such  are  the  Englishmen  of 
Europe,  far  more  so  are  the  Englishmen  in  America.  Great  part  of  these 
colonists  are  children  of  the  men  who  expatriated  themselves  in  those  trou- 
blous times  when  Old  England,  a  prey  to  divisions,  was  attacked  in  her 
rights  and  privileges,  and  they  went  forth  to  seek  in  America  a  country 
where  they  might  live  and  die  in  freedom,  and  almost  independence ;  and 
these  children  have  not  degenerated  from  the  republican  sentiments  of  their 
fathers.  Others  are  men  transported  thither  by  the  government  for  their 
crimes.  The  rest,  in  short,  are  a  collection  from  the  different  nations  of 
Europe,  who  hold  little  to  Old  England  by  heart  and  affection ;  and  all  in 
general  care  but  little  for  the  English  king  or  parliament. 

"  I  know  them  well,  not  by  foreign  report,  but  by  correspondence  and 
recent  information All  the  colonies  have,  happily  for  them- 
selves, reached  a  very  flourishing  condition,  they  are  numerous  and  rich,  they 
contain  within  their  own  bosom  all  the  necessities  of  life.  England  has  been 
foolish  and  dupe  enough  to  allow  !he  arts,  trades,  and  manufactures  to  become 
established  among  them,  that  is  to  say,  she  has  allowed  them  to  break  the 
chain  of  wants  which  attached  them  to,  and  made  them  dependent  upon,  her- 
self. Thus  all  these  English  colonies  would  long  ago  have  thrown  off  the 
yoke,  each  province  would  have  formed  a  little  independent  republic,  if  the 
fear  of  seeing  the  French  at  their  doors  had  not  proved  a  bridle  to  restrain 
them.  As  masters,  they  would  have  preferred  their  countrymen  to  strangers, 
taking  it  nevertheless  for  a  maxim  to  obey  either  as  little  as  possible.  But  once 
let  Canada  be  conquered,  and  the  Canadians  and  these  colonists  become  one 
people,  and  on  the  first  occasion  when  Old  England  appears  to  touch  their 
interests,  do  you  imagine,  my  dear  cousin,  that  the  Americans  will  obey? 
And  in  revolting,  what  will  they  have  to  fear  ?"  How  remarkably  these  an- 
ticipations were  fulfilled,  the  course  of  our  narrative  will  speedily  disclose. 

But  to  return  to  the  closing  scenes  of  the  taking  of  Quebec.  On  the  day 
after  the  battle,  in  the  general  orders  dated  14th  of  September,  1759, — Plains 
of  Abraham,  Parole,— WOLFE,  countersign  ENGLAND,— the  remaining 
general  officers  expressed  the  praises  due  to  the  bravery  of  the  soldiers,  and 
lamented  that  he  who  lately  commanded  them  had  not  survived  so  glorious 
a  day,  in  order  to  give  the  troops  their  just  encomium.     They  express  their 

2  n  2 


A.  D. 1760 


216  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

"*iv.P'  confidence  that  the  fatigues  of*  the  siege  "  will  be  supported  with  true  spirit, 
as  this  seems  to  be  the  period  which  will  in  all  probability  determine  our 
American  labours."  This  expectation  was  speedily  realized.  The  French 
troops  under  the  Marquis  de  Vandreuil  and  Bougainville  retreated  to  Cape 
Rouge,  and  despatched  messengers  to  M,  de  Levi  at  Montreal.  The  marquis 
then  proposed  "  that  they  should  take  their  revenge  on  the  morrow,  and  en- 
-deavour  to  wipe  off  the  disgrace  of  that  fatal  day ;  "  but  this  advice  was  justly 
set  aside  as  chimerical,  and  the  army,  instead  of  advancing,  fell  back.  A 
message  was  sent  to  the  commandant  of  Quebec,  promising  him  immediate 
succour,  and  urging  him  to  hold  out  to  the  last  extremity ;  but  Townsend 
pressed  him  so  vigorously,  that  on  the  18th  of  September  he  surrendered  the 
city,  the  English  troops  marched  in,  and  the  flag  of  England  soon  waved 
triumphantly  from  the  crest  of  the  citadel. 

The  body  of  "Wolfe  was  solemnly  escorted  to  the  beach  by  his  mourning 
army,  and  conveyed  for  sepulture  to  England.  A  monument  was  erected  to 
his  memory  in  Westminster  Abbey.  A  small  pillar  marks  the  spot  where  he 
fell,  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham •  and  a  pyramid  since  raised  upon  the  heights 
of  the  city,  simply  bearing  the  names  of  "  WOLFE  "  and  "MONTCALM," 
is  destined  to  perpetuate  the  common  memory  of  these  gallant  chiefs,  and  of 
the  memorable  battle  in  which  they  gloriously  fell. 

Though  driven  from  Quebec,  the  French  had  not  yet  given  up  all  hopes  of 
defending  Canada.  After  the  battle  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  the  main  body 
of  their  army  fell  back  upon  Montreal,  where  M.  de  Levi,  who  had  succeeded 
Montcalm,  resolved  on  a  vigorous  effort  to  recover  Quebec.  He  at  first  me- 
ditated a  coup-de-main  during  the  winter,  but  found  the  English  too  much 
on  the  alert ;  but  in  April,  when  the  frost  broke  up,  he  descended  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Point  aux  Trembles,  withii>  a  few  miles  of  Quebec.  The 
English  garrison  under  General  Murray  had  dwindled  by  sickness  to*  three 
thousand  men,  but  with  this  handful  of  brave  men  he  boldly  marched  out  to 
attack  a  body  of  three  times  their  number.  After  a  hard-fought  action  he 
was  compelled  to  abandon  his  artillery,  and  retire  within  the  walls.  De 
Levi  soon  erected  his  batteries,  and  opened  a  heavy  fire  on  the  walls,  but 
Murray  had  succeeded  in  mounting  so  numerous  an  artillery  that  the  French 
guns  were  almost  silenced.  A  British  fleet  soon  after  made  its  appear- 
ance, and  compelled  De  Levi  to  retire  to  Montreal,  at  which  city  the  Marquis 
de  Vandreuil,  concentrating  his  remaining  forces,  determined  to  make  a  last 
stand  for  the  defence  of  Canada. 

The  struggle  however  was  speedily  over.  No  sooner  had  the  season  for 
operations  arrived,  than  Amherst  advanced  with  an  army  of  ten  thousand 
regulars  and  provincials,  and  being  joined  by  Johnson  at  Oswego  with  one 
thousand  Indians,  made  his  appearance,  before  Montreal  on  the  very  day  that 
Murray,  advancing  from  Quebec,  landed  within  a  few  miles  of  the  city ;  while 
the  next  day  appeared  Colonel  Haviland,  from  Crown  Point.  As  these 
combined  forces  rendered  resistance  impossible,  the  French  governor  capitu- 
lated, and  the  whole  of  Canada  was  surrendered  to  the  British  crown. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  277 

Nothing  could   exceed    the  exultation  of  the   northern  colonies  at   this   c  ha  p. 
lonsr-desired  consummation  of  a  struc^le  which  had  continued  for  so  manv 

o  no  A.  D.  17C0 

years,  and  involved  their  frontiers  in  a  desolating  warfare.  Their  boundaries  '  iwi. 
too  received  an  immense  expansion,  New  York  claiming,  by  virtue  of  treaties 
with  the  Six  Nations,  the  whole  territory  northward  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
westward  to  the  great  lakes,  while  the  New  England  States  were  free  to 
advance  northward  and  eastward  without  any  further  check.  But  above  all, 
by  the  conquest  of  the  French,  who  had  so  long  kept  them  in  a  state  of  con- 
tinual alarm,  the  colonists  beheld  themselves  virtual  masters  of  the  entire  con- 
tinent, and  their  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  mother  country  was  propor- 
tionably  weakened,  at  the  same  time  that  military  habits  and  feelings  had  been 
greatly  fostered  among  them  by  the  recent  wars. 

During  these  struggles  between  the  French  and  English,  the  Indians,  whom 
they  had  engaged  in  the  dispute,  were  gradually  lessening  in  numbers,  while 
upon  pretext  of  difTerent  treaties  artfully  extorted  from  them,  or  made  with- 
out any  regard  to  their  claims,  they  were  more  and  more  pushed  from  the  old 
hunting-grounds  of  their  fathers.  The  formidable  Six  Nations,  who  had  so 
long  braved  the  power  of  the  French,  now  became  less  prominent  in  the 
American  annals.  Many  of  the  tribes  hostile  to  the  English  retired  to  Canada, 
while  the  Penobscots  submitted  to  the  English.  After  the  reduction  of  Fort 
Duquesne,  the  Cherokees,  who  had  acted  as  allies  to  the  English,  had  become 
involved  in  quarrels  with  them.  The  origin  of  the  quarrel  is  doubtful,  but 
probably  arose  from  encroachment,  or  hasty  revenge,  on  the  part  of  the  whites. 
It  is  said  that  the  Cherokees  seized  upon  some  horses  which  they  found 
running  wild  through  the  woods,  but  which  in  reality  belonged  to  Virginian 
owners,  and  that  the  latter,  supposing  it  to  be  a  theft,  killed  twelve  or  four- 
teen of  them  ;  an  outrage  deeply  resented  by  the  Indians,  who,  inflamed  by 
French  influence,  were  led  to  believe  that  the  English  meditated  their  entire 
extermination.  Accordingly  they  fell,  in  their  cruel  fashion,  upon  the  ex- 
posed frontiers.  On  hearing  that  Governor  Littleton  was  preparing  to  march 
against  them,  they  sent  a  deputation  to  Charleston  to  negociate  a  peace.  Lit- 
tleton, however,  determined  to  strike  terror  into  the  Cherokees,  by  marching 
into  their  territories  with  a  large  force  ;  but  being  compelled  to  fall  back,  was 
glad  to  accept  the  offer  he  had  lately  spurned,  and  shortly  afterwards  con- 
cluded a  peace  with  the  Indians. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  fresh  disputes  broke  out,  and  the  Cherokees, 
raising  a  considerable  body  of  warriors,  awaited  the  attack  of  the  English 
with  a  determined  spirit.  An  express  was  sent  to  General  Amherst,  who  de- 
tached some  troops  under  Colonel  Montgomery  to  the  relief  of  the  Carolinians. 
Strengthened  by  their  militia,  he  marched  into  the  Cherokee  country,  re- 
lieved Fort  Prince  George,  which  they  had  blockaded,  and  ravaged  all  the 
Indian  settlements  on  his  way.  Finding  the  Cherokees  rather  inflamed  than 
intimidated  by  these  proceedings,  he  advanced  to  Etchoe,  their  capital,  not 
far  from  whence  they  had  posted  themselves  to  oppose  his  further  progress. 
In  doing  so  he  had  to  pass  through  a  hollow  valley  covered  with  brushwood, 


278 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


(  !!v.P'  tnrough  which  ran  a  muddy  river  with  clay  banks,  the  Thermopylae  of  these 
a  n7i76o"  Cherokee  regions.  To  scour  this  dangerous  pass  Colonel  Morrison  advanced 
rcei.  with  a  company  of  Rangers,  when  the  Indians,  suddenly  springing  from  their 
ambush,  killed  him  at  the  first  shot,  with  several  of  his  men.  The  light  in- 
fantry being  now  moved  forward,  a  warm  fire  was  maintained  on  both  sides, 
but  the  Indians  still  maintained  the  post  without  flinching,  till,  threatened  in 
the  flank  by  a  movement  of  the  agile  Highlanders,  they  slowly  fell  back  and 
reluctantly  yielded  the  pass,  posting  themselves  upon  a  hill,  to  watch  the 
movements  of  their  invaders.  Supposing  that  Montgomery  was  advancing 
towards  Etchoe,  they  ran  to  give  the  alarm  to  their  wives  and  children,  and 
prepare  for  a  still  more  desperate  resistance.  But  the  English  commander, 
after  this  specimen  of  Indian  resolution,  and  in  the  heart  of  a  wilderness 
where  a  reverse  must  be  fatal  to  his  army,  resolved  to  retrace  his  steps,  first  to 
Fort  Prince  George,  and  afterwards  to  Charleston,  whence  he  was  shortly 
afterwards  summoned  to  rejoin  the  army  of  the  north. 

The  Cherokees  now  blockaded  Fort  Londoun  on  the  Virginia  frontier, 
the  garrison  of  which  was  entirely  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  their 
brethren.  Famine  at  length  compelled  them  to  surrender,  on  condition  of 
being  conducted  to  Virginia  or  Carolina.  But  when  they  had  advanced  some 
miles  from  the  fort  they  were  surrounded  by  a  body  of  Indians,  who  opened 
a  heavy  fire  upon  them,  which  killed  Captain  Demere  the  commandant  and 
nearly  thirty  others,  and  carried  off  the  remainder  into  captivity.  The  Che- 
rokees, who  could  now  muster  three  thousand  warriors,  continued  to  range 
the  frontiers,  and  inspired  such  fear  that  Amherst  was  earnestly  solicited  to 
send  back  the  troops  he  had  withdrawn.  The  conquest  of  Canada  being  now 
achieved,  the  Highland  regiment  commanded  by  Colonel  Grant  returned  to 
Carolina,  and  being  reinforced  by  the  colonial  militia  and  scouts  dressed  in 
Indian  costume,  advanced  to  the  spot  where  Montgomery  had  been  repulsed. 
The  Cherokees  bravely  maintained  the  struggle  for  several  hours,  but  were  at 
length  entirely  defeated ;  their  towns  and  magazines  destroyed,  their  corn- 
fields ravaged,  and  they  themselves  forced  to  retreat  into  the  desolate  recesses 
of  their  mountains.  Their  resources  being  thus  cut  off,  these  intrepid  warriors 
were  compelled  to  sue  for  a  peace.  In  order  to  obtain  it,  they  were  at  first 
required  to  deliver  four  warriors  to  be  shot  at  the  head  of  the  army,  or  to 
furnish  four  fresh  Indian  scalps  within  twenty  days  ;  a  degrading  and  horrible 
condition,  from  which  they  were  relieved  by  the  intercession  of  one  of  their 
aged  chiefs. 

Two  years  afterwards  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese,  provoked  on  one  hand 
by  aggressions  on  the  part  of  the  settlers,  who  now  began  to  push  across  the 
Alleghanies,  and  on  the  other  incited  by  the  arts  of  the  French,  broke  out 
into  open  hostilities,  in  which  they  were  soon  afterwards  joined  by  numerous 
other  tribes.  They  put  the  English  traders  to  death,  seized  simultaneously 
nearly  all  the  outlying  forts  and  massacred  their  garrisons,  and  dealt  destruc- 
tion upon  the  exposed  frontiers.  Forts  Pitt,  Niagara,  and  Detroit  still  held 
out,  into  which  reinforcements  were  thrown  after  some  severe  encounters 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  279 

with  the  Indians.     These  outrages  provoked  a  bloody  retaliation  on  the  part  chap. 

of  a  body  of  Scotch  and  Irish  settlers  in  Paxton  township,  Pennsylvania.  : — 

They  attacked  a  friendly  and  harmless  tribe  living  under  the  guidance  of 
some  Moravian  missionaries,  murdered  men,  women,  and  children  indis- 
criminately, forced  their  way  into  Lancaster  workhouse,  where  some  of  the 
fugitives  had  taken  refuge,  and  killed  them,  and  then  marched  down  to  Phi- 
ladelphia, to  exterminate  a  body  of  Indians  who  had  fled  to  that  city.  It  was 
with  much  difficulty  Franklin  succeeded  in  forming  a  body  of  militia,  to  check 
these  disorders,  and  in  compelling  the  "  Paxton  boys,"  as  they  were  called, 
to  retire  to  their  own  abodes.  It  required  a  colonial  levy  and  two  expedi- 
tions into  the  Indian  country,  to  break  up  this  wide-spread  and  dangerous 
combination  of  the  tribes,  and  to  force  them  to  consent  to  peace. 

In  the  midst  of  the  joy  created  by  the  conquest  of  Canada,  an  incident 
occurred  which  significantly  foreshadowed  the  future.  Francis  Bernard,  lately 
governor  of  New  Jersey,  had  been  transferred  to  that  of  Massachusetts,  and 
displayed  from  the  first  remarkable  zeal  in  carrying  out  the  ministerial  policy, 
and  abridging  the  illegal  practices  of  the  colonists,  to  which  his  predecessor 
Pownall  had  more  wisely  shut  his  eyes.  This  zeal  was  seconded  by  Hutchin- 
son, who  had  lately  been  appointed  lieutenant-governor,  and  also  chief  justice, 
to  the  disappointment"  of  Otis,  who  had  been  promised  a  seat  on  the  bench  by 
Pownall.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that,  owing  to  a  trade  opened  by  the  colonists 
with  the  French  islands,  by  which  they  obtained  supplies,  orders  had  been 
given  by  the  English  ministry  for  the  stricter  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade, 
already  so  odious  to  the  mercantile  interest  and  the  people  at  large.  To  pre- 
vent evasion  of  the  law,  orders  were  sent  to  apply  to  the  judicature  for  "  writs  of 
assistance,"  that  is,  for  permits  to  break  into  and  search  any  suspected  place, 
— never  granted  in  America,  unless  by  special  warrant  and  for  some  particular 
object.  It  was  not  long  before  the  custom-house  officers  applied  for  the  issue 
of  the  writs,  to  which  the  merchants  determined  to  offer  the  most  strenuous  op- 
position, and  retained  Thatcher  and  young  Otis,  son  of  the  speaker,  to  plead 
on  their  behalf.  Otis,  as  advocate  of  the  Admiralty,  was  bound  to  argue  in 
favour  of  the  writs,  but  urged  by  patriotic  zeal,  which  was  not  improbably 
quickened  by  the  neglect  or  affront  offered  to  his  parent,  he  resigned  his 
office,  and  accepted  the  retainer  of  the  merchants.  On  the  day  appointed  for 
the  trial,  the  council-chamber  of  the  old  town-house  in  Boston  was  crowded 
with  the  officers  of  government  and  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  city. 
The  case  was  opened  by  the  advocate  for  the  crown,  who  founded  his  long  and 
elaborate  argument  on  the  principle,  that  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  is 
supreme  legislator  of  the  British  empire.  Thatcher,  who  was  one  of  the  first 
lawyers  of  the  city,  replied  in  an  ingenious  and  able  speech,  resting  his  argu- 
ments upon  considerations  purely  legal  and  technical.  But  Otis,  who  follow- 
ed him,  was  not  to  be  restrained  within  these  narrow  and  inconvenient  limits. 
In  the  words  of  Adams,  "  he  was  a  flame  of  fire,  with  a  promptitude  of  classi- 
cal allusion,  a  depth  of  research,  a  rapid  summary  of  historical  events  and  dates, 
a  profusion  of  legal  authorities,  a  prophetic  glance  into  futurity,  and  a  rapid 


280  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  iVA  P*  torrent  0I*  impetuous  eloquence,  which  carried  away  all  before  him."  From  the 
—— — —  rights  of  man  in  a  state  of  nature,  he  reasoned  up  to  those  involved  in  the 
British  constitution,  of  which  he  declared  the  colonists  could  not  be  deprived. 
He  launched  out  into  a  glowing  eulogy  of  the  forefathers  of  America,  and 
"reproached  the  nation,  parliament,  and  king,  with  injustice,  illiberality,  ingra- 
titude, and  oppression,"  in  a  strain  of  invective  congenial  to  his  excited  audi- 
tory. Feelings  too  deeply  seated,  but  of  which  the  utterance  had  hitherto 
been  cautiously  suppressed,  now  burst  into  open  expression.  American  liberty 
there  struggled  into  sudden  existence.  "  The  seeds  of  patriots  and  heroes  to 
defend  the  No?i  sine  Diis  anlmosus  infans,  to  defend  the  vigorous  youth, 
were  then  and  there  sown.  Every  man  of  an  immense  crowded  audience 
appeared  to  me,  says  Adams,  to  go  away  as  I  did,  ready  to  take  arms 
against  the  '  writs  of  assistance.'  Then  and  there  was  the  first  scene  of  the  first 
act  of  opposition  to  the  arbitrary  claims  of  Great  Britain.  Then  and  there 
the  child  Independence  was  born.  In  fifteen  years  he  grew  up  to  manhood, 
and  declared  himself  free."  This  speech  of  Otis's  gave  a  great  impulse  to  his 
hearers,  and  through  them  was  communicated  to  the  people  at  large.  Indeed, 
so  powerful  was  the  impression  produced  upon  the  public,  that  in  his  speech  at 
the  opening  of  the  session,  the  governor  thought  prudent  to  recommend  to 
the  representatives  to  give  no  heed  to  declamations  tending  to  promote  a  sus- 
picion of  the  civil  rights  of  the  people  being  in  danger.  The  popularity  of 
Otis  became  unbounded ;  he  was  elected  representative  for  Boston,  and  took 
the  lead  among  the  opposition  members  of  the  house,  who  shortly  afterwards 
led  the  van  of  resistance  against  the  encroachments  of  the  English  ministry. 

The  conquest  of  Canada  being  achieved,  the  British  arms  were  turned 
against  the  French  islands  in  the  West  Indies.  General  Monckton  sailed 
from  New  York  with  a  formidable  army,  among  the  officers  of  which  were 
Gates  and  Montgomery,  afterwards  celebrated  in  the  revolutionary  war. 
The  expedition  was  completely  successful,  and  all  the  islands  then  in  possession 
of  the  French  were  wrested  from  them.  A  family  compact  between  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  had  engaged  Spain  to  side  with  France, 
and  declare  war  against  Great  Britain.  To  humble  this  new  enemy  was  the 
next  object  of  her  arms,  and  an  expedition  was  shortly  afterwards  sent  out, 
which  wrested  Havanna  from  Spain.  The  arms  of  England  were  every 
where  triumphant,  her  cruisers  swept  the  seas,  and  her  enemies  were 
obliged  to  consent  to  a  humiliating  peace.  On  the  3rd  of  November, 
1762,  the  treaty  was  signed  at  Fontainebleau,  by  which  the  whole  of  North 
America,  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic,  was  ceded  to  Great  Britain. 
The  island  and  city  of  New  Orleans  were  ceded  to  Spain,  with  all  Louisiana 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  then  almost  in  a  state  of  nature.  Havanna  was  also 
restored  to  her  in  lieu  of  Florida,  which  now  became  incorporated  with  the 
English  territory. 

This  final  cessation  of  intercolonial  and  frontier  warfare  restored,  it  is  said, 
upwards  of  four  thousand  families  to  the  homes  from  which  they  had  been 
driven  during  its  continuance.     Believed  of  the  pressure  from  without,  the 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  281 

colonies  every  where  expanded  rapidly.     On  the  north,  the  settlements  of  chap. 
Maine  besran  to  advance  to  the  Kennebec  and  Penobscot ;   on  the  west,  the 


green  mountains  of  Vermont  and  the  country  extending  to  Lake  Champlain  to  1763. 
received  a  rapid  accession  of  settlers.  A  westward  impulse  was  given  to  all 
the  States ;  New  York  pushed  up  the  Mohawk  valley  to  the  lakes,  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania  poured  across  the  Alleghanies.  No  colony  felt  the  benefit 
of  the  peace  more  than  Georgia,  now  relieved  from  its  hostile  neighbours  the 
Spaniards,  its  rich  swamps  being  turned  to  account  for  the  cultivation  of 
rice.  English  settlers  advanced  into  Florida,  and  began  to  develope  its  re- 
sources, which  had  remained  almost  dormant  under  the  administration  of  its 
former  occupants. 


CHAPTER  V. 


FROM  THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA  TO  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT. 


The  war  which  terminated  in  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  but  a  part  of  the  chap, 


stupendous  struggle  waged  by  Great  Britain  against  the  power  of  France, 
and  from  which,  if  she  had  emerged  with  glory,  she  had  also  become  saddled 
with  a.  debt  increased  to  a  hundred  and  forty  millions  sterling.  The  pressure 
of  taxation  weighed  heavily  upon  the  nation,  every  art  for  raising  supplies  at 
home  had  been  already  exhausted  by  the  ministry,  and  it  was  now  resolved  to 
turn  to  the  colonies  for  some  alleviations  of  the  public  burdens.  Before  the 
termination  of  the  Canadian  war,  Pitt  had  declared  his  intention,  so  soon  as  it 
was  over,  to  adopt  some  method  of  compelling  the  colonists  to  contribute  their 
quota  towards  any  future  expense  incurred  by  the  mother  country  in  their 
defence.  To  carry  out  this  design  now  became  the  serious  stu  "y  of  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  administration. 

The  colonies,  however,  had  already  suffered  severely.  Th'  /had  lost  thirty 
thousand  of  their  citizens,  and  incurred  an  expense  of  sixteen  millions  of 
dollars,  of  which  parliament  had  reimbursed  them  only  about  a  third.  They 
had  taxed  themselves  very  severely,  and  the  leading  States  had  incurred  a 
heavy  debt.  Some  of  them  indeed  had  not  contributed  their  proper  quota, 
and  of  the  funds  thus  raised,  the  assemblies  had  always  contrived  to  keep  the 
management  mainly  in  their  own  hands,  and  to  concede  as  little  as  possible  to 
the  royal  governors.  It  became  in  consequence  the  object  of  the  English 
ministry  to  raise  a  fixed  revenue,  to  which  all  the  colonies  should  contribute 
alike,  and  which  should  be  placed  entirely  under  their  own  control.     This 

2  o 


v. 


A.  D.  1763. 


282 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D.  1763. 


chap,  became  more  important  to  the  ministry,  since,  either  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  the  executive  power,  which  had  become  much  weakened  by  the 
gradual  encroachments  of  the  assemblies,  or  to  defend  the  frontiers  against  the 
invasions  of  the  Indians,  they  proposed  to  maintain  a  standing  army  in 
America ;  a  scheme  which  naturally  created  much  suspicion  and  uneasiness 
on  the  part  of  the  colonists,  and  to  which  they  might  accordingly  refuse  to 
contribute  in  the  usual  way  of  voluntary  offerings. 

That  parliament  had  the  power  to  tax  America,  few  in  England,  at  that 
time  at  least,  seemed  to  have  entertained  a  doubt.  The  connexion  between 
the  parent  country  and  her  colonies  was  essentially  vague  and  undefined. 
Parliament  had  always  assumed  the  right  to  regulate  the  external  commerce 
of  the  colonists,  and  even  to  prevent  the  growth  of  their  domestic  manufac- 
tures ;  and  although,  as  formerly  explained,  these  acts  had  always  been  resisted 
as  arbitrary  and  impolitic,  they  had  nevertheless  been  acquiesced  in  as  legal. 
Now  the  distinction  between  this  mode  of  raising  a  revenue  and  that  of  levy- 
ing a  direct  tax  was  so  doubtful,  as  afterwards  to  be  repudiated  by  the 
colonists  themselves.  Even  Franklin,  when  a  stamp  tax  had  been  mooted  in 
the  colonial  congress  held  at  Albany,  had  acquiesced  in  it  as  a  legitimate 
and  desirable  plan  for  making  all  the  colonies  contribute  their  fair  proportions 
alike.  Indeed  the  plan  seems  not  to  have  originated  with  the  English 
ministry,  but  to  have  been  suggested  to  them  by  certain  American  merchants, 
and  particularly  by  one  Huske,  who  had  obtained  a  seat  in  parliament,  and 
who,  reminding  Grenville  of  the  above-mentioned  incident,  expressed  his  be- 
lief that  his  countrymen  were  able  to  raise  a  liberal  annual  revenue  for 
the  support  of  government.  Of  their  ability  to  do  so,  every  one  was 
fully  convinced.  Notwithstanding  the  temporary  check  to  their  onward 
career  caused  by  the  recent  war,  the  colonists  were,  comparatively  with 
the  bulk  of  their  English  brethren,  in  such  prosperous  circumstances  as  to 
be  objects  of  envy.  The  officers  who  returned  home  after  the  war,  and 
whom  the  richer  inhabitants  had  taken  a  pride  in  entertaining  with  an  over- 
ostentatious  hospitality,  were  full  of  the  wealth  and  luxury  of  the  colonists, 
and  it  was  considered  high  time  that  "  our  subjects  in  America,"  as  every 
English  chimney-sweeper  called  them,  should  be  made  to  bear  their  portion  of 
a  burden  frcm  which  they  had  been  hitherto  comparatively  exempted.  Ac- 
cordingly wht  i,  shortly  after  the  war  was  over,  Grenville  first  laid  his  plans 
before  parliam  nt,  the  resolution  that,  "  towards  further  defraying  the  ex- 
penses, it  may  be  proper  to  charge  certain  stamp  duties  in  the  said  colonies 
and  plantations,"  was  passed  without  debate,  while  public  feeling  throughout 
the  country  was  entirely  in  favour  of  carrying  it  into  effect. 

Very  different  was  the  feeling  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  soon  as 
the  intentions  of  the  English  government  began  to  be  noised  about.  The 
colonists  had  long  borne  with  impatience  the  increasing  severity  of  restrictions 
which  at  once  checked  the  development  of  their  commerce,  and  reminded 
them  of  their  humiliating  dependence  upon  a  foreign  power.  The  feeling  had 
become  general  that  a  stand  must  be  made  against  any  further  encroachments. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


283 


No  soonei  then  did  this  resolution  of  parliament  to  impose  a  direct  tax  become  c  ha  p. 
generally  known,  than  the  public  mind  was  greatly  excited  and  alarmed.  -  — 
With  her  usual  foresight  and  vigilance,  Massachusetts  was  foremost  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  government  measure.  Her  representatives,  assembled  in  general 
court,  resolved  "  that  the  sole  right  of  giving  and  granting  the  money  of 
the  people  of  that  province  was  vested  in  themselves,  and  that  the  imposition 
of  taxes  and  duties  by  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  upon  a  people  who  are 
not  represented  in  parliament  is  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  their  rights. 
If  our  trade  may  be  taxed,"  they  continue,  "  why  not  our  lands,  why  not  the 
produce  of  our  lands,  and  every  thing  we  possess  or  use  ?  This  we  conceive 
annihilates  our  charter-rights  to  govern  and  tax  ourselves.  It  strikes  at  our 
British  privileges,  which,  as  we  have  never  forfeited,  we  hold  in  common  with 
our  fellow  subjects  who  are  natives  of  Britain.  If  taxes  are  laid  upon  us  with- 
out our  having  a  legal  representation  where  they  are  laid,  we  are  reduced 
from  the  character  of  free  subjects  to  the  state  of  tributary  slaves." 

Such  was  the  tenor  of  their  instructions  to  their  agent  in  London,  who 
was  also  desired  to  use  his  utmost  influence  in  urging  the  representatives  of 
the  other  colonics  to  unite  their  remonstrances  with  his  own,  while  they  at  the 
same  time  appointed  a  committee  to  write  to  the  colonies  themselves,  and 
urge  them  to  apply  for  the  repeal  of  the  sugar  duty,  and  to  prevent  the  pass- 
age of  the  obnoxious  Act ;  measures  which  must  be  recognised  as  being  the 
germ  of  that  resistance  afterwards  so  successfully  carried  out.  Connecticut 
followed  in  the  steps  of  Massachusetts,  and  a  body  of  reasons  why  the  colonies 
should  not  be  taxed  by  parliament  was  drawn  up  by  Fetel,  the  governor, 
himself  an  able  jurist.  Petitions  to  the  king  and  the  houses  of  parliament 
were  drawn  up  in  the  different  colonies,  all  breathing  the  same  language  of 
firm  but  respectful  remonstrance. 

While  the  different  public  bodies  were  thus  combining  their  forces,  influ- 
ential individuals  were  no  less  active  in  arousing  and  exciting  the  people  by 
newspaper  articles  and  pamphlets.  Among  these,  one  written  by  Otis,  entitled 
"The  Bights  of  the  British  Colonies  asserted,"  produced  the  most  consider- 
able sensation.  The  ground  taken  by  the  writer  was  broad,  and  its  limits 
somewhat  ill-defined  and  inconsistent.  It  conceded  to  parliament  the  power 
to  enact  general  regulations  for  the  government  of  the  colonies,  limited  by 
"  the  natural  rights  of  man  and  constitutional  rights  of  British  subjects,"  one 
of  the  latter  being  that  of  not  being  taxed  without  the  consent  of  themselves 
or  their  representatives.  The  distinction  between  internal  and  external  taxes 
was  repudiated.  It  became  thus  evident  that  the  opponents  of  taxation  were 
gradually  extending  their  ground,  and  becoming  more  impatient  of  foreign 
imposition  in  every  shape,  although  at  this  period  any  forcible  opposition  to 
its  exercise  would  have  been  generally  denounced  as  unjustifiable,  if  not 
actually  treasonable. 

It  was  at  this  stage  of  the  excitement  that  Franklin  sailed  from  Philadelphia 
for  London  as  agent  for  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  Since  the  time  when  the 
young  printer,  reprimanded,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  and 

2  o  2 


284  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  discharged  from  his  brother's  office,  had  arrived  at  Philadelphia  with  hardly 

-'—  —  a  dollar  in  his  pocket,  a  wonderful  alteration  had  taken  place  in  his  circum- 

'  stances.  Commencing  there  as  a  journeyman,  he  gradually  worked  his  way 
up  until  he  became  a  master  printer,  and  acquired,  his  only  competitor  being 
old  and  rich,  the  most  lucrative  business  in  the  city,  printed  for  the  assembly, 
composed  and  issued  his  "Poor  Richard's  Almanac,"  was  successively  ap- 
pointed postmaster,  j  ustice  of  the  peace,  clerk  of  the  assembly,  and  finally  re- 
presentative for  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  No  man  was  more  completely  the 
architect  of  his  own  fortune  :  laborious  and  self-denying,  prudent  and  per- 
severing, he  put  in  practice  his  own  maxims — the  quintessence  of  mere  worldly 
wisdom.  He  was  the  embodiment  of  the  practical  and  the  useful.  Every  thing 
to  his  mind,  even  virtue  herself,  must  be  reduced  to  calculation,  and  carried 
out  by  rule  and  measure.  No  other  man  perhaps  ever  erected  for  his  own 
practice  a  regular  table,  on  which  to  mark  down  his  daily  shortcomings,  and, 
adding  them  up  at  the  end  of  the  week,  compute  his  moral  progress  or  declension 
by  an  arithmetical  process.  No  one  else  ever  set  about  emendating  the 
Lord's  prayer.  Calm  and  passionless  in  temperament,  Franklin  was  not 
without  a  certain  enthusiasm,  the  enthusiasm,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  of  prac- 
tical benevolence.  His  incessantly  active  mind  teemed  with  designs  for  the 
good  of  the  public,  and  indeed  of  all  mankind.  From  the  cleansing  of  streets 
and  the  reformation  of  stoves,  up  to  the  organizing  a  "  United  Party  for  Vir- 
tue," nothing  came  amiss  to  his  hand.  The  actual  good  he  accomplished  was 
prodigious.  He  established  the  first  library  in  Philadelphia,  originated  a 
philosophical  society,  enrolled  and  commanded  the  militia,  and  carried 
through  by  his  practical  management  a  scheme  organized  by  his  friend,  Dr. 
Bond,  for  a  hospital.  No  matter  what  was  the  design  on  foot,  every  one  first 
asked — "  Have  you  consulted  Franklin  an  this  business,  and  what  does  he 
think  of  it  ? "  Add  to  this,  that  his  probity  was  above  suspicion,  and  his  inde- 
pendence proof  alike  against  official  or  popular  influence;  that  his  temper 
was  placid  and  cheerful,  and  his  manners  simple  and  full  of  genial  humour ; 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  have  obtained  unbounded  influence 
over  his  fallow  citizens.  As  years  rolled  on,  his  public  services  grew  more 
important,  his  moral  consistency  more  tried  and  manifest,  and  the  feelings  of 
his  countrymen  deepened  into  gratitude  and  veneration. 

When  Franklin  became  involved  in  the  petty  politics  of  Pennsylvania,  he 
chose  the  side  of  the  people,  and  was  deputed  to  sail  to  England,  to  solicit 
from  parliament  the  abolition  of  the  proprietary  government,  just  when  the 
revolutionary  troubles  first  broke  out.  Having  himself  drawn  up  the  abortive 
"  Albany  convention,"  he  had  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  temper  of  his  coun- 
trymen, and  of  their  feeling  towards  the  parent  state,  and  thus  no  one  could  have 
been  every  way  more  fitted  to  occupy  the  position  of  advocate  in  England  for 
the  claims  of  the  colonists,  which  naturally  fell  into  his  hands.  Besides  the 
influence  naturally  derived  from  his  respectable  character  and  position,  he  was 
also  preceded  by  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  science.  By  his  well-known  experi- 
ments and  writings  on  electricity,  he  had  raised  the  character  of  his  country- 


A.D.  1765. 


HISTORY  OF   AMERICA.  £85 

men  throughout  Europe.  The  learned  in  Paris  could  scarcely  believe  that  c ita p. 
"  such  a  work  could  have  come  from  America."  On  arriving  in  England  he 
was  received  with  distinction,  and  warmly  welcomed  into  circles  to  which,  after 
being  separated  from  them  by  war,  he  ever  cast  back  a  longing,  lingering  look  of 
attachment.  The  tenor  of  his  letters  amply  shows  that  his  original  bent  was 
a  strong  attachment  to  the  mother  country,  and  a  strong  feeling  of  loyalty 
towards  the  ruling  monarch.  In  giving  an  account  of  Wilkes's  mobs,  the 
first  directly  radical  outbreak  in  England,  he  observes,  "  What  the  event  will 
be,  God  only  knows.  But  some  punishment  seems  preparing  for  a  people 
who  are  ungratefully  abusing  the  best  constitution  and  the  best  king  any 
nation  was  ever  blessed  with."  Franklin's  hereditary  prejudices  against  the 
French  were  strong,  and  he  seems  to  have  penetrated,  even  then,  their  secret 
policy  of  sowing  dissension  between  England  and  her  colonies.  Speaking  of 
De  Guerchy,  the  French  ambassador  in  1767,  he  says,  "  He  is  extremely 
curious  to  inform  himself  about  the  affairs  of  America,  pretends  to  have  a  great 
esteem  for  me  on  account  of  the  abilities  shown  in  my  examination,  has  de- 
sired to  have  all  my  political  writings,  invited  me  to  dine  with  him,  was  very 
inquisitive,  treated  me  with  great  civility,  makes  me  visits,  &c.  I  fancy  that 
intriguing  nation  would  like  very  well  to  meddle  on  occasion,  and  blow  up  the 
coals  between  Britain  and  her  colonies,  but  I  hope  we  shall  give  them  no 
opportunity."  Such  was  his  feeling  at  the  outset  of  the  revolutionary  strug- 
gle ;  how  signally  it  was  afterward  reversed  in  both  cases,  will  appear  in  the 
course  of  events. 

After  his  arrival  in  England,  Franklin  was  consulted  both  by  Grenville 
and  his  party,  and  also  by  Pitt  and  the  opposition,  as  to  the  expediency  of 
introducing  the  Stamp  Act.  Whatever  his  opinion  might  once  have  been, 
(and  more  than  one  instance  of  his  modifying  his  opinions  occurred  in  the 
course  of  the  revolution,)  he  now  explicitly  declared  that  he  considered  it  an 
unwise  measure,  to  which  the  Americans  would  never  submit,  and  to  enforce 
which  would  imperil  the  unity  of  the  empire.  At  length,  in  the  session  of 
1765,  the  Stamp  Bill  was  formally  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
where,  owing  to  the  preceding  events,  it  now  excited  somewhat  more  attention 
and  controversy  than  when  it  was  first  mooted,  the  galleries  being  crowded 
to  hear  the  debate.  The  opposition  firmly  maintained  the  injustice  no  less  than 
impolicy  of  the  measure,  alleging  that  by  the  ancient  laws  of  the  realm,  tax- 
ation and  representation  had  always  gone  hand  in  hand.  The  ministry  re- 
plied, that  the  colonies  were  in  fact  virtually  as  much  represented  by  the 
actual  members,  as  were  the  great  proportion  of  the  English,  who  themselves 
enjoyed  no  vote ;  that  the  right  of  taxing  the  colonists  was  derived  from  the 
responsibility  and  expense  of  defending  them ;  that  the  colonists  must  either 
be  entirely  dependent  upon  England,  or  entirety  separated  from  her.  The 
inconsistency  of  allowing  a  duty  to  be  placed  upon  their  exports,  while  they 
refused  to  submit  to  one  upon  stamps,  was  artfully  pointed  out.  Finally, 
after  ostentatiously  enumerating  the  advantages  derived  by  America  from  her 
connexion  with  Great  Britain,  and  leaving  out  of  sight  the  counterbalancing 


286 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.D.  17CJ 


c  ha  p.  restrictions  upon  her  commerce,  Charles  Townshend  concluded  with  the  fol- 
•  lowing  words :  "  And  now,  will  these  Americans,  children  planted  by  our 
care,  nourished  up  by  our  indulgence  till  they  are  grown  to  a  degree  of 
strength  and  opulence,  and  protected  by  our  arms  — will  they  grudge  to  con- 
tribute their  mite  to  relieve  us  from  the  heavy  weight  of  that  burden  which 
we  lie  under  ?  " 

At  these  words  up  started  Colonel  Isaac  Barre,  one  of  the  most  formidable 
debaters  of  the  opposition.  He  was  familiar  with  America,  had  been  the  friend 
of  Wolfe,  and  was  near  his  person  in  the  battle  of  Quebec,  in  which  he  had 
lost  one  of  his  eyes.  He  has  been  suspected,  and  not  without  strong  show 
of  evidence,  to  have  been  the  author  of  the  celebrated  "  Letters  of  Junius." 
Sarcastically  echoing  the  concluding  words  of  Townshend,  he  burst  into  a 
torrent  of  vigorous  eloquence  which  fairly  electrified  the  house.  "  They 
planted  by  your  care  !  (he  said).  No  ;  your  oppressions  planted  them  in  Ame- 
rica. They  fled  from  your  tyranny,  to  a  then  uncultivated  and  inhospitable 
country,  where  they  exposed  themselves  to  all  the  hardships  to  which  human 
nature  is  liable,  and,  among  others,  to  the  cruelties  of  a  savage  foe,  the 
most  subtle,  and  I  will  take  upon  me  to  say,  the  most  formidable  of  any  people 
upon  the  face  of  God's  earth;  yet,  actuated  by  principles  of  true  English 
liberty,  they  met  all  hardships  with  pleasure,  compared  with  those  they  suf- 
fered in  their  own  country,  from  the  hands  of  those,  who 'should  have  been 
their  friends. 

"  They  nourished  up  by  your  indulgence  !  They  grew  by  your  neglect  of 
them.  As  soon  as  you  began  to  care  for  them,  that  care  was  exercised  in 
sending  persons  to  rule  them  in  one  department  and  another,  who  were,  per- 
haps, the  deputies  of  deputies,  to  some  members  of  this  house,  sent  to  spy  out 
their  liberties,  to  misrepresent  their  actions,  and  to  prey  upon  them — men 
whose  behaviour,  on  many  occasions,  has  caused  the  blood  of  those  sons  of 
liberty  to  boil  within  them — men  promoted  to  the  highest  seats  of  justice ; 
some  who,  to  my  knowledge,  were  glad,  by  going  to  a  foreign  country,  to 
escape  being  brought  to  the  bar  of  a  court  of  justice  in  their  own. 

"  They  protected  by  your  arms  !  They  have  nobly  taken  up  arms  in  your 
defence,  have  exerted  their  valour  amidst  their  constant  and  laborious  industry 
for  the  defence  of  a  country  whose  frontier  was  drenched  in  blood,  while  its 
interior  parts  yielded  all  its  little  savings  to  your  emolument.  And  believe 
me,  remember,  I  this  day  told  you  so,  that  same  spirit  of  freedom  which 
actuated  that  people  at  first,  will  accompany  them  still ;  but  prudence  forbids 
me  to  explain  myself  further.  God  knows,  I  do  not  at  this  time  speak  from 
any  motives  of  party  heat ;  what  I  deliver  are  the  genuine  sentiments  of  my 
heart.  However  superior  to  me,  in  general  knowledge  and  experience,  the 
respectable  body  of  this  house  may  be,  yet  I  claim  to  know  more  of  America 
than  most  of  you,  having  seen  and  been  conversant  with  that  country.  The 
people,  I  believe,  are  as  truly  loyal  as  any  subjects  the  king  has,  but  a  people 
jealous  of  their  liberties,  and  who  will  vindicate  them  if  ever  they  should  be 
violated.     But  the  subject  is  too  delicate — I  will  say  no  more." 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  287 

The  house  remained  stupified  for  a  while  by  the  energy  of  Barr£,  and  no  c ha  p. 

one  ventured  to  reply  to  him.     This  striking  incident  relieved  what  was  pro-  — 

nounced  by  Burke  to  have  been  the  most  languid  debate  he  had  ever  heard, 
so  ignorant  of  American  affairs,  and  so  indifferent  about  them,  were  the  major- 
ity of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  bill  having  been  voted  by 
a  majority  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  fifty,  was  sent  up  to  the  Lords,  by  whom 
it  was  passed  without  opposition,  and  shortly  afterwards  received  the  royal 
assent.  The  ministers,  backed  by  the  king  and  country,  declared  their  inten- 
tion of  speedily  carrying  it  into  vigorous  execution.  "  The  sun  of  liberty  is  set," 
wrote  Franklin  to  his  friend  Charles  Thompson,  on  the  very  night  when  the 
bill  was  passed ;  "  the  Americans  must  light  the  lamps  of  industry  and  eco- 
nomy." "  Be  assured,"  was  the  reply,  "  that  we  shall  light  torches  of  a  very 
different  sort." 

In  fact,  since  the  first  mooting  of  this  impolitic  measure,  the  progress  of 
public  irritation  in  America  had  been  constantly  on  the  increase,  and,  sus- 
pended for  a  moment  during  the  appeal  to  parliament,  it  acquired  with  the 
fatal  news  of  the  passing  of  the  Stamp  Act,  a  prodigious  increase  of  force  and 
activity.  The  house  of  burgesses  in  Virginia  was  then  near  the  end  of  its 
session,  and  the  older  and  more  aristocratic  of  the  body  were  uncertain  and 
hesitating.  But  Patrick  Henry,  a  young  lawyer  who  had  been  elected  a 
burgess  but  a  few  days  before,  and  was  ignorant  of  the  forms  of  the  house  and 
the  members  that  composed  it,  finding  no  one  prepared  to  step  forth, "  alone, 
unadvised,  and  unassisted,"  wrote  upon  the  blank  leaf  of  an  old  law  book,  a 
few  spirited  resolutions,  which  he  launched  into  the  midst  of  the  assembly. 
A  violent  debate  ensued,  and  many  threats  and  much  abuse  were  heaped  upon 
the  daring  young  advocate  by  the  party  who  were  inclined  to  temporize  or 
submit.  The  spirit  of  Henry  rose  with  the  occasion,  and  while  descanting 
on  the  tyranny  of  the  obnoxious  Act,  he  exclaimed  in  a  voice  of  thunder, 
"  Caesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and  George  the 
Third — "  "  Treason,"  cried  the  speaker — "  Treason,  treason,"  echoed  from 
every  part  of  the  house.  "  It  was  one  of  those  trying  moments,"  well  says 
his  biographer,  "  which  are  decisive  of  character.  Henry  faltered  not  for  a 
moment,  but  rising  to  a  loftier  attitude,  and  fixing  on  the  speaker  an  eye  of 
the  most  determined  fire,  he  finished  his  sentence  with  firmest  emphasis, — 
"  may  profit  by  their  example.  If  this  be  treason  make  the  most  of  it. " 
The  resolutions  were  passed  in  spite  of  opposition,  and  being  circulated 
throughout  the  colonies,  tended  greatly  to  fortify  the  determined  spirit  of 
opposition  every  where  so  rife. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  passing  of  the  Act  was  received  with  still  deeper  dis- 
satisfaction, and  notwithstanding  the  advice  of  Governor  Bernard,  himself 
unfavourable  to  the  imposition  of  the  tax,  of  submission  to  the  act  of  parlia- 
ment "as  it  was  the  sanctuary  of  liberty  and  justice,"  the  representatives 
appointed  a  committee  of  nine  to  report  on  the  best  measures  to  be  adopted 
under  the  emergency.  This  body  recommended  the  assembly  of  a  congress 
at  New  York,  in  the  ensuing  month  of  October,  to  consult  together  on  the 


288 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1765. 


chap,  posture  of  affairs,  and  to  consider  of  a  general  and  humble  address  to  his 
Majesty  for  relief.  With  this  momentous  arrangement,  the  germ  of  all 
organized  resistance  to  the  ministerial  proceedings,  even  Governor  Bernard 
himself  then  thought  it  prudent  to  coincide. 

Meanwhile  an  explosion  of  popular  fury  broke  out  at  Boston.  There  was 
an  old  elm  tree  in  the  city,  which,  from  the  association  called  the  "  Sons  of 
Liberty  "  holding  their  meetings  under  it,  had  received  the  name  of  "  Liberty 
Tree."  Here  the  opponents  of  the  Stamp  Act  were  accustomed  to  assemble. 
On  the  morning  of  Thursday  the  fourteenth  of  August,  two  grotesque 
effigies  of  persons  favourable  to  the  tax,  amongst  which  was  that  of  Oliver, 
secretary  to  the  colony,  and  who  had  been  appointed  to  distribute  the  stamps, 
the  other  a  huge  boot,  with  head  and  horns  peeping  out,  intended  to  personify 
Lord  Bute,  were  found  suspended  from  its  branches.  The  mob  soon  collected 
to  witness  the  sight,  and  the  excitement  went  on  increasing  till  night,  when  the 
effigies  were  taken  down,  put  upon  a  bier,  and  carried  in  solemn  procession 
through  the  streets  of  the  city,  the  populace  shouting  after  them,  "  No  Stamp 
Act ! "  At  length  the  procession  halted  before  the  door  of  a  small  building 
destined  for  the  reception  of  the  stamps,  which  was  instantly  destroyed  by  the 
mob,  who  brandishing  its  fragments  tumultuously  hurried  to  the  house  of 
Oliver  himself,  and  cutting  off  the  head  of  his  effigy,  smashed  in  his  windows, 
and  after  resting  a  while  to  burn  the  effigy  returned  to  his  house,  which  they 
completely  gutted.  Oliver,  who  had  fled  on  the  attack  upon  his  premises, 
notified  next  day  that  he  had  written  to  resign  his  office.  In  the  evening  the 
mob  assembled  again  before  his  house,  and  exacted  a  renewal  of  the  pledge, 
whereupon  they  greeted  him  with  loud  huzzas,  and  here  for  the  moment  the 
agitation  was  suspended.  Shortly  after,  Jonathan  Mayhew,  one  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  city,  preached  a  warm  sermon  against  the  Stamp  Act,  taking  for  his 
text  the  significant  words,  "  I  would  they  were  even  cut  off  which  trouble 
you."  Next  evening  the  rioting  broke  out  anew  with  increased  violence. 
A  band  of  men  disguised  in  masks  and  armed  with  clubs,  rushed  first  to  the 
house  of  Paxon,  marshal  of  the  admiralty,  but  being  artfully  taken  off  to  the 
tavern,  where  their  excitement  was  stimulated  by  drink,  they  next  ■  selected 
the  residence  of  Story,  registrar  of  the  admiralty,  for  the  object  of  their  at- 
tacks. Here  they  destroyed  the  official  and  private  papers,  and  whatever  came 
to  their  hand.  Meanwhile  the  mob  continuing  to  increase,  and  with  it  the 
contagious  frenzy  of  the  rioters,  they  next  proceeded  to  the  house  of  the  con- 
troller of  the  customs,  where  they  committed  the  same  disorders  ;  and  becoming 
inflamed  to  madness  by  the  additional  stock  of  liquors  discovered  in  his  cel- 
lars, they  finally  hurried  off  to  the  house  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson, 
the  most  elegantly  furnished  in  the  whole  colony.  Having  sent  away  his 
children  to  a  place  of  safety,  Hutchinson  barricaded  his  doors  and  prepared 
for  resistance,  but  the  desperate  fury  of  the  rabble  soon  compelled  him  to  seek 
safety  in  flight,  and  by  four  in  the  morning  the  contents  of  his  establishment, 
plate,  furniture,  clothing,  and  money,  together  with  all  the  public  papers,  and 
a  body  of  manuscripts  relating  to  the  history  of  the  province  which  he  had 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  289 

been  thirty  years  in  collecting,  were  entirely  destroyed  or  carried  off.  Next  c  ha  p. 
morning  Hutchinson  was  obliged  to  appear  at  the  usual  sitting  of  the  council  — — — 
without  his  robes,  which  had  been  destroyed  by  the  mob,  while  the  other 
members  were  clothed  in  their  usual  costume.  The  court,  to  mark  their 
sense  of  the  outrage  received  by  their  president,  adjourned  until  the  middle  of 
October.  May  hew  sent  to  Hutchinson  next  day  to  disclaim  all  sympathy  with 
the  rioters.  The  more  influential  citizens  assembled  at  Faneuil  Hall  to  take 
order  for  the  prevention  of  such  outrages  for  the  future.  A  civic  guard  was 
organized  to  patrol  the  city.  A  reward  was  offered  for  the  apprehension  of 
the  ringleaders,  and  one  or  two  were  taken,  but  refused  to  betray  their  ac- 
complices, and  although  the  rioters  were  well  known,  no  one  ventured  to ; 
come  forward  for  their  conviction. 

Similar  manifestations  of  public  feeling  occurred  in  all  the  colonies.  On 
the  24th  August,  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  appeared  a  Gazette  extra- 
ordinary, headed  with  the  words  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,  in  large  characters  ;  and 
below,  the  sentence  of  St.  Paul,  "Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is 
liberty."  The  writers  boldly  panegyrised  the  riots  of  the  Bostonians,  as 
proving  that  they  had  not  degenerated  from  the  spirit  of  their  forefathers. ; 
Squibs  and  pasquinades  were  circulated  freely,  and  the  effigies  of  the  ob- 
noxious dragged  about  the  streets,  and  afterwards  hanged  and  burned  amidst 
the  acclamations  of  the  populace.  In  Connecticut,  Ingersoll,  the  agent  for 
the  stamps,  was  compelled  to  promise,  under  pain  of  seeing  his  house  de- 
molished, that  he  would  either  send  back  the  stamps  on  their  arrival,  or  throw 
open  the  magazines  containing  them  to  the  discretion  of  the  people.  At 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  the  bells  were  tolled,  and  notice  given  to  the 
friends  of  Liberty  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  attend  her  funeral.  A 
coffin  was  prepared  neatly  labelled,  "  Liberty,  aged  exxv  years,"  and  carried 
in  funeral  procession  about  the  town,  while  minute  guns  were  fired  until  the 
grave  destined  to  receive  the  coffin  was  reached.  An  oration  in  honour  of 
the  deceased  was  then  pronounced,  when  suddenly  some  remains  of  life  hav- 
ing been  discovered,  poor  Liberty  was  taken  up  again,  and  the  inscription 
altered,  while  the  bells  struck  up  a  merry  peal.  At  New  York  the  obnoxious 
bill,  headed,  "  Folly  of  England,  and  Puin  of  America,"  was  contemptuously 
hawked  about  the  streets.  Satirical  pamphlets,  and  cutting  articles  in  the 
journals,  constantly  added  fresh  fuel  to  the  flame.  One  of  those  published  at 
Boston  bore  for  its  title,  "  The  Constitutional  Courier,  or  Considerations  im- 
portant to  Liberty,  without  being  contrary  to  Loyalty."  But  the  device 
adopted  was  most  original,  representing  a  serpent  cut  into  eight  pieces,  the 
head  bearing  the  initials  of  New  England,  and  the  other  pieces  those  of  the 
other  colonies  as  far  as  Carolina,  the  whole  being  surmounted  by  the  signifi- 
cant inscription  in  large  letters,  "  Unite  or  Die." 

These  acts  of  intimidation  were  principally  the  work  of  the  lower  classes, 
but  set  in  motion,  there  is  little  doubt,  by  others  who  kept  behind  the  scenes. 
Bodies  of  the  more  ardent  patriots,  originating  in  Connecticut,  spread  through 
the  northern  colonies,  calling  themselves  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  after  Barrels 

2  p 


290  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  famous  speech,  and  adopting  the  principle  of  forcible  resistance  to  tyranny, 
A  D  ]765  seem  to  have  taken  the  initiation  in  precipitating  a  popular  outbreak.  The 
members  of  this  association  solemnly  pledged  themselves  to  march  at  their 
own  cost  to  the  relief  of  any  who  should  be  in  danger  from  the  Stamp  Act 
and  its  abettors,  to  watch  for  and  prevent  the  introduction  of  the  paper,  and 
to  punish  as  enemies  to  their  country  any  one  who  should  be  instrumental  in 
its  circulation.  While  the  more  wealthy  and  influential  citizens  repudiated 
their  principles,  they  were  no  less  active  in  organizing  a  firm  resistance  by 
constitutional  means. 

On  the  5th  of  October,  the  ships  having  on  board  the  stamps  appeared  in 
view  of  Philadelphia.  All  the  vessels  in  the  river  immediately  hoisted  their 
colours  half-mast  high,  the  bells  in  the  churches  were  muffled,  and  continued 
to  toll  until  the  evening.  Although  the  Quakers  and  Episcopalians  seemed 
inclined  for  peaceable  submission,  the  mass  of  the  people  forcibly  compelled 
Hughes,  the  stamp  master,  reluctantly  to  resign  his  office.  The  paper  having 
arrived  at  Boston  on  the  10th  of  September,  Governor  Bernard  wrote  to  the 
assembly,  to  request  their  advice  and  assistance ;  but  they  shrewdly  declined 
to  meddle  with  an  affair  beyond  their  functions,  and  the  governor  decided  to 
deposit  the  stamps  in  the  castle,  and  defend  them,  if  needful,  with  artillery. 
But  on  the  1st  of  November,  the  day  when  the  Act  was  to  come  into  oper- 
ations, all  the  bells  in  Boston  were  tolled,  and  the  same  scenes  which  had 
before  occurred  there,  were  repeated  with  increased  violence.  Oliver  was 
dragged  through  the  mob  to  the  foot  of  Liberty  tree,  and  made  to  swear  anew 
to  his  renunciation  of  office,  while  papers  with  the  signature  "  Vox  populi," 
were  affixed  to  the  doors  of  the  public  offices,  warning  any  who  should  dare 
to  make  use  of  the  stamps  to  look  to  his  house,  his  property,  and  his  person. 
Still  more  daring  were  the  proceedings  at  New  York.  There  too  the  dis- 
tributor of  stamps  having  resigned  his  employment,  Vice-Governor  Colden, 
who  was  very  unpopular,  deposited  the  stamps  for  safety  in  the  fort.  On 
the  evening  of  the  1st  of  November,  a  furious  mob  proceeded  to  the  citadel, 
and  seized  upon  Colden's  carriage,  then  hung  him  in  effigy,  with  the  Stamp 
Act  in  his  hand,  made  a  bonfire  of  the  whole  under  the  very  guns  of  the 
citadel,  and  then  proceeded  to  attack  and  pillage  the  house  of  Major  James. 
Encouraged  by  impunity,  and  stimulated  by  the  coffee-house  oratory  of  the 
popular  leaders,  headed  by  one  Captain  Sears,  they  marched  tumultuously  to 
the  vice-governor's,  threatening  the  direst  extremity  unless  the  stamps  were 
given  up  to  them.  To  avoid  bloodshed,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  governor, 
Colden  delivered  up  the  obnoxious  paper,  which  was  immediately  car- 
ried off  by  the  populace. 

Next  day  a  meeting  took  place  of  the  more  respectable  inhabitants,  for  the 
purpose  of  forming  a  committee  of  correspondence  with  the  other  colonies,  to 
keep  alive  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  government  measure.  Shortly  after- 
wards a  more  important  resolution  was  agreed  upon.  The  merchants  of  New 
York  resolved  to  import  no  more  goods  from  England,  until  the  revocation 
of  the  bill ;  an  example  shortly  afterwards  followed  by  the  majority  in  Phila- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  291 

delphia  and  Boston.  Some  even  went  so  far  as  to  forbid  any  action  to  be  c  ha  p. 
brought  against  an  American  subject  to  recover  debts  due  in  England.  The  •  ■•- 
people,  too,  of  all  ranks  and  classes  agreed  to  deny  themselves  the  use  of  all 
foreign  luxuries,  and  even  necessaries,  until  they  had  obtained  justice.  Sheep 
were  forbidden  to  be  used  as  food,  in  order  that  their  wool  might  be  ex- 
clusively used  for  domestic  manufactures,  and  to  appear  in  homespun  was 
esteemed  the  mark  of  a  true  patriot.  A  society  was  formed  at  New  York  to 
promote  the  growth  of  domestic  manufactures.  By  adopting  such  a  policy  they 
hoped  to  touch  the  English  manufacturers  to  the  quick,  and  compel  them  to 
agitate  for  the  removal  of  the  obnoxious  bill. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  when  the  stamps  were  to  have  come  into  general 
use,  not  a  single  one  was  to  be  found  in  circulation ;  all  had  been  either  de- 
stroyed, locked  up,  or  sent  back  again  to  England  by  the  royal  governors, 
who  found  it  impossible  to  carry  the  Act  into  execution.  The  greatest  confu- 
sion prevailed  through  the  provinces,  and  business  was  generally  at  a  stand- 
still. The  diary  of  John  Adams,  then  rising  into  popularity  at  Boston,  gives 
a  most  lively  picture  of  the  state  of  public  feeling  at  this  period.  "  The  year 
1765/'  he  observes,  "  has  been  the  most  remarkable  year  of  my  life.  That 
enormous  engine,  fabricated  by  the  British  parliament,  for  battering  down  all 
the .  rights  and  liberties  of  America,  I  mean  the  Stamp  Act,  has  raised  and 
spread  through  the  whole  continent  a  spirit  that  will  be  recorded  to  our  honour 
with  all  future  generations.  In  every  colony,  from  Georgia  to  New  Hamp- 
shire inclusively,  the  stamp  distributors  and  inspectors  have  been  compelled 
by  the  unconquerable  rage  of  the  people  to  renounce  their  offices.  Such  and 
so  universal  has  been  the  resentment  of  the  people,  that  every  man  who  has 
dared  to  speak  in  favour  of  the  stamps,  or  to  soften  the  detestation  in  which 
they  are  held,  how  great  soever  his  abilities  and  virtues  had  been  esteemed 
before,  or  whatever  his  fortune,  connexions,  and  influence  had  been,  has  been 
seen  to  sink  into  universal  contempt  and  ignominy. 

"  The  people,  even  to  the  lowest  ranks,  have  become  more  attentive  to 
their  liberties,  more  inquisitive  about  them,  and  more  determined  to  defend 
them,  than  they  were  ever  before  known  or  had  occasion  to  be ;  innumerable 
have  been  the  monuments  of  wit,  humour,  sense,  learning,  spirit,  patriotism, 
and  heroism,  erected  in  the  several  colonies  and  provinces  in  the  course  of 
this  year.  Our  presses  have  groaned,  our  pulpits  have  thundered,  our  legis- 
latures have  resolved,  our  towns  have  voted;  the  crown  officers  have  every 
where  trembled,  and  all  their  little  tools  and  creatures  been  afraid  to  speak 
and  ashamed  to  be  seen. 

"  This  spirit,  however,  has  not  yet  been  sufficient  to  banish  from  persons  in 
authority  that  timidity  which  they  have  discovered  from  the  beginning.  The 
executive  courts  have  not  yet  dared  to  adjudge  the  Stamp  Act  void,  nor  to 
proceed  with  business  as  usual,  though  it  should  seem  that  necessity  alone 
would  be  sufficient  to  justify  business  at  present,  though  the  Act  should  be 
allowed  to  be  obligatory.  The  stamps  are  in  the  castle.  Mr.  Oliver  has  no 
commission.     The  governor  has  no  authority  to  distribute  or  even  to  unpack 

2  p  2 


A.  D. 1765 


292  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  the  bales ;  the  Act  has  never  been  proclaimed  nor  read  in  the  province ;  yet 
the  probate  office  is  shut,  the  custom-house  is  shut,  the  courts  of  justice  are 
shut,  and  all  business  seems  at  a  stand.  Yesterday  and  the  day  before,  the 
two  last  days  of  service  for  January  term,  only  one  man  asked  me  for  a  writ, 
and  he  was  soon  determined  to  wave  his  request.  I  have  not  drawn  a  writ 
since  the  first  of  November. 

"  How  long  we  are  to  remain  in  this  languid  condition,  this  passive  obedi- 
ence to  the  Stamp  Act,  is  not  certain.  But  such  a  pause  cannot  be  lasting. 
Debtors  grow  insolent ;  creditors  grow  angry ;  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that 
the  public  offices  will  very  soon  be  forced  open,  unless  such  favourable  ac- 
counts should  be  received  from  England  as  to  draw  away  the  fears  of  the 
great,  or  unless  a  greater  dread  of  the  multitude  should  drive  away  the  fear 
of  censure  from  Great  Britain." 

In  the  midst  of  this  universal  excitement,  the  congress  suggested  by  Massa- 
chusetts met  at  New  York.  Nine  of  the  colonies  sent  deputies,  and  assur- 
ances of  support  were  received  from  the  others.  Most  of  the  men  now 
assembled  became  afterwards  famous  in  the  annals  of  the  coming  revolution. 
During  a  session  of  three  weeks,  they  drew  up  a  "  Declaration  of  Bights  and 
Grievances,"  recapitulating  the  arguments  already  advanced  against  taxation 
by  a  parliament  where  they  were  not  represented,  but,  as  though  they  feared 
they  might  be  taken  at  their  word  and  required  to  send  deputies  to  England, 
they  alleged  the  distance  and  other  reasons  as  an  argument  for  lodging  the 
power  of  taxation  exclusively  in  their  own  assemblies.  Petitions  to  the  king 
and  houses  of  parliament  were  also  prepared,  filled  with  warm  protestations  of 
loyalty,  and  earnest  entreaties  for  redress.  These  petitions,  which  were  fully 
approved  by  the  different  colonial  assemblies,  were  shortly  afterwards  sent 
over  to  England  for  presentation. 

The  united  and  formidable  opposition  of  all  classes  in  the  colonies  to  the 
recent  Act,  awakened  in  England,  so  soon  as  it  was  known,  a  general  attention 
to  American  affairs,  which  had  previously  been  regarded  with  great  indiffer- 
ence. The  merchants,  whose  interests  were  seriously  compromised  by  the 
non-importation  confederacy,  were  the  first  to  blame  the  impolitic  measure, 
which  had  entirely  stopped  the  course  of  trade,  and  the  table  of  the  minister 
groaned  under  their  petitions  for  its  repeal.  Pamphlets  were  continually  ap- 
pearing, in  which  the  subject  was  agitated,  according  to  political  or  party  dif- 
ferences. Some  exalted  the  firmness  of  the  Americans  to  the  skies,  while 
others  accused  them  of  ingratitude  and  rebellion.  Some  who  affirmed  the 
right  of  parliament  to  tax  them,  among  whom  were  the  bulk  of  the  aristocracy 
and  clergy,  called  for  the  adoption  of  force,  while  the  opposite  party  recom- 
mended the  policy  of  forbearance  and  concession.  Meanwhile  the  Grenville 
ministry,  distinguished  for  its  maintenance  of  the  royal  prerogative,  had  given 
place  to  a  more  liberal  administration  under  the  Marquis  of  Bockingham. 
The  new  ministry,  overwhelmed  by  the  petitions  of  the  colonists  and  remon- 
strances of  the  merchants,  adroitly  endeavoured  in  their  instructions  to  the 
royal  governors  in  America,  to  lull  the  tempest  awakened  by  their  prede- 


V. 


A.  D.  176«i. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  293 

cessors,  while  they  awaited  the  renewal  of  the  session  of  parliament  in  order   chap. 
to  obtain  an  entire  reversal  of  their  policy.     Thus  terminated  the  year  1765, 
as  yet  the  most  stormy  and  momentous  in  the  colonial  annals. 

Parliament  met  in  the  following  January,  when  the  speech  from  the  throne 
brought  the  affairs  of  America  formally  before  the  house.  His  Majesty  de- 
clared "  his  firm  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  zeal  of  the  members,  which 
would,  he  doubted  not,  guide  them  to  such  sound  and  prudent  resolutions  as 
might  tend  at  once  to  preserve  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  British  legislature 
over  the  colonies,  and  to  restore  to  them  that  harmony  and  tranquillity  which 
had  lately  been  interrupted  by  disorders  of  the  most  dangerous  nature."  The 
reports  of  the  royal  governors  and  other  papers,  together  with  a  mass  of  peti- 
tions requesting  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  were  then  laid  before  the  house. 
The  motion  for  an  address  to  the  king  was  next  warmly  agitated,  and  the  same 
differences  of  opinion  on  the  subject  which  had  before  appeared  were  now 
more  fully  manifested,  fortified  by  motives  of  party  or  personal  animosity. 
The  ex-ministers,  now  in  opposition,  were  firm  in  the  defence  of  their  recent 
policy.  But  Pitt,  who  had  neither  formed  part  of  the  recent  nor  present  ad- 
ministration, and  whose  ill  health  had  for  some  time  withdrawn  him  from  any 
active  share  in  politics,  now  appeared  to  turn  the  scale  decisively  in  favour  of 
its  repeal. 

"  It  is  a  long  time,  Mr.  Speaker,"  he  said,  "  since  I  have  attended  in  par- 
liament: when  the  resolution  was  taken  in  this  house  to  tax  America,  I 
was  ill  in  bed.  If  I  could  have  endured  to  have  been  carried  in  my  bed,  so 
great  was  the  agitation  of  my  mind  for  the  consequences,  I  would  have  soli- 
cited some  kind  hand  to  have  laid  me  down  on  this  floor  to  have  borne  my 
testimony  against  it.  It  is  my  opinion,  that  this  kingdom  has  no  right  to  lay 
a  tax  upon  the  colonies.  At  the  same  time,  I  assert  the  authority  of  this 
kingdom  to  be  sovereign  and  supreme  in  every  circumstance  of  government 
and  legislature  whatsoever.  Taxation  is  no  part  of  the  governing  or  legisla- 
tive power ;  and  taxes  are  a  voluntary  gift  and  grant  of  the  commons  alone. 
The  concurrence  of  the  peers  and  of  the  crown  is  necessary  only  as  a  form  of 
law.  This  house  represents  the  commons  of  Great  Britain.  When  in  this 
house  we  give  and  grant,  therefore,  we  give  and  grant  what  is  our  own ;  but 
can  we  give  and  grant  the  property  of  the  commons  of  America  ?  It  is  an 
absurdity  in  terms.  There  is  an  idea  in  some,  that  the  colonies  are  virtually 
represented  in  this  house.  I  would  fain  know  by  whom  ?  The  idea  of  vir- 
tual representation  is  the  most  contemptible  that  ever  entered  into  the  head  of 
man ;  it  does  not  deserve  a  serious  refutation.  The  commons  in  America, 
represented  in  their  several  assemblies,  have  invariably  exercised  this  consti- 
tutional right  of  giving  and  granting  their  own  money ;  they  would  have  been 
slaves  if  they  had  not  enjoyed  it.  At  the  same  time  this  kingdom  has  ever 
professed  the  power  of  legislature  and  commercial  control.  The  colonies  ac- 
knowledge your  authority  in  all  things,  with  the  sole  exception  that  you  shall 
not  take  their  money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  consent.  Here  would 
I  draw  the  line  — quam  ultra  citraqne  nequit  consistere  rectum"     A  pro- 


p— _ 


294  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h^a  p.  found  silence  succeeded  the  address  of  Mr.  Pitt ;  no  one  appeared  inclined 
.  ......  to  take  the  part  of  the  late  ministers.     At  length  Mr.  Grenville  himself,  the 

obstinate  author  of  all  the  mischief  which  then  so  loudly  threatened  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  whole  empire,  rose  in  defence  of  the  measures  of  his  ad- 
ministration. "  Protection  and  obedience,"  said  the  late  minister, (l  are  recipro- 
cal ;  Great  Britain  protects  America,  America  is  therefore  bound  to  yield  obedi- 
ence. If  not,  tell  me  when  were  the  Americans  emancipated  ?  "  Fixing  his 
eye  upon  Pitt  he  exclaimed,  "  The  seditious  spirit  of  the  colonies  owes  its  birth 
to  the  factions  in  this  house.  Gentlemen  are  careless  what  they  say,  provided 
it  serves  the  purposes  of  opposition.  "We  were  told  we  trod  on  tender  ground, 
we  were  bid  to  expect  disobedience :  what  is  this  but  telling  America  to 
stand  out  against  the  law  ?  to  encourage  their  obstinacy  with  the  expectation 
of  support  here  ?  Ungrateful  people  of  America  !  The  nation  has  run  itself 
into  an  immense  debt  to  give  them  protection ;  bounties  have  been  extended 
to  them ;  in  their  favour  the  Act  of  Navigation,  that  palladium  of  British 
commerce,  has  been  relaxed  ;  and  now  that  they  are  called  upon  to  contribute 
a  small  share  towards  the  public  expense,  they  renounce  your  authority,  in- 
sult your  officers,  and  break  out,  I  might  almost  say,  into  open  rebellion." 

At  this  several  members  started  suddenly  to  their  feet,  among  whom  was 
Pitt  himself.  There  was  a  general  cry  of  Mr.  Pitt,  Mr.  Pitt,  and  all  but  he 
resumed  their  seats.  Addressing  himself  to  the  speaker,  he  observed,  "  Sir, 
a  charge  is  brought  against  gentlemen  sitting  in  this  house  for  giving  birth  to 
sedition  in  America.  The  freedom  with  which  they  have  spoken  their  senti- 
ments against  this  unhappy  Act  is  imputed  to  them  as  a  crime;  but  the 
imputation  shall  not  discourage  me.  It  is  a  liberty  which  I  hope  no  gentle- 
man will  be  afraid  to  exercise ;  it  is  a  liberty  by  which  the  gentleman  who 
calumniates  it  might  have  profited.  He  ought  to  have  desisted  from  his  pro- 
ject. We  are  told  America  is  obstinate — America  is  almost  in  open  rebellion. 
Sir,  I  rejoice  America  has  resisted.;  three  millions  of  people  so  dead  to  all 
the  feelings  of  liberty,  as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been 
fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest.  I  came  not  here  armed  at  all 
points  with  law  cases  and  acts  of  parliament,  with  the  statute  book  doubled 
down  in  dogsears,  to  defend  the  cause  of  liberty ;  but  for  the  defence  of  liberty 
upon  a  general  constitutional  principle,  it  is  a  ground  on  which  I  dare  meet 
any  man.  I  will  not  debate  points  of  law ;  but  what,  after  all,  do  the  cases  of 
Chester  and  Durham  prove,  but  that  under  the  most  arbitrary  reigns  parliament 
were  ashamed  of  taxing  a  people  without  their  consent,  and  allowed  them 
representatives  ?  A  higher  and  better  example  might  have  been  taken  from 
Wales  ;  that  principality  was  never  taxed  by  parliament  till  it  was  incorporated 
with  England.  We  are  told  of  many  classes  of  persons  in  this  kingdom  not 
represented  in  parliament ;  but  are  they  not  all  virtually  represented  as  English- 
men within  the  realm  ?  Have  they  not  the  option,  many  of  them  at  least,  of 
becoming  themselves  electors  ?  Every  inhabitant  of  this  kingdom  is  necessarily 
included  in  the  general  system  of  representation.  It  is  a  misfortune  that  more 
are  not  actually  represented.    The  honourable  gentleman  boasts  of  his  bounties 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  295 

to  America.  Are  not  these  bounties  intended  finally  for  the  benefit  of  this  c  ha  p. 
kingdom  ?  If  they  are  not,  he  has  misapplied  the  national  treasures.  I  am 
no  courtier  of  America.  I  maintain  that  parliament  has  a  right  to  bind,  to 
restrain  America.  Our  legislative  power  over  the  colonies  is  sovereign  and 
supreme.  The  honourable  gentleman  tells  us  he  understands  not  the  differ- 
ence between  internal  and  external  taxation ;  but  surely  there  is  a  plain  dis- 
tinction between  taxes  levied  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  and  duties 
imposed  for  the  regulation  of  commerce.  '  When,'  said  the  honourable  gen- 
tleman, '  were  the  colonies  emancipated  ? '  At  what  time  say  I,  in  answer, 
were  they  made  slaves  ?  I  speak  from  actual  knowledge  when  I  say  that  the 
profit  to  Great  Britain  from  the  trade  of  the  colonies,  through  all  its  branches, 
is  two  millions  per  annum.  This  is  the  fund  that  carried  you  triumphantly 
through  the  war ;  this  is  the  price  America  pays  you  for  her  protection  ;  and 
shall  a  miserable  financier  come  with  a  boast  that  he  can  fetch  a  peppercorn 
into  the  exchequer  at  the  loss  of  millions  to  the  nation  ?  I  know  the  valour 
of  your  troops,  I  know  the  skill  of  your  officers,  I  know  the  force  of  this 
country  ;  but  in  such  a  cause  your  success  would  be  hazardous.  America,  if 
she  fell,  would  fall  like  a  strong  man :  she  would  embrace  the  pillars  of  the 
state,  and  pull  down  the  constitution  with  her.  Is  this  your  boasted  peace  ? 
not  to  sheathe  the  sword  in  the  scabbard,  but  to  sheathe  it  in  the  bowels  of 
your  countrymen?  The  Americans  have  been  wronged,  they  have  been 
driven  to  madness  by  injustice.  Will  you  punish  them  for  the  madness  you 
have  occasioned  ?  No,  let  this  country  be  the  first  to  resume  its  prudence 
and  temper  ;  I  will  pledge  myself  for  the  colonies,  that,  on  their  part,  animo- 
sity and  resentment  will  cease.  Upon  the  whole,  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell  the 
house  in  a  few  words  what  is  really  my  opinion.  It  is  that  the  Stamp  Act  be 
repealed  absolutely,  totally,  and  immediately.  At  the  same  time  let  the 
sovereign  authority  of  this  country  over  the  colonies  be  asserted  in  as  strong 
terms  as  can  be  devised,  and  be  made  to  extend  to  every  point  of  legislation 
whatsoever  ;  that  we  may  bind  their  trade,  confine  their  manufactures,  and 
exercise  any  power  whatsoever,  except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of 
their  pockets  without  their  consent." 

Grenville  having  vainly  endeavoured  to  pledge  the  House  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  Act,  the  policy  to  be  pursued  was  anxiously  investigated  and  dis- 
cussed. It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Franklin  was  summoned  to  give  his  evi- 
dence before  the  House  of  Commons.  The  galleries  were  crowded  with 
spectators  eager  to  behold  and  listen  to  the  remarkable  stranger,  so  distin- 
guished both  for  his  scientific  discoveries  and  the  services  he  had  rendered  to 
his  country.  His  demeanour  was  simple  and  self-possessed  as  usual,  and  his 
replies  to  the  questions  proposed  to  him  were  clear,  intelligent,  and  conclusive 
as  to  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  the  tax.  When  asked  whether  he  thought 
the  people  of  America  would  submit  to  the  Stamp  duty  if  it  was  moderated, 
he  answered  emphatically,  "  No,  never,  unless  compelled  by  force  of  arms." 
To  the  question,  "  What  was  the  temper  of  America  towards  Great  Britain, 
before  the  year  1763  ?"  he  replied,  "  The  best  in  the  world.     They  submitted 


296 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1766. 


ch^ap.  willingly  to  the  government  of  the  crown,  and  paid,  in  their  courts,  obedience 
to  acts  of  parliament.  Numerous  as  the  people  are  in  the  several  old  pro- 
vinces, they  cost  you  nothing  in  forts,  citadels,  garrisons,  or  armies,  to  keep 
them* in  subjection.  They  were  governed  by  this  country  at  the  expense 
only  of  a  little  pen,  ink,  and  paper ;  they  were  led  by  a  thread.  They  had  not 
only  a  respect,  but  an  affection  for  Great  Britain, — for  its  laws,  its  customs,  and 
manners, — and  even  a  fondness  for  its  fashions,  that  greatly  increased  the  com- 
merce. Natives  of  Britain  were  always  treated  with  particular  regard ;  to  be 
an  Old  England  man  was,  of  itself,  a  character  of  some  respect,  and  gave  a 
kind  of  rank  among  us." — "And  what  is  their  temper  now?"  it  was  asked. 
"  O,  very  much  altered,"  he  replied.  "  Did  you  ever  hear  the  authority  of 
parliament  to  make  laws  for  America  questioned  till  lately  ?  "  "  The  authority 
of  parliament,"  said  he,  "  was  allowed  to  be  valid  in  all  laws,  except  such  as 
should  lay  internal  taxes.  It  was  never  disputed  in  laying  duties  to  regulate 
commerce."  To  the  question,  "  Can  you  name  any  act  of  assembly,  or  public 
act  of  any  of  your  governments,  that  made  such  distinction  ?  "  he  replied,  "  I 
do  not  know  that  there  was  any ;  I  think  there  was  never  an  occasion  to  make 
such  an  act,  till  now  that  you  have  attempted  to  tax  us ;  that  has  occasioned 
resolutions  of  assembly,  declaring  the  distinction,  in  which  I  think  every 
assembly  on  the  continent,  and  every  member  in  every  assembly,  have  been 
unanimous." 

General  Conway,  who  from  the  first  had  opposed  the  imposition  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  now  brought  in  a  bill  for  its  total  repeal,  which,  after  being  warmly 
opposed  by  Grenville  and  the  opposition,  was  put  to  the  vote,  and  carried  by 
a  large  majority.  "  During  the  debate,"  to  use  the  language  of  Burke,  who 
had  lent  the  strength  of  his  eloquence  to  the  ministerial  measure,  "  the  trading 
interest  of  the  empire  crammed  into  the  lobbies  of  the  House  of  Commons 
with  a  trembling  and  anxious  expectation,  and  waited  almost  to  a  winter's  return 
of  light,  their  fate  from  the  resolution  of  the  House.  When  at  length  that  had 
determined  in  their  favour,  and  the  doors  thrown  open  showed  their  deliverer 
in  the  well-earned  triumph  of  his  important  victory,  from  the  whole  of  that 
grave  multitude  there  arose  an  involuntary  burst  of  gratitude  and  transport. 
They  jumped  upon  him  like  children  on  a  long-absent  father.  They  clung 
about  him  as  captives  about  a  redeemer  All  England  joined  in  his 
applause." 

In  repealing  the  Stamp  Act  the  ministry,  it  should  be  observed,  took  no 
higher  ground  than  that  of  the  impolicy  of  maintaining  it,  and  they  carefully 
salved  over  the  wounded  honour  of  the  country,  by  an  act  declaring  "  that  the 
parliament  had,  and  of  right  ought  to  have,  power  to  bind  the  colonies  in  all 
cases  whatsoever."  When  the  repeal  bill  was  sent  up  to  the  Lords,  the  highest 
legal  authorities  in  the  realm  differed  entirely  upon  the  point  at  issue,  Lord 
Mansfield  maintaining  that  the  sovereign  power  of  parliament  included  the 
right  of  taxation,  a  doctrine  which  Lord  Camden  most  strenuously  denied. 
The  king,  it  was  understood,  was  in  principle  opposed  to  the  repeal,  but  un- 
willing to  risk  the  effusion  of  blood.    Others  of  the  peers,  both  temporal  and 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  297 

spiritual,  breathed  a  spirit  far  more  hostile,  but  finally  the  bill  was  carried  by  c  ha  p. 
a  majority  of  a  third,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  king  went  down  to  the  House  — tt^T" 
of  Lords  to  give  it  his  assent.  On  this  occasion  the  American  merchants 
crowded  around  to  express  their  gratitude,  the  ships  in  the  river  were  adorned 
with  flags,  the  streets  were  illuminated,  bonfires  blazed,  and  every  sign  of 
public  rejoicing  hailed  the  renewal  of  their  friendly  relations  with  America, 
which  had  lately  been  so  lamentably  interrupted. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


FROM  THE  REPEAL  OP  THE   STAMP   ACT  TO  THE   PASSING   OF  THE  BOSTON  FORT   BILL. 


The  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  received  in  the  colonies  with  chap 


unbounded  joy.  At  Boston  the  bells  were  immediately  set  ringing,  cannon  dis- 
charged, and  the  ships  in  the  harbour  adorned  with  flags  and  streamers.  The 
sons  of  liberty  gathered  under  their  familiar  tree,  and  commemorated  the 
joyful  event  by  drinking  toasts  and  firing  muskets.  The  debtors  in  the  jails 
were  set  at  liberty,  there  were  splendid  exhibitions  of  fireworks,  and  Han- 
cock and  Otis,  the  popular  leaders,  kept  open  house  for  the  citizens,  and 
broached  a  cask  of  Madeira  to  regale  the  populace.  In  the  other  cities,  and 
throughout  the  colonies,  public  thanksgivings  were  offered  up  in  the  churches 
for  the  restoration  of  harmony  with  England.  The  non-importation  agree- 
ments were  rescinded,  the  home-spun  suits  given  to  the  poor,  and  the  colonists 
again  appeared  in  the  silks  and  broadcloths  of  the  parent  country.  Statues  to 
the  king  were  erected,  and  portraits  of  Lord  Camden,  Barre,  and  Conway 
adorned  the  public  halls.  But  Pitt,  above  all,  became  the  object  of  popular 
idolatry.  Forgetful  of  his  original  intention  to  raise  a  revenue  in  America, 
and  even  of  his  recent  reservation  of  the  absolute  power  of  parliament  to  re- 
gulate her  commerce,  his  recent  exertions  in  her  cause  were  rewarded  with 
enthusiastic  gratitude. 

But  as  this  first  ebullition  of  rejoicing  gradually  died  away,  a  reaction, 
broader  and  deeper  than  the  first  impulse  of  discontent,  began  to  occupy 
its  place.  The  recent  agitation  had  accustomed  all  classes  in  America  to  the 
discussion  of  their  rights,  and  rendered  them  increasingly  susceptible  of  the 
slightest  encroachment  upon  them.  In  the  triumphant  result  of  the  recent 
struggle,  they  had  found  out  the  all-powerful  effect  of  union  and  agitation.  A 
popular  party  had  been  formed,  embracing  many  of  the  most  powerful  minds 
in  the  colony,  who,  while  they  still  used  the  language  of  loyalty,  had  adopted 

2  Q 


A.  D. 1766. 


A.D.I  766. 


298  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  views  which  would  have  rendered  them  virtually,  if  not  nominally,  independ- 
ent of  England.  This  was  particularly  the  case  in  Massachusetts,  where 
Governor  Bernard,  who  saw  the  turn  affairs  were  taking,  was  determined 
to  assert  the  supreme  authority  of  the  mother  country,  and  had  thus  become 
personally  obnoxious  to  the  liberals.  Where  the  materials  of  discord  were  so 
abundant,  and  where  the  officers  of  the  crown  and  the  leaders  of  the  people 
maintained  an  attitude  of  determined  antagonism,  it  could  not  be  long  before 
fresh  subjects  of  dispute  were  forthcoming. 

In  his  circular  to  the  royal  governors,  Secretary  Conway  informed  them, 
M  that  the  king  and  parliament  seemed  disposed  to  forgive  and  forget  the 
marks  of  an  undutiful  disposition  too  frequent  in  the  late  transactions,  but 
desired  them  to  recommend  to  the  assemblies,  the  propriety  of  making  full 
and  ample  compensation  to  those  who  had  suffered  for  their  deference  to  the 
act  of  the  British  legislature."  On  submitting  this  message  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts assembly,  Bernard  observed  that  "  the  justice  and  humanity  of  this 
requisition  was  incontrovertible,  while  the  authority  with  which  it  was  intro- 
duced should  preclude  all  disputation  about  it."  Neither  this  message  itself, 
nor  the  terms  in  which  it  was  administered,  were  very  palatable  to  the  as- 
sembly. They  were  aware  that  its  execution  would  be  highly  unpopular, 
denying,  as  it  tacitly  did,  the  right  of  the  colonists  to  agitate  for  the  abolition 
of  a  tax  which  the  government  itself  had  seen  fit  to  repeal.  They  fastened 
therefore  upon  the  language  of  the  governor,  observing  that  it  was  conceived 
in  much  higher  and  stronger  terms  than  the  letter  of  the  secretary,  and  that  if 
this  recommendation,  which  his  Excellency  termed  a  requisition ,  be  founded 
on  so  much  justice  and  humanity  that  it  could  not  be  controverted,  while  the 
authority  with  which  it  is  introduced  should  preclude  all  disputation  about 
complying  with  it, — they  sriould  be  glad  to  know  what  freedom  they  had  in 
the  case.  It  was  not  until  after  a  protracted  discussion  that  the  indemnity 
was  at  length  granted  by  the  assembly ;  but  it  displayed  its  real  feeling  on 
the  subject,  by  coupling  it  with  a  general  pardon,  amnesty,  and  oblivion  for  the 
rioters  ;  and  although  this  proviso,  which  gave  the  deepest  offence  to  the  king 
and  ministry,  was  expressly  disallowed  by  his  Majesty  as  not  being  within 
the  power  of  a  colonial  assembly  to  grant,  the  actors  in  the  late  disturb- 
ances remained  unpunished. 

These  political  differences  were  greatly  inflamed  by  personal  jealousies  and 
animosities.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  popular  movement  in  Massachusetts, 
who  now  began  to  come  prominently  forward,  were  James  Otis,  Thomas 
Cushing,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Hancock.  The  first  of  these  patriots,  it 
will  be  remembered,  originally  held  a  place  under  government,  which  he 
resigned  in  order  to  plead  against  the  "writs  of  assistance,"  on  which 
occasion  his  memorable  speech  had  produced  so  thrilling  an  effect;  and 
he  was  also  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  on  colonial  rights.  Since  that  period 
he  had  continued  the  untiring  and  deadly  antagonist  of  government.  His 
character  is  thus  sketched  by  the  master-hand  of  John  Adams  :  "  He  is  fiery 
and  feverous,  his  imagination  flames,  his  passions  blaze;  he  is  liable  to  great 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  299 

inequalities  of  temper,  sometimes  in  despondency,  sometimes  in  a  rage.  The  c  ha  p. 
rashnesses  and  imprudences  into  which  his  excesses  of  zeal  have  formerly  — 
transported  him,  have  made  him  enemies,  whose  malicious  watch  over  him 
occasions  more  caution,  and  more  cunning,  and  more  inexplicable  passages  in 
his  conduct  than  formerly,  and  perhaps  views  at  the  chair  or  the  board,  or 
possibly  more  expanded  views  beyond  the  Atlantic,  may  mingle  now  with  his 
patriotism."  Cushing,  descended  from  an  ancient  colonial  family,  is  described 
as  being  "  steady  and  constant,  busy  in  the  interest  of  liberty  and  the  oppo- 
sition, and  famed  for  secrecy  and  talent  at  procuring  intelligence."  Samuel 
Adams,  of  the  old  Puritan  stock  and  serious  temper,  poor,  but  of  incorruptible 
integrity,  and  proof  against  the  seductive  offer  of  a  government  place,  con- 
sidered to  possess  "the  most  thorough  understanding  of  liberty,  and  her 
resources  in  the  temper  and  character  of  the  people,  though  not  in  the  law 
and  constitution,  was  gradually  acquiring  influence  among  the  masses.  Of 
the  mercantile  class,  Bowdoin  and  Hancock  were  the  chief  leaders.  The 
former,  of  French  origin,  possessed  the  largest  fortune  in  Boston ;  the  latter, 
whose  father  and  grandfather  had  been  in  the  ministry,  had  also  acquired  great 
wealth,  and  was  active,  lively,  and  prepossessing  in  his  manners.  To  these 
we  may  add,  John  Adams  himself,  a  young  lawyer  of  rising  reputation  and 
high  character,  afterwards  president  of  the  United  States,  and  now  becoming 
so  influential  among  the  liberals,  that  the  government  offered,  and  even  press- 
ed on  him,  notwithstanding  his  known  political  principles,  the  place  of  Advo- 
cate-general, in  the  court  of  Admiralty,  but  which,  having  determined  to  cast  in 
his  lot  with  the  popular  party,  he  had  decidedly  refused  to  accept.  The  great 
majority,  it  should  be  observed,  of  those  who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  bar, 
still  either  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  government,  or  contrived  at 
least  to.  observe  a  prudent  neutrality. 

The  assembly  having  chosen  Otis  as  president,  Governor  Bernard  re- 
fused to  ratify  a  choice  so  unpleasant  to  himself  and  so  opposed  to  the  interests 
of  the  ministry.  Otis  in  retaliation  exerted  himself  successfully  to  get  Hutchin- 
son and  Oliver  excluded  from  the  council,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
governor  refused  to  second  the  nomination  of  the  other  members  of  their 
choice.  The  popular  party  hereupon  became  more  stirring  and  energetic,  and 
a  step  was  now  taken  by  them  that  tended  materially  to  silence  the  friends 
of  government,  to  compel  the  neutral  to  a  choice  of  sides,  and  to  stimulate  the 
activity  of  the  friends  of  the  people.  Hitherto  the  debates  of  the  assembly 
had  been  carried  on  with  closed  doors  ;  they  were  now,  through  a  decree  ob- 
tained by  the  popular  leaders,  thrown  open  to  the  public,  for  whose  accom- 
modation galleries  were  erected,  so  that  they  might  see  at  once  who  were 
their  friends  or  enemies. 

While  affairs  in  Massachusetts  thus  became  more  and  more  threatening, 
New  York  was  also  involving  herself  in  further  diiputes  with  the  ministry. 
An  indemnity  had  been  indeed  voted  for  the  loyalist  sufferers  in  the  recent 
riots,  from  the  benefit  of  which,  however,  the  vice-governor  had  been 
formally  excluded,  in  consequence  of  his  hostility  to  the  people.     The  go- 

2  q  2 


300  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CI\-i.P'  vernors  expecting  shortly  the  arrival  of  a  body  of  troops  under  General  Gage, 
A  D  l76J  conformably  to  an  Act  passed  by  parliament  at  the  same  time  as  the  Stamp  Act 
for  quartering  troops  in  the  colonies,  sent  a  message  to  the  assembly  requiring 
them  to  make  the  necessary  provision.  This  however,  to  the  full  extent  re- 
quired, they  refused  to  do,  and  thus  assumed  an  attitude  of  determined  resist- 
ance towards  the  government. 

Meanwhile  another  change  had  taken  place  in  the  British  ministry.  The 
Rockingham  administration  came  to  an  end  in  July,  1766,  and  a  new  ministry 
was  formed  under  the  nominal  leadership  of  Pitt,  now  created  Earl  of  Chatham, 
who  was  however  prevented  by  illness  from  taking  part  in  the  measures. 
Lord  Shelburn  and  General  Conway  became  secretaries  of  state ;  Camden, 
lord  chancellor ;  Charles  Townsend,  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  This  ad- 
ministration was  of  so  chequered  a  character  that  it  was  described  by  Burke 
as  "  a  piece  of  diversified  Mosaic,  a  tesselated  pavement  without  cement,  here 
a  bit  of  black  stone,  there  a  bit  of  white,  patriots  and  courtiers,  king's  friends 
and  republicans,  Whigs  and  Tories,  treacherous  friends  and  open  enemies, — 
a  very  curious  show,  but  utterly  unsafe  to  touch,  and  unsure  to  stand  upon." 
The  contumacy  of  the  colonists  greatly  annoyed  the  king  and  ministry  as  well 
as  the  people  at  large,  and  it  became  the  general  impression,  fortified  by  the 
representations  of  the  colonial  governors,  and  especially  of  Bernard,  that  greater 
firmness  must  be  displayed  in  future.  Grenville  in  particular,  the  author  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  by  continually  appealing  to  the  pride  of  the  ministry,  seems  to 
have  been  the  chief  agent  in  inducing  them  to  impose  a  fresh  tax  upon  the 
colonists.  Declaiming,  it  is  said,  as  usual  on  American  affairs,  he  addressed 
himself  particularly  to  the  ministers.  "  You  are  cowards,"  he  said,  "  you  are 
afraid  of  the  Americans,  you  dare  not  tax  America."  This  he  repeated  in 
different  language.  Upon  this  Townsend  took  fire,  immediately  rose,  and  said, 
"  Fear — fear — cowards — dare  not  tax  America !  I  dare  tax  America."  Grenville 
stood  silent  for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  "  Dare  you  tax  America  ?  I  wish  to 
God  I  could  see  it."  Townsend,  indeed  a  man  of  brilliant  abilities,  was  versa- 
tile, excitable,  and  inconsistent.  He  had  warmly  supported  Grenville  in  passing 
the  Stamp  Act,  and  as  warmly  voted  for  its  repeal,  doubtless,  it  should  be 
remembered,  upon  grounds  of  expediency  alone.  He  now  devised  a  new 
scheme,  upon  the  ingenuity  of  which  he  congratulated  himself,  for  raising  a 
revenue  in  America  without  offending  the  feelings  of  the  colonists,  who,  while 
they  denied  the  right  of  parliament  to  impose  upon  them  a  direct  internal 
tax,  such  as  that  upon  stamps,  had  hitherto  at  least  acquiesced  in  her  right  to 
levy  external  duties  for  the  regulation  of  commerce.  He  brought  in  a  bill 
for  imposing  a  duty  upon  teas  imported  into  America,  together  with  paints, 
paper,  glass,  and  lead,  which  were  articles  of  British  produce ;  its  alleged 
object  being  to  raise  a  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  civil  government,  for 
the  expense  of  a  standing  army,  and  for  giving  permanent  salaries  to  the 
royal  governors,  with  a  view  to  render  them  independent  of  the  colonial 
assemblies.  In  order  to  enforce  the  new  Act  and  those  already  in  existence, 
which,  odious  as  they  were  to  the  Americans,  had  hitherto  been  continually 


A.  D. 1767. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  301 

evaded  by  them,  a  Board  of  Revenue  Commissioners  was  to  be  established  at   chap 
Boston.     Indignant,  moreover,  at  the  recent  refusal  of  the  New  York  assem- 
bly to  comply  with  the  provisions  of  the  Act  for  quartering  soldiers,  notwith- 
standing their  personal  remonstrances,  the  ministers  passed  an  Act  restraining 
that  body  from  any  further  legislative  proceedings  until  they  had  submitted. 

These  Acts,  passed  at  home  almost  without  opposition,  arrived  in  America 
about  the  same  time,  and  immediately  rekindled  the  agitation,  which,  lulled 
for  a  moment  by  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  now  broke  out  more  vigor- 
ously than  ever.  As  indeed  the  tax  upon  tea,  being  distinctly  external, 
differed  entirely  from  that  upon  stamps,  being  in  fact  of  the  same  nature  as 
those  upon  molasses  and  other  articles  to  which  a  reluctant  submission  had 
hitherto  been  afforded,  it  is  possible  that,  under  other  circumstances,  it  might 
have  passed  into  operation  without  exciting  any  great  commotion.  But  the 
object  for  which  it  was  levied  tended  to  create  a  general  odium  in  the  minds 
of  the  colonists,  excited  as  they  were  by  jealous  apprehensions  of  parliamen- 
tary encroachment.  It  was  not  only  to  raise  a  revenue  from  the  colonies,  but 
that  revenue  was  moreover  to  be  applied  in  strengthening  the  royal  power,  in 
enforcing  the  detested  Acts  of  Trade,  in  rendering  the  governors  independent, 
and  in  crushing  resistance  by  the  establishment  of  a  standing  army.  Every  day 
therefore  the  feeling  of  attachment  to  England  grew  weaker,  and  the  desire 
for  independence  stronger.  The  nature  of  the  connexion  between  the  mother 
country  and  the  colonies  was  the  constant  subject  of  discussion,  and  while  the 
authority  of  England  was  reduced  to  a  mere  nullity,  the  pretensions  of  the 
Americans  were  gradually  expanded,  until  the  interference  of  parliament  with 
the  affairs  of  the  colonies  in  any  shape,  and  in  any  way,  was  boldly  and  em- 
phatically denied.  Thus,  as  in  the  English  parliament  Grenville  had  denied 
the  distinction  between  internal  and  external  taxes,  formerly  so  strenuously 
insisted  on  by  the  colonists,  as  fallacious,  and  thereon  founded  his  argument 
for  imposing  the  Stamp  Act,  so  now,  that  tax  being  repealed,  the  Americans 
made  use  of  the  identical  argument  for  refusing  to  submit  to  any  other. 

This  view  of  the  subject  was  warmly  advocated  in  a  series  of  "  Letters  from 
a  Farmer  in  Pennsylvania  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  British  Colonies,"  written  by 
John  Dickenson,  in  which  the  right  of  parliamentary  taxation  in  any  shape 
whatever  was  strenuously  denied.  Franklin,  who  at  first  had  inclined  to  the 
difference  between  external  and  internal  taxation,  now  altered  his  opinion,  and 
caused  the  "  Letters  "  to  be  reprinted  in  London.  "Warmly  advocated  by  the 
colonial  press,  these  views  took  possession  of  the  minds  of  the  people ;  and  thus 
the  question  between  the  contending  parties,  removed  from  its  original  ground, 
became  increasingly  difficult  of  solution. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  new  Acts,  Governor  Bernard  had  been  solicited  to  call  a 
special  session  of  the  general  court  to  examine  and  discuss  them ;  a  request 
with  which  he  had  refused  to  comply.  When  the  court  met  two  months 
afterwards,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of 
affairs.  They  drew  up  a  humble  petition  to  the  king,  in  which  they  dwell 
upon  the  grant  of  their  original  charter,  "with  the  conditions  of  which  they  had 


o02  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c»  a  p.  fully  complied,  till  in  an  unhappy  time  it  was  vacated."  They  next  allude  to 
A>ai767-  the  subsequent  and  modified  charter,  granted  by  William  and  Mary,  con- 
firming the  same  fundamental  liberties  granted  them  by  the  first.  Acknow- 
ledging indeed  the  superintending  authority  of  parliament,  in  all  cases  that 
can  consist  with  the  fundamental  rights  of  nature  and  the  constitution,  they 
proceed  as  follows :  "  It  is  with  the  deepest  concern  that  your  humble  suppli- 
ants would  represent  to  your  Majesty,  that  your  parliament,  the  rectitude  of 
whose  intentions  is  never  to  be  questioned,  has  thought  proper  to  pass  divers 
Acts  imposing  taxes  on  your  subjects  in  America  with  the  sole  and  express 
purpose  of  raising  a  revenue.  If  your  Majesty's  subjects  here  shall  be  de- 
prived of  the  honour  and  privilege  of  voluntarily  contributing  their  aid  to 
your  Majesty,  in  supporting  your  government  and  authority  in  the  province, 
and  defending  and  securing  your  rights  and  territories  in  America,  which 
they  have  always  hitherto  done  with  the  utmost  cheerfulness ;  if  these  acts  of 
parliament  shall  remain  in  force,  and  your  Majesty's  Commons  in  Great  Bri- 
tain shall  continue  to  exercise  the  power  of  granting  the  property  of  their 
fellow  subjects  in  this  province,  your  people  must  then  regret  their  unhappy 
fate  in  having  only  the  name  left  of  free  subjects.  "With  all  humility  we 
conceive  that  a  representation  of  this  province  in  parliament,  considering  their 
local  circumstances,  is  utterly  impracticable.  Your  Majesty  has  therefore  been 
graciously  pleased  to  order  your  requisitions  to  be  laid  before  the  repre- 
sentatives of  your  people  in  the  general  assembly,  who  have  never  failed  to 
afford  the  necessary  aid,  to  the  extent  of  their  ability,  and  sometimes  beyond 
it,  and  it  would  be  ever  grievous  to  your  Majesty's  faithful  subjects,  to  be 
called  upon  in  a  way  that  should  appear  to  them  to  imply  a  distrust  of  their 
most  ready  and  willing  compliance."  Besides  this  petition  to  the  king,  they 
sent  letters  of  instructions  to  their  agents,  and  also  to  Lords  Shelburne,  Con- 
way, Camden,  Chatham,  and  other  advocates  of  their  cause.  They  adopted, 
moreover,  a  measure,  the  efficacy  of  which  had  been  already  tested,  that  of 
despatching  a  circular  to  the  rest  of  the  colonies,  to  engage  them  in  a  common 
resistance,  concluding  it  with  an  expression  of  their  "  firm  confidence  in  the 
king,  their  common  head  and  father,  that  the  united  and  dutiful  supplications 
of  his  distressed  American  subjects  will  meet  with  his  royal  and  favourable 
acceptance." 

No  step  could  have  given  greater  uneasiness  or  offence  than  this  to  the 
English  ministry,  who  dreaded  the  union  of  the  scattered  States,  and  the 
gradual  establishment  of  a  colonial  congress,  as  earnestly  as  those  measures 
became  the  desire  of  the  patriot  party.  Accordingly  Lord  Hillsborough,  re- 
cently appointed  to  the  new  secretaryship  of  the  colonies,  desired  Governor 
Bernard  to  press  upon  the  House  of  Representatives  the  propriety  of  rescind- 
ing this  resolution  as  "  rash  and  hasty,"  and  artfully  procured  by  surprise 
against  the  general  sense  of  the  assembly,  and  to  dissolve  that  body  in  case  of 
refusal.  He  also  addressed  a  circular  with  the  same  instructions  to  the  rest 
of  the  royal  governors.  "  As  his  Majesty  considers  this  measure,"  it  observed, 
"  to  be  of  the  most  dangerous  and  factious  tendency,  calculated  to  inflame  the 


VI. 


A.  D.  V 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  303 

minds  of  his  good  subjects  in  the  colonies,  and  promote  an  unwarrantable  chap. 
combination,  it  is  his  Majesty's  pleasure  that  you  should  exert  your  utmost 
influence  to  defeat  this  flagitious  attempt  to  disturb  the  public  peace,  by  pre- 
vailing upon  the  assembly  of  your  province  to  take  no  notice  of  it,  which  will 
be  treating  it  with  the  contempt  it  deserves."  When  Bernard  communicated 
this  message  to  the  new  assembly,  they  denied  that  the  circular  to  the  colonies 
had  been  unfairly  passed,  and  flatly  refused  to  comply  with  the  ministerial 
suggestion.  "  If,"  they  observed,  "by  the  word  rescinding  is  intended  the 
passing  a  vote  in  direct  and  express  disapprobation  of  the  measure  taken  by 
the  former  house,  we  must  take  the  liberty  to  declare  that  we  take  it  to  be  the 
native  right  of  the  subject  to  petition  the  king  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  If 
the  votes  of  the  house  are  to  be  controlled  by  the  direction  of  a  minister,  we 
have  left  us  but  a  vain  semblance  of  liberty.  We  have  now  only  to  inform 
you  that  this  house  have  voted  not  to  rescind,  and  that  on  a  division  on  the 
question  there  were  ninety-two  nays  and  seventeen  yeas." 

Otis  made  a  speech  characterized  by  his  usual  vehemence  and  daring,  which 
was  pronounced  by  the  friends  of  government  to  be  "  the  most  violent,  in- 
solent, abusive,  and  treasonable  declaration,  that  perhaps  was  ever  delivered." 
"  When  Lord  Hillsborough,"  he  said,  "  knows  that  we  will  not  rescind  our 
Acts,  he  should  apply  to  parliament  to  rescind  theirs.  Let  Britons  rescind 
their  measures,  or  they  are  lost  for  ever."  The  next  day  the  House  of  Re- 
presentatives was  dissolved  by  Bernard.  His  administration  had  become  so 
odious,  that  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  list  of  accusations  against 
him,  and  to  entreat  his  removal  from  the  province.  Equally  vain  were  the 
attempts  of  the  royal  governors  to  obtain  a  promise  from  the  assemblies  of  the 
other  colonies  not  to  unite  with  that  of  Massachusetts,  whose  sentiments,  on 
the  contrary,  they  unanimously  echoed.  They  refused  one  and  all,  and  were 
dissolved  accordingly. 

Not  only  were  the  ministerial  requisitions  set  at  nought,  but  it  soon  became 
evident  that  the  recent  Acts  could  never  be  carried  into  effect  in  defiance  of 
the  popular  feeling.  How  hateful  the  custom-house  officers  had  ever  been 
in  America,  the  difficulty  and  even  danger  with  which  the  discharge  of  their 
functions  was  attended,  as  well  as  the  systematic  evasion  of  the  duties,  has 
been  already  mentioned.  The  presence  therefore  of  the  recently  appointed 
commissioners  of  customs,  animated  by  the  determination  to  enforce  these  laws, 
could  not  fail  to  give  rise  to  fresh  commotions.  Soon  after  their  arrival  the 
sloop  "  Liberty,"  laden  with  wines,  was  boarded  and  seized  by  them,  and  the 
officers,  in  the  apprehension  of  a  rescue,  solicited  aid  from  the  captain  of  a 
ship  of  war  in  the  harbour,  who  ordered  the  sloop  to  be  cut  from  her  fasten- 
ings and  brought  under  the  guns  of  his  ship.  This  proceeding  was  greatly 
resented,  especially  as  the  sloop  belonged  to  John  Hancock,  conspicuous,  as 
before  said,  among  the  popular  leaders.  A  mob  collected,  the  custom-house 
officers,  after  being  severely  handled,  narrowly  escaped  with  their  lives,  and 
fled  for  refuge,  first  to  the  ship  of  war  and  afterwards  to  the  castle,  while  their 
houses  were  attacked,  and  their  boat  dragged  through  the  town,  and  afterwards 


304  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CIvlP'  burned  upon  the  common.     The  council,  while  they  admitted  the  criminality 
aTdTT788!  °^  t^le  ri°ters>  an(*  recommended  that  they  should  be  prosecuted,  sought  to 
extenuate  their  offence  on  the  ground  of  the  extraordinary  proceedings  of  the 
custom-house  officers,  and  as  witnesses  refused  to  come  forward,  the  prosecu- 
tion fell  to  the  ground. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  friends  of  government,  who  plainly  perceived  the 
impossibility  of  carrying  out  the ,  obnoxious  laws  except  by  force,  two  regi- 
ments had  already  been  ordered  to  Boston,  to  which  two  others  were  now 
added.  On  learning  this,  a  town  meeting  was  called,  which,  having  in  vain 
requested  the  governor  to  summon  a  general  court,  took  the  bold  step  of 
summoning  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  different  towns  in  the  province, 
which,  while  they  renounced  legislative  pretensions,  should  deliberate  on 
the  redress  of  grievances.  A  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  also  appointed  ; 
and  here  it  may  be  well  to  observe,  that  the  majority  of  the  congregational 
ministers,  who  had  looked  with  an  evil  eye  on  a  recent  attempt  to  establish 
Episcopacy  in  the  province,  warmly  espoused  the  popular  cause.  Still  more 
— on  the  pretence  of  apprehensions  of  "  a  war  with  France,"  all  parties  not 
already  provided  with  fire-arms  were  advised  to  procure  them  at  once.  The 
summons  was  warmly  responded  to,  delegates  from  more  than  a  hundred  towns 
assembled  on  the  appointed  day,  and  petitioned  the  governor  to  convene  a 
general  court.  Bernard  refused,  and  denounced  the  meeting  as  treasonable. 
Giving  expression  to  their  hatred  of  standing  armies  and  declaring  their 
readiness  themselves  to  maintain  the  peace,  after  warm  professions  of  loyalty, 
the  delegates  dispersed  about  the  end  of  September,  spreading  through  every 
part  of  the  country  the  same  spirit  already  so  rife  in  Boston. 

The  very  day  after  they  broke  up  their  session  the  ships  bearing  two  of 
the  regiments  arrived,  and  the  governor  requested  the  council  to  appoint 
them  quarters  in  the  town,  as  General  Gage  required  him  to  do.  The  council 
replied,  that  there  was  already  room  in  the  barracks ;  to  which  Bernard  replied, 
that  they  were  reserved  for  the  two  other  regiments  that  were  shortly  ex- 
pected. There  was  a  large  building  belonging  to  the  province,  and  then 
occupied  by  some  poor  families,  which  the  governor  suggested  might  be 
cleared  for  the  soldiers ;  but  the  council,  averring  that  by  the  terms  of  the  Act 
the  provision  of  quarters  devolved  on  the  local  magistrates,  refused  to  inter- 
fere. Some  fears  being  even  entertained  that  the  inhabitants  would  oppose  a 
landing,  the  guns  of  the  ships  were  pointed  on  the  town,  and  under 
their  cover  the  troops  were  set  ashore,  and  with  muskets  charged,  bayonets 
fixed,  and  a  train  of  artillery,  they  marched  into  the  town.  The  overseers  of 
Boston  refused  to  appoint  them  quarters,  but  a  temporary  shelter  was 
afforded  to  one  regiment  in  Faneuil  Hall,  while  the  other  pitched  their  tents 
on  the  common.  Next  morning  the  governor  ordered  a  portion  to  occupy 
the  state-house,  with  the  exception  of  the  council-chamber  alone,  the  main 
guard  with  two  field-pieces  being  stationed  at  the  front.  It  was  the  sabbath 
day,  and  such  a  one  as  had  never  before  been  known  in  Boston.  The  place 
looked  like  a  town  in  a  state  of  siege.     All  the  public  buildings  were  filled 


A.D.  1768, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  305 

with  soldiers,  parties  of  whom  were  constantly  marching  to  and  fro  to  relieve  c  ha  p. 
guard.  The  peaceful  citizens  were  challenged  by  sentinels  as  they  passed  to 
church,  and  the  public  exercises  of  devotion,  so  strictly  and  solemnly  ob- 
served, interrupted  by  the  roll  of  drums,  and  the  thrilling  sounds  of  military 
music.  A  spectacle  so  galling  had  never  been  witnessed  by  the  colonists ;  with 
indignation  they  felt,  even  to  the  lowest  depth  of  their  hearts,  the  bitterness  of 
their  dependence  upon  a  distant  power. 

On  the  opening  of  parliament,  the  papers  connected  with  the  late  proceed- 
ings at  Boston  were  laid  before  the  House  of  Lords,  who,  already  strongly 
prejudiced  against  the  colonists,  now  passed  resolutions  declaring  that  the 
election  of  deputies  to  sit  in  convention,  and  the  meeting  of  that  convention, 
were  daring  insults  to  his  Majesty's  authority,  and  audacious  usurpations  of 
the  power  of  government.  They  gave  the  ministers  the  strongest  assurance  of 
support,  and  suggested  that  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  should  be  directed 
to  procure  the  fullest  information  touching  all  treasons  or  misprisions  of 
treason  committed  there  since  Dec,  1767,  and  transmit  the  ringleaders  to 
England  for  trial,  under  an  obsolete  statute  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  VIII. 
These  resolutions  sent  down  to  the  Commons,  occasioned  a  vigorous  opposition, 
but  so  deeply  were  parliament  and  the  entire  nation  offended  by  the  behavi- 
our of  the  Americans  that  they  passed  by  a  large  majority,  and  were  em- 
bodied in  a  joint  address  to  the  king. 

When  the  news  of  these  proceedings  reached  America,  Massachusetts  pos- 
sessed no  general  assembly,  but  that  of  Virginia  immediately  took  up  their 
discussion  with  their  wonted  spirit,  and  immediately  drew  up  several  resolu- 
tions, which  their  speaker  was  directed  to  forward  for  concurrence  to  the  rest 
of  the  colonial  assemblies.  In  defence  of  the  proceedings  in  Massachusetts, 
and  in  deprecation  of  the  ministerial  threats,  they  declared  that  "the  sole  right 
of  imposing  taxes  on  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  is  now  and  ever  hath  been 
legally  and  constitutionally  vested  in  the  house  of  burgesses,  with  consent  of 
the  council,  governor,  and  king ;  that  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  inhabitants  to 
petition  their  sovereign  for  the  redress  of  grievances,  and  lawful  to  procure 
the  concurrence  of  the  other  colonies  to  this  end ;  that  all  trials  for  tre^on,  or 
misprision  of  treason,  ought  to  be  before  his  Majesty's  courts  in  the  colonies ; 
and  that  the  seizing  any  citizen  suspected  merely  of  any  crime  is  a  derogation 
from  the  rights  of  British  subjects,  as  thereby  the  inestimable  privilege  of 
being  tried  by  a  jury  from  the  vicinage,  as  well  as  the  liberty  of  producing 
witnesses  on  such  trial,  will  be  taken  away  from  the  party  accused."  Although 
this  decided  protest  was,  as  usually  the  case,  accompanied  by  a  loyal  address 
to  the  king,  on  the  following  day,  Lord  Botetourt,  then  governor  of  Virginia, 
suddenly  appearing  in  the  midst  of  the  assembly,  abruptly  put  an  end  to  its 
session,  in  these  words :  "  Mr.  Speaker,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of 
Burgesses,  I  have  heard  of  your  resolves,  and  augur  ill  of  their  effects.  You 
have  made  it  my  duty  to  dissolve  you,  and  you  are  dissolved  accordingly." 
The  indignant  members  immediately  adjourned  to  a  tavern,  and  choosing 
.Peyton  Randolph,  their  late  speaker,  as  chairman,  adopted  strong  resolutions 

2  B 


A.  D. 1769. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ^i  P-  against  the  importation  of  British  goods ;  an  example  speedily  followed  by  the 
rest  of  the  colonies,  which  were  animated  by  the  same  determined  spirit. 

The  troops  still  continued  to  occupy  Boston,  where  the  popular  exasperation 
was  every  day  increasing.  The  first  thing  done  by  the  general  court,  upon  its 
assembling  in  May,  was  to  address  a  spirited  remonstrance  on  this  subject  to 
the  governor,  declaring  that  an  armament  by  land  and  sea,  and  a  military 
guard  with  cannon  pointed  at  the  very  door  of  the  state-house,  were  incon- 
sistent with  that  dignity  and  freedom  with  which  their  deliberations  could 
alone  be  carried  on,  and  they  consequently  expected  that  his  Excellency  would, 
as  the  king's  representative,  give  orders  for  the  removal  of  the  forces  during 
the  session  of  the  assembly.  The  governor  curtly  declared  in  reply,  that  he 
had  no  authority  whatever  over  the  ships  in  the  harbour,  or  the  troops  within 
the  town.  The  assembly  declared  their  intention  of  suspending  all  business, 
and  of  voting  no  supplies,  until  their  petitions  were  attended  to :  the  governor, 
complaining  of  their  conduct  as  a  waste  of  time  and  money,  adjourned  them  to 
the  neighbouring  village  of  Cambridge.  Thither,  on  the  6th  of  July,  he  for- 
warded to  them  an  account  of  the  expenditure  already  incurred  by  quartering 
the  troops,  requiring  them,  according  to  the  Act  of  Parliament,  not  only  to 
liquidate  the  outstanding  debt,  but  also  to  make  provision  for  the  continued  ac- 
commodation of  the  soldiers.  Exasperated  to  the  highest  pitch,  the  assembly 
passed  a  resolution  that  the  "  general  discontent  on  account  of  the  Revenue 
Acts,  the  expectation  of  a  sudden  arrival  of  a  military  power  to  enforce  them, 
an  apprehension  of  the  troops  being  quartered  upon  the  inhabitants,  and  the 
general  court  dissolved,  the  governor  refusing  to  call  a  new  one,  and  the 
people  reduced  almost  to  a  state  of  despair,  rendered  it  highly  expedient  and 
necessary  for  the  people  to  convene  by  their  committees,  to  associate  and  con- 
sult upon  the  best  means  to  promote  peace  and  good  order,  to  present  their 
united  complaints  to  the  throne,  and  pray  for  the  royal  interposition  in  favour 
of  their  violated  rights  ;  nor  can  this  proceeding  possibly  be  illegal,  as  they 
expressly  disclaim  all  governmental  acts.  That  the  establishment  of  a  standing 
army  in  the  colony  in  time  of  peace  is  an  invasion  of  their  natural  rights  ;  that 
a  standing  army  is  no  part  of  the  British  constitution ;  and  that  to  send  an 
armed  force  among  them  under  pretence  of  assisting  the  civil  authority  is 
highly  dangerous  to  the  people,  and  both  unprecedented  and  unconstitutional. 
The  governor  calling  upon  them  to  declare  decidedly  whether  they  would 
or  not  make  provisioi^for  the  troops,  they  boldly  spoke  out  as  follows :  "  Of 
all  the  new  regulations,  the  Stamp  Act  not  excepted,  this  under  consideration 
is  most  excessively  unreasonable.  Your  Excellency  must  therefore  excuse  us 
in  this  express  declaration,  that  as  we  cannot  consistently  with  our  honour  and 
interest,  much  less  with  the  duty  we  owe  to  our  constituents,  so  we  never  will 
make  provision  for  the  purposes  in  your  several  messages  above  mentioned." 
Bernard,  upon  this,  prorogued  the  assembly  until  the  10th  of  January,  ap- 
pointing them  to  meet  at  Boston. 

While  these  stormy  proceedings  were  going  on,  the  ministry  at  home,  con- 
vinced that  the  maintenance  of  the  obnoxious  duties,  and  also  of  a  standing  army 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  307 

in  America,  was  not  only  an  impolitic  measure,  but  also  a  seriously  losing  c  iu  p. 
concern,  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough  addressed  a  circular  to  the  governors,  the  - 

publication  of  which  was  expected  to  allay  the  general  perturbation.  While 
strenuously  asserting  the  legislative  authority  of  Great  Britain,  he  added  as  a 
salvo,  that  he  "  could  take  upon  himself  to  assure  them  that,  notwithstanding 
insinuations  to  the  contrary  from  men  with  factious  and  seditious  views,  his 
Majesty's  administration  never  entertained  an  idea  of  proposing  further  taxes 
upon  America  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue ;  and  that  it  was  their  in- 
tention, the  next  session  of  parliament,  to  take  off  the  duties  upon  glass,  paper, 
and  colours,  all  of  them  British  goods,  such  duties  having  been  laid  contrary 
to  the  true  principles  of  commerce."  Conway,  the  stanch  friend  of  the  colonists, 
declared  in  the  house,  that  "  if  he  understood  the  language  of  common  sense, 
here  was  the  strongest  renunciation  of  the  right  of  taxation."  Such  was  not, 
however,  the  real  intention  of  the  English  ministry ;  while  desirous  of  concili- 
ation, they  still  maintained  the  tax  on  tea,  thus  reserving  the  question  at  issue, 
and  it  was  in  this  light  that  their  conduct  was  regarded  by  the  Americans. 
Accordingly,  so  far  from  relaxing  their  opposition,  the  latter  continued  the 
business  of  agitation  with  the  greater  spirit,  as  perceiving  clearly  that  it  was  to 
this  alone  they  were  indebted  for  every  concession  extorted  from  the  ministry, 
and  to  this  alone  they  must  look  in  carrying  the  point  they  were  contending 
for.  A  meeting  of  the  trading  classes  took  place  in  Boston,  at  which  it  was 
declared  that  the  repeal  of  only  a  part  of  the  Act  was  an  insidious  measure, 
intended  to  give  relief  to  the  manufacturers  in  Great  Britain,  and  to  prevent 
the  colonists  from  setting  up  manufactories  for  themselves,  and  therefore,  so 
long  as  the  revenue  laws  remained  unrepealed,  no  further  importations,  with 
the  exception  of  certain  articles,  should  be  made  from  England.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  obtain  a  written  pledge  from  the  inhabitants,  not  to  make 
any  purchases  from  such  as  should  infringe  this  rule,  to  inspect  the  cargoes 
of  vessels,  and  to  publish  the  names  of  all  importers  unless  they  immediately 
delivered  their  goods  into  the  hands  appointed  to  receive  them.  These  regu- 
lations, carried  out  in  the  other  colonies,  savour  slightly  of  an  arbitrary  and 
inquisitorial  character,  and  many  were  terrified  into  a  compliance  with  them 
by  the  dread  of  popular  odium.  Party  spirit  rose  every  day  higher  and  bit- 
terer, and  the  same  nicknames  of  Whig  and  Tory,  by  which  the  two  great 
parties  in  England  were  designated,  were  applied  with  equal  acrimony  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  midst  of  this  scene  of  agitation,  Governor  Bernard  proposed  to  leave 
Massachusetts,  having,  as  he  had  some  time  previously  informed  the  house, 
been  summoned  to  England  to  lay  the  condition  of  the  province  before  his 
Majesty.  The  firmness,  not  to  say  severity,  with  which  he  had  maintained  his 
administration,  had  rendered  him  generally  unpopular,  and  this  unpopularity 
had  been  greatly  increased  through  the  feuds  that  had  arisen  between  himself 
and  the  leading  agitators,  whose  factious  encroachments,  as  he  deemed  them, 
he  had  steadily  resisted  in  the  colony,  and  denounced  in  his  private  letters  to 
government,  copies  of  which  had  been  surreptitiously  obtained  and  circulated. 

2  b  2 


308  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  The  assembly  unanimously  voted  a  petition  to  the  king  that  he  might  be  for 
ever  removed  from  the  government  of  the  province.   There  can  be  no  doubt  that 

A.  D. 1769.  .  . 

'  his  administration  precipitated  a  collision  between  England  and  her  colonies, 
but  we  can  hardly  lay  upon  him  as  a  fault,  what  was  in  reality  attributable  to 
the  position  in  which  he  stood.  Believing  as  he  did  that  England  had  a  right 
to  tax  the  colonies,  it  was  his  duty  as  a  royal  governor  to  maintain  that  right  at 
all  events.  Aware  of  the  wide-spread  spirit  of  disaffection  and  of  the  manoeu- 
vres of  the  popular  leaders,  the  ultimate  tendency  of  whose  proceedings  he 
foresaw  better  than  perhaps  they  did  themselves,  he  cannot  be  blamed  for  coun- 
selling the  adoption  of  decided  measures  of  repression.  But  these  very  con- 
siderations, which  must  form  his  excuse  to  posterity,  rendered  him  peculiarly 
odious  to  the  colonists.  Leaving  the  administration  in  the  hands  of  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Hutchinson,  whose  unpopularity  was  hardly  less  than  his 
own,  he  embarked  on  board  a  man  of  war  appointed  to  convey  him  to  Eng- 
land, to  the  infinite  satisfaction  of  the  people.  To  grace  his  departure,  the 
bells  were  rung,  salvos  of  artillery  were  fired  from  Hancock's  wharf,  "  liberty 
tree  "  was  adorned  with  flags,  and  at  night  a  great  bonfire  was  made  upon 
Fort  Hill.  Not  long  after  his  departure  an  indictment  was  proved  against 
him  for  libel,  in  writing  slanderous  letters  to  the  government  concerning  the 
inhabitants  of  the  province.  The  king  however,  appreciating  his  zealous 
services,  indemnified  him  for  these  vexations  by  creating  him  a  baronet. 

The  non-importation  agreements  were  vigorously  resumed  throughout  the 
colonies,  and  in  carrying  them  out  the  women  rendered  themselves  con- 
spicuous for  their  self-denial  and  patriotic  zeal.  At  Newport,  in  Rhode  Island, 
at  an  afternoon  meeting  of  ladies,  it  was  resolved  that  those  who  could  spin 
should  be  employed  in  that  way,  and  that  those  who  could  not  should  sew. 
When  the  tea-time  arrived,  both  tea  and  hyperion,  an  imitation  composed  of 
raspberry  leaves,  were  handed  round,  when  all  the  ladies  displayed  their 
patriotism  by  preferring  the  latter.  At  Boston,  a  party  of  fifty  young  ladies, 
calling  themselves  "  Daughters  of  Liberty,"  met  at  the  house  of  their  pastor, 
and  employed  themselves  in  spinning  yarn  for  the  poor.  Numerous  spec- 
tators came  in,  refreshments  were  provided,  and  tunes,  anthems,  and  liberty 
songs  were  chanted,  the  "  sons  of  liberty  "  joining  in  chorus.  This  was  an 
earnest  of  the  spirit  displayed  by  the  American  women  throughout  the  revo- 
lution, during  which  the  trials  and  privations  they  underwent,  and  the  hero- 
ism with  which  they  endured  them,  have  formed  the  subject  of  many  a  ro- 
mantic narrative. 

A  few  merchants,  disregarding  the  public  feeling,  still  continued  to  vend 
the  obnoxious  article.  A  mob  of  boys,  probably  at  the  instigation  of  their 
elders,  raised  a  rude  wooden  head  with  a  finger  pointed  like  a  sign  post, 
opposite  to  the  establishment  of  an  individual  named  Lillie.  One  of  his 
friends  endeavouring  to  pull  it  down,  the  mob  pelted  him  with  stones  into 
Lillie's  house,  whence,  in  a  state  of  exasperation,  he  fired  a  loaded  musket  into 
the  midst  of  the  crowd,  thus  killing  one  boy  and  wounding  another.  He  was 
instantly  dragged  off  to  prison,  and  afterwards  condemned  for  murder,  but 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  309 

the  sentence  was  never  executed.     The  boy's  corpse  was  enclosed  in  a  coffin,   chap. 
inscribed,  "  Innocence   itself  is   not  safe,"  and    carried  to  "  liberty  tree," " — 

A.  D. 1770. 

whence  several  hundred  school-boys  and  a  host  of  the  inhabitants  conducted 
it  to  its  final  resting-place.  The  newspapers  and  popular  orators  took  up  the 
topic,  and  the  unfortunate  lad  was  regarded  as  the  first  victim  to  the  cause  of 
American  liberty. 

The  presence  of  the  troops  in  the  town  of  Boston,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  the  commandant  to  mitigate  the  show  of  military  occupation,  was  a 
source  of  perpetual  irritation.  The  soldiers  were  detested  by  the  people, 
whom  they  in  their  turn  abhorred  as  rebels  to  the  king.  A  certain  party, 
practising  on  the  public  feeling,  used  every  art  to  provoke  a  collision  with 
the  soldiers  ;  libels  were  published  in  the  newspapers,  and  a  mob  of  men  made 
it  a  constant  practice  to  insult  them.  A  ropemaker  having  maltreated  one  of 
the  soldiers,  the  latter  fetched  a  body  of  his  comrades,  and  a  fight  took  place 
in  which  the  soldiers  came  off"  second  best.  The  soldiers  returning  to  the 
barracks  fetched  a  body  of  their  comrades,  who  in  their  turn  beat  the  rope- 
makers,  which  greatly  irritated  the  populace,  and  determined  them  to  have  their 
revenge.  On  the  evening  of  March  5,  a  mob  of  several  hundred  armed  with 
clubs  assembled,  threatening  destruction  to  the  soldiers,  exclaiming,  "  Let  us 
drive  out  these  rascals,  they  have  no  business  here — drive  them  out."  The 
soldiers,  threatened  and  insulted,  were  with  difficulty  restrained  from  march- 
ing out  and  attacking  the  mob.  The  confusion  became  fearful,  the  mob  con- 
tinuing to  shout,  "  Down  with  the  bloody-backs,"  and  tearing  up  the  market 
stalls — the  alarm  bells  rung — the  cry  of  Fire,  fire,  re-echoed  through  the  streets. 
Some  leading  citizens  were  endeavouring  to  induce  the  mob  to  disperse,  when 
a  tall  man,  in  a  red  cloak  and  white  wig,  commenced  a  violent  harangue,  con- 
cluding with  the  shout  "  To  the  main  guard,  to  the  main  guard," — re-echoed 
with  fearful  energy  by  the  infuriated  mob.  As  they  passed  the  custom-house, 
a  boy  exclaimed,  pointing  to  the  sentinel — "  That's  the  scoundrel  that  knocked 
me  down."  "  Let  us  knock  him  down,  the  bloody-back,"  was  the  reply ;  and  the 
soldier  was  instantly  assailed  with  lumps  of  ice  and  other  missiles.  Alarmed 
for  his  life,  he  cried  to  the  main  guard  for  assistance,  and  a  picket  of  eight 
men  with  unloaded  muskets  was  despatched  by  Captain  Preston  to  his  relief. 
At  this  sight  the  fury  of  the  mob  increased  to  the  highest  pitch,  they  received 
the  soldiers  with  a  torrent  of  abusive  epithets,  and  pelted  them  with  stones 
covered  with  snow,  dared  them  to  fire,  and  completely  surrounding  them, 
pressed  up  to  the  very  point  of  their  bayonets.  The  soldiers  loaded  their 
muskets,  but  one  Attucks,  a  powerful  mulatto,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  sailors, 
urged  on  the  mob  to  exterminate  the  handful  of  military,  and  struck  upon  the 
bayonets  with  their  clubs.  "Come  on,"  he  exclaimed,  "don't  be  afraid  of 
them — they  dare  not  fire — knock  'em  over,  kill  'em."  Captain  Preston  com- 
ing up  at  this  moment  was  received  by  Attucks  with  a  violent  blow.  The 
Captain  parried  it  with  his  arm,  but  it  knocked  the  bayonet  out  of  one  of  the 
soldier's  hands,  which  was  instantly  seized  by  Attucks,  and  a  struggle  took 
place,  in  the  midst  of  which  some  of  those  behind  called  out,  "  Why  don't 


I  A.  D.  1770 

I 

I 


310  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ii  a  p.  yOU  fi^  wnv  don't  you  fire  ?  "  whereupon  the  soldier,  suddenly  springing  to  his 
legs,  shot  Attucks  dead  upon  the  spot.  Five  other  soldiers  immediately  fired, 
when  three  men  were  killed,  five  seriously  wounded,  and  a  few  others 
slightly  hurt.  The  mob  fell  back  awhile,  and  carried  off  the  dead  and 
wounded.  The  tumult  became  fearful,  at  ten  o'clock  the  alarm  bell  began  to 
toll,  and  drums  to  beat ;  the  cry  was,  "  Tlie  soldiers  are  risen"  and  thousands 
of  citizens  flew  to  arms  in  all  directions.  Some  people  ran  hastily  to  summon 
the  lieutenant-governor,  who  hurried  to  the  spot,  and  reproached  Preston  with 
firing  on  the  people  without  an  order  from  the  magistrates.  "  To  the  town- 
house,  the  town-house,"  exclaimed  some,  fearful  for  the  personal  safety  of 
Hutchinson,  who,  such  was  the  pressure  of  the  mob,  was  fairly  driven  before 
it  up  the  stairs  into  the  council-chamber.  Here  a  demand  was  made  of  him 
that  he  would  order  the  troops  to  retire  to  their  barracks,  which  he  refused  to 
do,  but  stepping  forth  to  the  balcony,  assured  the  people  of  his  great  concern 
at  the  unhappy  event,  that  a  rigorous  inquiry  about  it  should  take  place,  and 
entreated  them  to  retire  to  their  homes.  Upon  this  there  was  a  cry  of  "  Home, 
home,"  and  the  greater  part  separated  peaceably.  The  troops  returned  to  the 
barracks.  A  warrant  was  then  issued  against  Preston,  who  surrendering  himself, 
was  committed  to  prison  to  take  his  .trial,  together  with  several  of  the  soldiers. 

On  this  eventful  evening,  John  Adams  had  been  spending  the  evening  at 
Mr.  Henderson  Inches's  house,  at  the  south  end  of  Boston,  in  the  society  of  a 
friendly  club.  "  About  nine  o'clock,"  he  says  in  his  journal,  "  we  were 
alarmed  with  the  ringing  of  bells,  and,  supposing  it  to  be  the  signal  of  fire, 
we  snatched  our  hats  and  cloaks,  broke  up  the  club,  and  went  out  to  assist 
in  quenching  the  fire,  or  aiding  our  friends  who  might  be  in  danger.  In  the 
street  we  were  informed  that  the  British  soldiers  had  fired  on  the  inhabitants, 
killed  some  and  wounded  others,  near  the  town-house.  A  crowd  of  people 
was  flowing  down  the  street  to  the  scene  of  action.  When  we  arrived,  we 
saw  nothing  but  some  field-pieces,  placed  before  the  south  door  of  the  town- 
house,  and  some  engineers  and  grenadiers  drawn  up  to  protect  them.  Having 
surveyed  round  the  town-house,  and  seeing  all  quiet,  I  walked  down  Boylston 
Alley  into  Brattle  Square,  where  a  company  or  two  of  regular  soldiers  were 
drawn  up  in  front  of  Dr.  Cooper's  old  church,  with  their  muskets  all  should- 
ered, and  their  bayonets  all  fixed.  I  had  no  other  way  to  proceed  but  along 
the  whole  front  in  a  very  narrow  space  which  they  had  left  for  foot  passen- 
gers. Pursuing  my  way,  without  taking  the  least  notice  of  them,  or  they  of 
me.  any  more  than  if  they  had  been  marble  statues,  I  went  directly  home 
to  Cole  Lane. 

"  My  wife  having  heard  that  the  town  was  still,  and  likely  to  continue  so, 
had  recovered  from  her  first  apprehensions,  and  we  had  nothing  but  our  re- 
flections to  interrupt  our  repose.  These  reflections  were  to  me  disquieting 
enough.  Endeavours  had  been  systematically  pursued  for  many  months,  by 
certain  busy  characters,  to  excite  quarrels,  rencounters,  and  combats,  single 
or  compound,  in  the  night,  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  lower  class  and 
the  soldiers,  and  at  all  risks  to  enkindle  an  immortal  hatred  between  them. 


a.  d.  irro. 


HISTORY  OF    AMERICA.  311 

I  suspected  that  this  was  the  explosion  which  had  been  intentionally  wrought  chap 
up  by  designing  men,  who  knew  what  they  were  aiming  at  better  than  the 
instruments  employed.  If  these  poor  tools  should  be  prosecuted  for  any  of 
their  illegal  conduct,  they  must  ht  punished.  If  the  soldiers  in  self-defence 
should  kill  any  of  them,  they  must  be  tried,  and,  if  truth  was  respected  and 
the  law  prevailed,  must  be  acquitted.  To  depend  upon  the  perversion  of  law, 
and  the  corruption  or  partiality  of  juries,  would  insensibly  disgrace  the  juris- 
prudence of  the  country,  and  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  people.  It  would  be 
better  for  the  whole  people  to  rise  in  their  majesty  and  insist  on  the  removal 
of  the  army,  and  take  upon  themselves  the  consequences,  than  to  excite  such 
passions  between  the  people  and  the  soldiers  as  would  expose  both  to  con- 
tinual prosecution,  civil  or  criminal,  and  keep  the  town  boiling  in  a  continual 
fermentation.  The  real  and  full  intentions  of  the  British  government  and 
nation  were  not  yet  developed ;  and  we  knew  not  whether  the  town  would 
be  supported  by  the  country  ;  whether  the  province  would  be  supported  by 
even  our  neighbouring  States  of  New  England ;  nor  whether  New  England 
would  be  supported  by  the  continent.  These  were  my  meditations  in  the 
night. 

"  The  next  morning,  I  think  it  was,  sitting  in  my  office,  near  the  steps  of 
the  town-house  stairs,  Mr.  Forrest  came  in,  who  was  then  called  the  Irish 
Infant.  I  had  some  acquaintance  with  him.  With  tears  streaming  from  his 
eyes,  he  said,  '  I  am  come  with  a  very  solemn  message  from  a  very  unfortu- 
nate man,  Captain  Preston,  in  prison.  He  wishes  for  counsel,  and  can  get 
none.  I  have  waited  on  Mr.  Quincy,  who  says  he  will  engage,  if  you  will 
give  him  your  assistance;  without  it,  he  positively  will  not.  Even  Mr. 
Auchmuty  declines,  unless  you  will  engage.'  I  had  no  hesitation  in  answer- 
ing, that  counsel  ought  to  be  the  very  last  thing  that  an  accused  person 
should  want  in  a  free  country ;  that  the  bar  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  in- 
dependent and  impartial,  at  all  times  and  in  every  circumstance,  and  that 
persons  whose  lives  were  at  stake  ought  to  have  the  counsel  they  preferred. 
But  he  must  be  sensible  this  would  be  as  important  a  cause  as  was  ever  tried 
in  any  court  or  country  of  the  world  ;  and  that  every  lawyer  must  hold  him- 
self responsible  not  only  to  his  country,  but  to  the  highest  and  most  infallible 
of  all  tribunals,  for  the  part  he  should  act.  He  must,  therefore,  expect  from 
me  no  art  or  address,  no  sophistry  or  prevarication,  in  such  a  cause,  nor  any 
thing  more  than  fact,  evidence,  and  law  would  justify.  '  Captain  Preston/ 
he  said,  I  requested  and  desired  no  more ;  and  that  he  had  such  an  opinion 
from  all  he  had  heard  from  all  parties  of  me,  that  he  could  cheerfully  trust 
his  life  with  mc  upon  those  principles.'  '  And,'  said  Forrest,  '  as  God  Al- 
mighty is  my  judge,  I  believe  him  an  innocent  man.'  I  replied,  f  that  must 
be  ascertained  by  his  trial,  and  if  he  thinks  he  cannot  have  a  fair  trial  of  that 
issue  without  my  assistance,  without  hesitation,  he  shall  have  it.'  " 

Before  this,  almost  with  the  dawn  of  day,  the  people  began  to  reassemble, 
and  Fanueil  Hall  was  soon  filled  with  the  excited  citizens.  A  town  meeting 
was  convened,  at  which  it  was  voted  that  nothing  "  could  prevent  blood  and 


312 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1770. 


CHYfPi  carnage  but  the  immediate  removal  of  the  troops."  The  justices  also  had 
assembled,  and  had  come  to  the  same  conclusion.  Samuel  Adams  was  there- 
fore deputed  to  wait  on  Hutchinson  at  the  council-chamber,  where  Colonel 
Dalrymple,  the  commandant  of  the  troops,  and  the  commander  of  the  ships  in 
the  harbour,  were  awaiting  him.  The  vice-governor  refused  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  ordering  away  the  troops,  but  Colonel  Dalrymple  consented 
that  the  29th  regiment,  which  was  particularly  obnoxious  to  the  people,  should 
be  removed  to  the  castle  for  the  present.  "  Sir,"  said  Adams,  "  if  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor, or  Colonel  Dalrymple,  or  both  together,  have  authority  to 
remove  one  regiment,  they  have  authority  to  remove  two,  and  nothing  short  of 
the  departure  of  both  regiments  will  satisfy  the  public  mind  or  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  province."  Another  pressing  message  coming  in  from  the  town 
meeting,  Hutchinson  was  at  length  persuaded  to  give  orders,  with  much 
reluctance,  that  the  troops  should  be  wholly  withdrawn  from  the  town. 

The  news  of  the  "  Boston  Massacre,"  as  it  was  called,  spread  like  wildfire, 
and  added  greatly  to  the  popular  resentment.  As  a  matter  of  policy,  care  was 
taken  that  the  obsequies  of  the  deceased  should  be  performed  with  the  utmost 
solemnity.  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  March,  the  shops  were  all  shut,  and 
the  bells  of  Boston  and  the  neighbourhood  were  tolled.  The  mourners  ac- 
companying the  different  coffins  assembled  on  the  spot  where  three  days  be- 
fore these  "  martyrs  of  liberty,"  as  they  were  proclaimed,  had  been  shot  by  a 
barbarous  soldiery,  and  thence,  followed  by  an  immense  number  of  people 
walking  six  abreast,  and  a  file  of  carriages  belonging  to  the  principal  people 
of  the  town,  the  procession  slowly  moved  to  the  place  of  the  sepulture,  where 
the  bodies  were  deposited  in  a  single  tomb.  This  incident,  the  memory  of 
which  was  carefully  kept  up,  made  a  profound  sensation  on  the  public  mind. 
No  one  could  forget  that,  to  quote  from  a  diary  of  the  period,  "  blood  lay  in 
puddles  yesterday  in  King  Street " — the  first  blood  hitherto  drawn  in  these 
unhappy  disputes. 

The  trial  of  Captain  Preston  soon  afterwards  came  on,  and  had  been  con- 
tinued through  a  single  term,  when  an  election  was  held  for  the  representation 
of  Boston,  and  it  is  highly  creditable  to  the  electors  that,  unpopular  as  John 
Adams  had  rendered  himself  with  certain  classes  by  undertaking  the  defence 
of  Preston,  he  was  nevertheless  elected  by  a  very  large  majority.  Nor  is  the 
issue  of  this  trial  less  honourable  to  the  independence  of  the  colonial  judiciary. 
An  immense  and  highly  excited  auditory  had  assembled,  when  Adams  opened 
the  case  as  follows :  "  May  it  please  your  honours,  and  you  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  I  am  for  the  prisoners  at  the  bar,  and  shall  apologize  for  it  only  in  the 
words  of  the  Marquis  Beccaria — '  If  I  can  be  but  the  instrument  of  pre- 
serving one  life,  his  blessing  and  tears  of  transport  shall  be  a  sufficient  conso- 
lation to  me  for  the  contempt  of  all  mankind.' "  The  effect  upon  the  jury  and 
court  was  perfectly  electrical.  The  facts  of  the  case  were  impartially  investi- 
gated, and  Preston  was  declared  innocent — the  judge  declaring,  "  I  feel 
myself  deeply  affected  that  this  affair  turns  out  so  much  to  the  shame  of  the 
town  in  general."     "  Calumnies  and  insinuations,"  says  Adams  in  his  diary, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  313 

"  were  propagated  against  me,  that  I  was  tempted  to  undertake  this  case  by  cha p. 

great  fees  and  enormous  sums  of  money.      Twenty  guineas,"  he  then  tells ■ — 

us,  "  was  all  I  ever  received  for  fourteen  or  fifteen  days'  labour  in  .the  most 
exhausting  and  fatiguing  cause  I  ever  tried,  for  hazarding  a  popularity  very 
general  and  very  hardly  earned,  and  for  incurring  a  clamour,  popular  suspi- 
cions, and  prejudices,  which  are  not  yet  worn  out,  and  never  will  be  forgotten 
as  long  as  the  history  of  this  period  is  read.  Although  the  clamour  has  been 
long  and  loud  among  some  sorts  of  people,  it  has  been  a  great  consolation  to 
me,  through  life,  that  I  acted  in  this  business  with  steady  impartiality,  and 
conducted  it  to  so  happy  an  issue." 

Shortly  after  the  massacre,  the  lieutenant-governor  postponed  the  meeting 
of  assembly  from  January  to  March,  and  ordered  it  to  be  convened  at  Boston, 
in  consequence  of  instructions  to  that  effect  from  the  British  ministry.  When 
the  assembly  met,  he  declared  his  intention  faithfully  to  discharge  his  duty 
to  the  king,  his  royal  master,  and  his  readiness  to  unite  with  the  members  in 
any  measures  for  the  welfare  of  the  province.  He  took  no  notice  of  the  mas- 
sacre, it  not  yet  having  been  legally  investigated,  but  shortly  afterwards  sent 
down  to  the  house  requesting  redress  for  some  injury  received  by  one  of  the 
custom-house  officers.  The  reply  of  the  assembly  fully  shows  the  excited 
state  of  the  public  mind.  "  When  complaints,"  they  say,  "  are  made  of  riots 
and  tumults,  it  is  the  wisdom  of  government,  and  it  becomes  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  especially,  to  inquire  into  the  real  causes  of  them.  If  they 
arise  from  oppression,  as  is  often  the  case,  a  thorough  redress  of  grievances 
will  remove  the  cause,  and  probably  put  an  end  to  the  complaint.  It  may 
be  justly  said  of  the  people  of  this  province,  that  they  seldom,  if  ever,  have 
assembled  in  a  tumultuous  manner,  unless  they  were  oppressed."  Appealing 
then  to  the  Bill  of  Rights  passed  after  the  Revolution  of  1689,  they  declare 
that  the  maintenance  of  a  standing  army  in  their  midst  "  is  a  most  violent  in- 
fraction of  their  natural  and  constitutional  rights — an  unlawful  assembly, 
of  all  others  most  dangerous  and  alarming."  They  next  enlarge  upon  the 
delinquencies  of  the  soldiers,  especially  "in  perpetrating  the  most  horrid 
slaughter  of  a  number  of  the  inhabitants,  but  a  few  days  before  the  sitting  of 
this  assembly."  They  express  their  surprise  that  there  should  be  no  allusion 
either  in  the  governor's  speech  or  message  to  both  houses  of  this  inhuman  and 
barbarous  action.  To  these  violences,  and  the  rigorous  prosecutions,  grounded 
on  unconstitutional  Acts,  carried  on  by  the  court  of  Admiralty,  they  attribute 
the  general  excitement,  and  the  particular  injury  complained  of  by  the  go- 
vernor. "  The  use  therefore,"  they  conclude,  "  which  we  shall  make  of  the  in- 
formation in  your  message,  shall  be  to  inquire  into  the  grounds  of  the  people's 
uneasiness,  and  to  seek  a  radical  redress  of  their  grievances.  Indeed  it  is 
natural  to  expect,  that  while  the  terror  of  arms  continues  in  the  province,  the 
laws  will  be,  in  some  degree,  silent.  But  when  the  channels  of  justice  shall  be 
again  opened,  and  the  law  can  be  heard,  the  person  who  has  complained  to  your 
honour  will  have  a  remedy.  Yet  we  entertain  hope,  that  the  military  power, 
so  grievous  to  the  people,  will  soon  be  removed  from  the  province  t  till  then, 

2  8 


314  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  we  have  nothing  to  expect,  bnt  that  tyranny  and  confusion  will  prevail,  in 
defiance  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  the  just  and  constitutional  authority  of 


AD.  1770. 

government." 

Meanwhile  a  change  in  the  English  ministry,  momentous  in  its  results  for 
America,  had  taken  place,  and  Lord  North,  head  of  the  Tory  party  in  the 
last  ministry,  had  been  appointed  the  head  of  a  new  cabinet  composed  of  men 
of  his  own  political  views.  On  the  very  night  of  the  Boston  massacre  a  bill 
was  brought  into  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  repeal  of  all  the  recently 
imposed  taxes,  that  on  tea  alone  excepted.  The  impolicy  of  maintaining  this 
exception  was  strenuously  urged  by  the  opposition,  especially  by  Pownall,  who, 
from  his  experience  as  governor  in  the  colony,  was  fully  qualified  to  ap- 
preciate both  the  jealous  watchfulness  of  the  Americans  over  their  liberties, 
and,  what  the  ministry  never  understood  till  too  late,  their  firm  determination 
to  maintain  them  at  all  events.  Even  the  entire  repeal  of  the  obnoxious  Acts 
would  not  of  itself,  he  believed,  entirely  tranquillize  the  colonists.  "  The  Ame- 
ricans," he  observed,  "think  that  they  have,  in  return  to  all  their  applications, 
experienced  a  temper  and  disposition  that  is  unfriendly,  and  that  the  en- 
joyment and  exercise  of  the  common  rights  of  freemen  have  been  refused  to 
them.  Never  with  these  views  will  they  solicit  the  favour  of  this  House,  never 
more  will  they  wish  to  bring  before  parliament  the  grievances  under  which 
they  conceive  themselves  to  labour." 

The  spirit  of  opposition  shown  by  the  Americans  had  however  given  such 
deep  offence  to  the  king  and  ministry,  that  they  resolved  never  to  yield  up  the 
disputed  right  of  taxation.  In  this  spirit  Lord  North  declared  that  the  tax  on  tea, 
in  itself  too  trifling  in  amount  to  become  a  matter  of  grievance,  was  expressly 
maintained  to  assert  the  power  of  parliament  over  the  refractory  colonies. 
"  Has  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,"  he  asked,  "  taught  the  Americans  obedi- 
ence ?  Has  our  lenity  inspired  them  with  moderation  ?  Can  it  be  proper, 
while  they  deny  our  legal  power  to  tax  them,  to  acquiesce  in  the  argument  of 
illegality,  and  by  the  repeal  of  the  whole  law,  to  give  up  that  power  ?  No ;  the 
most  proper  time  to  exert  our  right  of  taxation  is  when  the  right  is  denied. 
To  temporize  is  to  yield,  and  the  authority  of  the  mother  country,  if  it  is  now 
unsupported,  will  in  reality  be  relinquished  for  ever.  A  total  repeal  cannot 
be  thought  of,  till  America  is  prostrate  at  our  feet."  Although  it  maybe 
doubtful  whether,  after  what  had  passed,  any  amount  of  concession  short  of 
at  least  virtual  independence,  would  finally  have  satisfied  the  colonists,  we  must 
yet  consider  this  particular  measure,  to  carry  out  which  the  pride  of  the  king 
and  ministers  was  pledged,  as  the  immediate  cause  of  the  disruption  of  Ame- 
rica from  England.  Yet  it  was  at  the  time  regarded  by  the  minister  rather 
as  having  a  tendency  to  conciliation ;  even  the  opposition  to  the  tea  tax  he 
thought  would  be  disarmed,  as  by  offering  a  drawback  of  a  shilling  duty  upon 
its  export  from  England,  it  virtually  became  nine-pence  a  pound  cheaper  to  the 
Americans.  The  repeal  of  the  other  duties  did  in  fact  lead  to  a  giving  up  of  the 
non-importation  resolutions,  which  imposed  a  severe,  and  often  unwelcome, 
self-denial  upon  the  colonists ;  but  their  opposition  in  all  other  respects  con- 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  315 

tinued  unabated.     Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  termination  of  the  year   chap. 
1770.  J1, 

In  the  ensuing  spring,  Hutchinson  received  the  appointment  of  governor,  '  1772. 
which,  it  was  said,  had  always  been  the  object  of  his  ambition,  but  which  in 
these  stormy  times  he  was,  if  we  may  believe  his  own  assurances,  so  far  from 
desiring,  that  he  had  written  to  the  secretary  of  state  desiring  to  be  super- 
seded in  his  office  of  lieutenant-governor.  During  the  year  1771  there 
was  a  temporary  lull  in  agitation,  which  was  awakened  next  year  by  Hut- 
chinson's informing  the  house  of  representatives  that  thenceforth  his  salary 
would  be  paid  by  the  crown,  and  that  no  allowance  would  therefore  be  re- 
quired of  them  for  that  purpose.  Far  from  regarding  this  as  a  measure  of 
relief,  the  people  looked  upon  it,  and  justly,  as  intended  to  withdraw  the 
governor  from  dependence  on  themselves,  and  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  the 
designs  of  the  ministers  without  control.  The  matter  was  immediately  taken 
up.  The  representatives  of  Massachusetts,  at  their  session  in  July,  declared  the 
measure  to  be  "  an  infraction  of  their  charter,"  which  they  regarded  as  "  a 
solemn  contract  between  the  crown  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  province." 
In  reply,  the  governor,  repudiating  this  doctrine,  declared  the  charter  to  be 
not  "  a  contract  between  two  independent  parties,  but  a  mere  grant  of  powers 
and  privileges  from  the  king,  which  the  people  of  the  province  could  claim 
only  so  long  as  the  sovereign  chose  to  ratify  it,  and  what  he  always  had  the 
power  to  annul."  De  jure  perhaps  the  colonists  were  right ;  de  facto  the 
governor  had  certainly  precedent  to  plead.  It  may  be  questioned  indeed 
whether,  in  the  grant  of  the  original  charter  of  Massachusetts,  the  supreme 
power  of  the  king  was  not  tacitly  involved ;  but  that  charter  had  in  fact  been 
abrogated  by  Charles  II.,  and  many  alterations,  and  some  of  them  salutary,  had 
been  effected  in  it.  The  most  ardent  advocate  of  American  claims  may  then 
admit,  with  Guizot,  that  "  the  aggression  of  England,"  viz.  in  the  matter  of 
taxation,  "  was  not  new,  nor  altogether  arbitrary ;  it  had  its  historical  founda- 
tions, and  might  pretend  to  some  right."  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  the 
claims  of  the  conflicting  parties  were  in  their  very  nature  irreconcilable,  and 
could  not  be  solved  by  a  mere  appeal  to  charters  and  to  precedents.  How- 
ever just  it  might  be  in  the  abstract,  the  doctrine  of  the  Americans  which 
denied  the  controlling  power  of  parliament,  (a  right  hitherto  admitted,  at 
least,  in  the  external  regulation  of  commerce,)  proved  in  fact  too  much,  for, 
fairly  carried  out,  it  involved  no  less  then  independence.  If  parliament,  as  the 
royalists  argued,  might  lay  no  duties  on  the  colonists,  if  the  latter  might  law- 
fully resist  their  imposition,  if  the  king  might  not  legally  quell  that  resistance 
by  force,  if  the  royal  governor,  in  the  exercise  of  his  executive  functions,  was 
to  be  dependent  on  the  legislative  assembly,  until  he  had  ratified  their  mea- 
sures, or  until  he  had  given  up  the  maintenance  of  the  royal  prerogative,  the 
dependence  of  America  on  the  mother  country  was  merely  nominal.  To 
have  granted  her  independence  at  once,  would  have  been  the  only  consistent 
course  of  policy ;  but  this  was  a  policy  not  to  be  expected  at  that  day  of  an 
English  ministry,  and  not  even  looked  for  by  the  Americans  themselves.     On 

2  s  2 


316 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1773. 


c  ^  A  p-  the  other  hand,  to  submit  any  longer  to  foreign  restrictions  upon  their  com- 
merce, or  to  a  perpetual  check  upon  their  legislative  freedom  of  action,  enforced 
upon  them  by  the  strong  arm  of  a.  distant  power,  was  grown  to  be  utterly  in- 
supportable. Unprepared  however  boldly  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  mother 
country,  and  yet  determined  no  longer  to  submit  to  it,  the  Americans,  at  this 
crisis  of  the  dispute,  determined  on  drawing  up  a  more  careful  and  compre- 
hensive statement  of  their  rights  and  grievances  than  they  had  ever  hitherto  put 
forth.  This  reply  to  Hutchinson,  at  first  drafted  by  Samuel  Adams,  embodied 
the  usual  popular  arguments,  and  it  is  supposed  was  afterwards  revised  in 
committee  by  John  Adams  himself,  and  placed,  by  his  skill  as  a  jurist,  upon 
legal  and  constitutional  grounds,  forming  as  it  stands  the  most  celebrated  state 
paper  of  the  revolutionary  controversy  in  Massachusetts. 

The  bitter  feeling  against  Hutchinson  was  shortly  afterwards  increased  to 
the  highest  pitch  by  the  following  remarkable  incident.  Several  of  his  private 
letters  to  persons  connected  with  government  had  been  artfully  abstracted  from 
the  office  by  Dr.  Williamson,  who  having  learned  that  they  were  deposited  in 
a  drawer  different  from  that  in  which  they  ought  to  have  been  placed,  boldly 
repaired  to  the  chief  clerk  and  demanded  the  letters,  naming  the  office  in 
which  they  ought  to  have  been  deposited,  and  having  thus  obtained  and  placed 
them  in  the  hands  of  Franklin,  the  very  next  day  set  sail  for  Holland. 
Franklin  appears  at  first  to  have  thought  that  the  recent  acts  were  rather 
forced  upon  the  king  by  his  ministers,  but  in  a  letter  written  shortly  afterwards 
to  his  son,  he  seems  to  have  got  a  new  light,  for  he  observes,  "  Between  you 
and  me,  the  late  measures  have  been,  I  suspect,  very  much  the  king's  own, 
and  he  has,  in  some  cases,  a  great  share  of  what  his  friends  call  firmness."  Yet 
he  had  hitherto  used  his  utmost  endeavours  to  promote  a  conciliation.  These 
letters  of  Hutchinson  thus  put  into  his  hand,  and  obtained  without  any  con- 
nivance on  his  part,  although  many  of  them  were  strictly  private,  yet  as  their 
tenor  was  to  influence  the  ministry  to  still  severer  measures  of  repression,  he 
thought  himself  justified,  having  been  lately  appointed  agent  for  Massachusetts, 
in  sending  to  Boston,  to  be  communicated  only  to  a  few  confidential  persons, 
and  neither  to  be  copied  nor  printed.  There,  however,  upon  the  motion  of 
Samuel  Adams,  they  were  read  under  certain  restrictions  in  the  house  of  assem- 
bly, and  were  at  length  made  known  to  the  public.  They  gave,  as  might  be 
expected,  a  most  unfavourable  picture  of  the  state  of  affairs,  the  temper  of  the 
people,  and  especially  of  the  popular  leaders,  who  were  accused  of  making  up 
by  their  audacity  and  turbulence  for  their  want  of  respectability  and  influence, 
suggested  the  necessity  of  the  most  coercive  measures,  and  a  considerable  change 
in  the  constitution  and  system  of  government,  and  even  the  "taking  off"  the 
principal  opponents  to  the  British  domination.  The  effect  they  produced  was 
convulsive.  They  were  regarded,  to  use  the  words  of  John  Adams,  as  part  of 
a  "  mystery  of  iniquity,"  concocted  between  the  governor  and  the  parliament. 
The  assembly  unanimously  resolved,  "  that  the  tendency  and  design  of  the 
said  letters  was  to  overthrow  the  constitution  of  this  government,  and  to  in- 
troduce arbitrary  power  into  the  province."     They  moreover  passed  a  vote, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  317 

u  that  a  petition  should  be  immediately  sent  to  the  king,  to  remove  the  governor,   c  ha  p. 
Hutchinson,  and  the  vice-governor,  Oliver,  for  ever  from  the  government  of 

AD. 1774 

the  province."  This  petition,  sent  over  to  Franklin,  was  transmitted  by  him  to 
Lord  Dartmouth,  the  then  colonial  secretary ;  and  he  appeared  to  support  it 
at  council-chamber  on  the  11th  of  July,  1774,  but  finding  that  the  governor 
intended  to  employ  counsel, he  prayed  and  obtained  a  three  weeks'  adjournment 
of  the  inquiry. 

Meanwhile  two  gentlemen  of  the  colonial  office  having  suspected  each 
other  of  the  abstraction  of  the  letters,  a  duel  took  place  between  them,  when 
one  of  them  was  dangerously  wounded.  Franklin  hereupon  inserted  a  letter 
in  the  "  Public  Advertiser,"  exonerating  both  parties,  and  taking  upon  him- 
self the  entire  responsibility  of  having  obtained  the  documents. 

When  the  day  came  on  for  the  hearing  of  the  cause,  Franklin,  accompanied 
by  his  friend  Dr.  Priestley,  repaired  to  the  council  to  support  the  Massachusetts 
petition,  when,  to  the  evident  satisfaction  of  the  members,  he  was  assailed  by 
Wedderburne,  the  advocate  for  Hutchinson,  in  terms  which,  to  one  who  justly 
stood  so  high  in  the  estimation  of  his  countrymen  and  mankind,  and  conscious 
as  he  was  of  his  innocence  of  the  principal  charge  in  general,  must  have 
required  his  utmost  philosophy  to  endure. 

"  The  letters,"  said  the  caustic  advocate,  "  could  not  have  come  to  Dr. 
Franklin  by  fair  means.  The  writers  did  not  give  them  to  him,  nor  yet  did 
the  deceased  correspondent.  Nothing,  then,  will  acquit  Dr.  Franklin  of  the 
charge  of  obtaining  them  by  fraudulent  or  corrupt  means,  for  the  most  ma- 
lignant of  purposes,  unless  he  stole  them  from  the  person  that  stole  them. 
This  argument  is  irrefragable."  Here,  however,  the  advocate  certainly 
went  a  little  too  far;  since  Franklin  had  only  received  the  letters  from  the 
person  who  stole  them. 

"  I  hope,  my  Lords,"  continued  Wedderburne,  "  you  will  mark  and 
brand  the  man,  for  the  honour  of  this  country,  of  Europe,  and  of  mankind. 
Private  correspondence  has  hitherto  been  held  sacred  in  times  of  the  greatest 
party  rage,  not  only  in  politics  but  in  religion.  He  has  forfeited  all  the 
respect  of  societies  and  of  men.  Into  what  companies  will  he  hereafter  go 
with  an  unembarrassed  face,  or  the  honest  intrepidity  of  virtue  ?  Men  will 
watch  him  with  a  jealous  eye — they  will  hide  their  papers  from  him,  and  lock 
up  their  cscritoirs.  He  will  henceforth  esteem  it  a  libel  to  be  called  a  man 
of  letters,  homo  irium  literarum.  But  he  not  only  took  away  the  letters 
from  one  brother,  but  kept  himself  concealed  till  he  nearly  occasioned  the 
murder  of  the  other. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  read  his  account,  expressive  of  the  coolest  and  most 
deliberate  malice,  without  horror.  Amidst  these  tragical  events,  of  one  person 
nearly  murdered,  of  another  answerable  for  the  issue,  of  a  worthy  governor 
hurt  in  his  dearest  interests,  the  fate  of  America  in  suspense,  here  is  a  man, 
who,  with  the  utmost  insensibility  of  remorse,  stands  up  and  avows  him- 
self the  author  of  all.  I  can  compare  it  only  to  Zanga  in  Dr.  Young's 
Revenge — 


318 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


C  %ft  P'  '  Know,  then,  'twas  I ; 

I  forged  the  letter ;  I  disposed  the  picture* 


A,D#  1773>  I  hated,  I  despised,  and  I  destroy.' 

I  ask,  my  Lords,  whether  the  revengeful  temper  attributed,  by  poetic  fiction 
only,  to  the  bloody  African,  is  not  surpassed  by  the  coolness  and  apathy  of 
the  wily  American  ?  " 

During  this  trying  scene,  the  temper  of  Franklin  appeared  impassible,  and 
he  preserved  his  countenance  unmoved.  Unable  to  explain  the  way  in  which 
the  letters  fell  into  his  hands,  he  was  compelled  to  submit  in  silence  to  the 
charges  made  against  his  honour.  But  the  sarcasms  and  insults  of  Wedder- 
burne  wounded  him  so  profoundly,  that  he  declared  to  Priestley  after  he  had 
left  the  council-room  that  he  would  never  again  put  on  the  suit  he  then  wore 
until  he  had  received  satisfaction.  And  it  is  said  that  he  never  dressed  himself 
in  it  again  until  the  memorable  day,  when  he  signed  at  Paris  the  treaty  which 
deprived  Great  Britain  for  ever  of  her  dominions  in  North  America. 

The  petition  was  voted  scandalous  and  vexatious,  and  Franklin  dismissed 
from  his  office  of  postmaster-general.  The  altered  state  of  his  feelings,  pro- 
duced by  the  treatment  of  the  petition  and  the  opprobium  heaped  upon  himself, 
appears  in  these  words :  "  When  I  see  that  all  petitions  and  complaints  of 
grievances  are  so  odious  to  government,  that  even  the  mere  pipe  which  con- 
veys them  becomes  obnoxious,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  how  peace  and  union 
is  to  be  maintained  or  restored  between  the  different  parts  of  the  empire. 
Grievances  cannot  be  redressed  unless  they  are  known,  and  they  cannot  be 
known  but  through  complaints  and  petitions.  If  these  are  deemed  affronts,  and 
the  messengers  punished  as  offenders,  who  will  henceforth  send  petitions  ?  and 
who  will  deliver  them  ?  It  has  been  thought  a  dangerous  thing  in  any  state  to 
stop  up  the  vent  of  grief.  Wise  governments  have  therefore  generally  re- 
ceived petitions  with  some  indulgence,  even  when  but  slightly  founded. 
Those  who  think  themselves  injured  by  their  rulers,  are  sometimes,  by  a 
mild  and  prudent  answer,  convinced  of  their  error.  But  where  complaining 
is  a  crime,  hope  becomes  despair." 

It  was  before  this  period  of  excitement,  in  1770,  that  Otis,  who  had  so  greatly 
tended  to  bring  it  about,  became  involved  in  a  quarrel  which  led  to  his  sudden 
retirement  from  the  revolutionary  stage.  One  of  the  commissioners  of  customs, 
named  Robinson,  had  given  such  unfavourable  accounts  of  Otis  as  provoked 
the  latter  to  retaliate  in  the  Boston  Gazette.  Some  expression  he  made  use  of 
induced  Robinson  publicly  to  insult  Otis  in  a  coffee-house,  and  an  affray  en- 
sued in  which  the  latter  was  so  severely  handled  by  his  opponent,  that  he  never 
entirely  recovered  from  the  effects  of  it.  Heavy  damages  were  awarded  against 
the  aggressor,  but  Otis  generously  forgave  him,  and  refused  to  receive  the 
money.  But  his  health  and  spirits  were  irrecoverably  broken  by  this  untoward 
and  degrading  accident,  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  into  the  country.  His 
proud  and  susceptible  nature  was  undermined,  his  reason  became  impaired, 
and  the  fiery  orator  upon  whose  accents  listening  senates  had  so  lately  hung 
enraptured,  became  an  object  of  merriment  to  thoughtless  boys  as  he  stag- 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  319 

gered  through  the  streets  a  driveller  and  a  show.    An  anecdote  is  told  of  c ha  p. 
him,  which  shows  how  vivid  were  the  flashes  of  mental  light,  bursting  at  in-  — 

tervals  through  the  melancholy  gloom  that  overclouded  his  shattered  powers. 
On  one  occasion  a  youth  who  had  a  knowledge  of  Latin,  cruelly  sprinkled 
some  water  over  him  from  the  upper  story  of  a  crockery  warehouse,  ex- 
claiming, '*  Pluit  tantum,  nescio  quantum.  Scis  ne  tu  ?  It  rains  so  much,  I 
know  not  how  much.  Do  you  know  ?  "  Otis,  infuriated,  instantly  seized  a  mis- 
sile, and  hurling  it  through  the  window  to  the  destruction  of  every  thing  that 
came  in  its  Way,  retorted  the  words,  "  Fregi  tot,  nescio  quot.  Scis  ne  tu  ?  I 
have  broken  so  many,  I  know  not  how  many.  Do  you  know  ? "  A  burden  to 
himself  and  others,  he  had  often  desired  to  be  suddenly  cut  off,  and  this  desire 
was  singularly  fulfilled,  as  he  was  blasted  by  lightning,  while  standing  in  an 
open  doorway  during  a  storm.  Thus  perished  James  Otis,  the  most  fervid, 
impetuous,  brilliant,  and — nwist  we  add — unhappy,  of  all  the  popular  leaders. 
Of  them  all  he  had  given  perhaps  the  greatest  impulse  to  the  revolutionary 
feeling,  and  though  a  wreck  in  body  and  mind,  he  still  survived  long  enough 
to  witness  its  triumphant  establishment  upon  his  native  soil. 

An  incident  now  occurred  which  added  to  the  growing  exasperation  of  the 
ministerial  feelings.  The  vigorous  enforcement  of  the  revenue  laws  had  been 
particularly  required  of  the  servants  of  the  crown,  and  no  one  had  rendered 
himself  more  obnoxious  by  his  zeal  in  this  respect  than  Lieutenant  Doddington 
of  the  Gaspe"  schooner,  then  stationed  at  Providence.  Having  in  vain  re- 
quired the  master  of  one  of  the  packets  to  lower  his  colours,  the  commander 
of  the  Gaspe"  fired  at  her  to  bring  her  to,  but  the  vessel  held  on  her  course, 
and  artfully  stood  in  close  with  the  land,  so  that  the  schooner  in  following 
her  shortly  afterwards  stuck  fast  upon  a  shoal,  and  the  packet  proceeded  tri- 
umphantly to  Providence.  Here  a  daring  plan  was  concerted  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  obnoxious  revenue  schooner.  About  two  in  the  morning,  as 
the  Gasp£  lay  aground,  she  was  boarded  by  several  boats  full  of  volunteers. 
The  lieutenant,  after  being  wounded  in  defending  his  vessel,  was  put  on 
shore  with  his  crew  and  their  personal  effects,  and  the  vessel  with  all  her 
stores  was  set  on  fire  and  destroyed.  When  the  governor  heard  of  the  out- 
rage, he  offered  a  reward  of  five  hundred  pounds  and  a  free  pardon  to  any 
who  would  confess  and  give  information;  but  so  universal  was  the  conspiracy, 
that  no  evidence  whatever  could  be  procured  against  the  incendiaries. 

While  the  English  ministry  were  getting  more  irritated  with  the  colonists, 
the  popular  agitation  went  on  increasing,  and  a  crisis  was  evidently  near  at 
hand.  The  nature  of  the  political  institutions  of  Massachusetts  favoured  the 
organization  of  a  general  resistance.  The  people,  accustomed  to  discuss  their 
affairs  in  town  meetings,  warmly  took  up  any  subject  that  affected  their 
interests.  Boston  was,  so  to  speak,  the  core  of  the  confederation.  In  this 
city,  certain  of  the  leading  patriots  formed  a  central  committee,  called  by  an 
English  writer,  "the  source  of  the  rebellion,  the  foulest,  most  venomous 
serpent  that  ever  issued  from  the  egg  of  sedition."  This  committee  decided 
upon  the  measures  to  be  pursued,  and  took  means,  openly  or  secretly,  to  carry 


A.D.I  773 


320  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  them  into  execution.  By  degrees  similar  committees,  mainly  established  by 
Samuel  Adams,  Dr.  James  Warren,  and  John  Hancock,  extended  themselves 
all  over  the  province,  until  political  agitation  became  universal,  and  the  im- 
pulse given  at  head  quarters  was  communicated  with  electric  rapidity  to  every 
town  and  village.  The  movement  comprehended  men  of  all  parties,  and  of 
every  shade  of  patriotism,  from  some  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential 
citizens,  down  to  the  intriguing  demagogue,  who,  having  nothing  to  lose, 
seeks  to  advance  his  interest  amidst  the  public  troubles.  Some  of  the  more 
ardent  and  daring,  who  might  even  then  have  aspired  to  independence,  were 
perhaps  desirous  of  precipitating  an  open  struggle,  but  this  was,  as  yet,  far 
from  being  the  feeling  of  the  majority.  The  best  and  purest  minds  were  per- 
plexed as  to  the  part  they  should  act  in  the  uncertain  and  alarming  drama 
which  opened  before  them.  Their  feelings  may  be  well  judged  of  by  referring 
to  the  journal  of  John  Adams,  who,  as  before  said,  notwithstanding  the  odium 
incurred  in  the  matter  of  Preston's  trial,  had  been  chosen  one  of  the  Boston 
representatives,  and  negatived  by  Governor  Hutchinson  for  the  active  part  he 
had  taken  in  the  opposition.  "  To-morrow,"  he  says,  "  is  our  general  elec- 
tion. The  plots,  plans,  schemes,  and  machinations  of  this  evening  and  night, 
will  be  very  numerous.  By  the  number  of  ministerial,  governmental  peo- 
ple returned,  and  by  the  secrecy  of  the  friends  of  liberty,  relating  to  the 
grand  discovery  of  the  complete  evidence  of  the  whole  mystery  of  iniquity, 
(alluding  to  Hutchinson's  letters,)  I  much  fear  the  elections  will  go  wrong. 
For  myself,  I  own  I  tremble  at  the  thought  of  an  election.  What  will  be 
expected  of  me  ?  What  will  be  required  of  me?  What  duties  and  obligations 
will  result  to  me  from  an  election  ?  What  duties  to  my  God,  my  king,  my 
country,  my  family,  my  friends,  myself  ?  What  perplexities,  and  intricacies, 
and  difficulties  shall  I  be  exposed  to  ?  What  snares  and  temptations  will  be 
thrown  in  my  way  ?  What  self-denials  and  mortifications  shall  I  be  obliged 
to  bear  ?  If  I  should  be  called  in  the  course  of  providence  to  take  a  part  in 
public  life,  I  shall  act  a  fearless,  intrepid,  undaunted  part  at  all  hazards,  though 
it  shall  be  my  endeavour  likewise  to  act  a  prudent,  cautious,  and  considerate 
part.  But  if  I  should  be  excused  by  a  non-election,  or  by  the  exertion  of  pre- 
rogative, from  engaging  in  public  business,  I  shall  enjoy  a  sweet  tranquillity 
in  the  pursuit  of  my  private  business,  in  the  education  of  my  children,  and  in 
a  constant  attention  to  the  preservation  of  my  health.  The  last  is  the  most 
selfish  and  pleasant  system ;  the  first  the  more  generous,  although  arduous  and 
disagreeable."  Such  is  the  language  of  pure,  disinterested  patriotism,  and  we 
cannot  doubt  that  it  would  have  been  echoed  by  many  eminent  men  at  this 
anxious  and  perplexing  period. 

But  the  march  of  events  often  outruns  the  hesitation  of  individuals,  and  hur- 
ries them  along  towards  results  from  which  they  might  originally  have  shrunk. 
What  between  smuggling  and  the  non-importation  agreements,  the  market 
of  the  East  India  Company  in  America  had  so  dwindled  down  that  a  stock  of 
seventeen  millions  of  pounds  of  tea  was  accumulated  in  their  cellars.  In 
consequence  of  their  urgent  petitions  to  the  government,  the  export  duty  was 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


withdrawn,  so  that,  notwithstanding  the  obnoxious  duty  of  three-pence  a  chap. 
pound  on  its  importation  into  America,  which  the  ministers  determined  to     VT- 


maintain  upon  the  ground  of  principle,  the  article  itself  would  of  course  come  A<Di  1773. 
much  cheaper  to  the  consumers.  This  positive  advantage  to  the  colonists,  it 
was  hoped,  would  tempt  them  to  withdraw  their  opposition,  but  in  this  expect- 
ation the  ministry  were  grossly  mistaken,  for  no  sooner  was  the  intelligence 
of  this  measure  received  by  the  colonists,  than  they  perceived  at  once  its 
insidious  tendency,  and  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  counteract  its 
effects.  Their  activity  was  increased  by  private  advices  from  their  friends  in 
England,  who  urged  upon  them  that  now  or  never  was  the  moment  to  make 
a  stand,  and  by  prompt  and  decisive  action  to  convince  the  ministry  that 
America  would  not  submit.  The  leaders  of  the  people  were  on  the  alert, 
the  committees  of  correspondence  incessantly  active,  and  the  public  mind  was 
soon  inflamed  to  the  highest  pitch  of  determination.  The  tea,  it  was  resolved, 
should  never  be  landed. 

The  first  step  taken  was  to  compel  the  consignees  to  give  up  their  com- 
mission, under  pain  of  being  declared  the  enemies  of  their  country.  At  Phila- 
delphia, a  committee  was  appointed  to  wait  on  them  for  this  purpose ;  one  firm 
complied  at  once,  and  were  greeted  with  shouts  of  applause,  but  another 
refused  to  give  any  pledge  until  the  tea  had  arrived. 

At  Boston,  so  soon  as  the  names  of  the  consignees  were  ascertained,  they 
were  anonymously  invited  to  repair,  at  an  appointed  hour,  to  the  well-known 
"  Liberty  Tree,"  in  order  to  surrender  their  commissions.  As  they  took  no 
notice  of  this  summons,  a  committee  was  sent  to  wait  on  them,  but  with  no 
effect.  A  town  meeting  was  now  held,  at  which  Hancock  presided,  who 
sent  a  second  committee  to  summon  the  consignees,  among  whom  were  two 
of  the  governor's  sons,  to  resign  their  posts.  This  however,  to  the  great  in- 
dignation of  the  meeting,  they  declined  to  do,  at  least  until  they  had  received 
advices  from  England.  As  the  ships  were  shortly  to  be  expected,  another 
town  meeting  was  held,  when  a  final  summons  was  sent  to  the  consignees, 
to  know  definitely  whether  they  would  or  would  not  resign.  Upon  their 
positive  refusal  to  do  so,  the  meeting  retired  without  a  word.  The  evening 
before,  the  house  of  their  members  having  been  mobbed,  the  consignees  placed 
themselves  and  the  tea  under  the  protection  of  the  governor  and  council. 
The  council,  after  temporizing  for  some  time,  when  the  first  tea  ship  at  length 
came  in,  flatly  refused  to  render  themselves  in  any  way  responsible  for 
its  safety.     The  governor  stood  entirely  alone. 

The  first  tea  ship  having  arrived,  a  crowded  public  meeting  of  the  citizens 
of  Boston  and  the  neighbourhood  was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  at  which  it  was 
resolved  that  a  message  should  be  sent  to  the  captain,  ordering  him,  on  his 
peril,  not  to  unload  his  ship  without  their  orders,  while  a  guard  was  placed 
over  her  to  insure  compliance.  A  similar  assemblage  taking  place  on  the 
morrow,  the  governor  declared  it  illegal,  and  required  it  to  disperse,  but  to  no 
purpose,  and  the  militia  were  not  to  be  depended  upon.  The  consignees 
promised,  if  it  were  allowed  to  be  landed,  that  they  would  keep  it  in  their 

2  T 


A.  D. 1773. 


322  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  cellars  until  they  could  receive  fresh  orders  from  England,  but  the  people 
demanded  the  immediate  return  of  the  ships  without  unlading.  The  custom 
officers  refused  to  grant  the  necessary  clearance  without  the  cargo  was  landed, 
and  thus  the  time  passed  away  until  the  arrival  of  two  other  tea  ships. 
The  people  now  determined  to  act. 

On  the  16th  of  December,  a  town  meeting  took  place  in  the  old  South 
Church.     The  owner  was  sent  for,  and  requested  to  obtain  from  the  customs 
the  necessary  clearance  for  the  departure  of  the  ships,  but  the  officials  refused 
to  comply.     He  was  next  sent  to  the  governor,  then  at  his  country  house,  a 
few  miles  from  the  city,  for  the  same  purpose.     It  was  generally  believed 
that  on  the  next  day,  the  17th,  the  commanders  of  the  ships  of  war  in  the 
harbour  had  determined  that,  unless  the  inhabitants  withdrew  their  oppo- 
sition, they  would  force  the  tea  ashore,  under  cover  of  their  artillery.     It 
was  known  too  that  the  governor  had  given  orders  to  prevent  the  vessels 
sailing,  and  that  the  admiral  had  stationed  two  armed  vessels  at  the  entrance 
of  the   harbour.      The  three  tea   ships   were   moored   near  each   other   at 
Griffin's  wharf.     An  instant  decision   became  imperative.      Josiah  Quincy 
harangued  the  crowded  and  excited  assembly  with  much  solemnity  of  man- 
ner, and  in  the  fervid  style  of  eloquence  universally  adopted  by  the  popular 
leaders.     "  It  is  not,"  he  said,  "  the  spirit  that  vapours  within  these  walls 
that  must   stand  us  in    stead.      The   exertions   of  this    day  will    call  forth 
events  which  will  make  a  very  different  spirit  necessary  for  our  salvation. 
Whoever   supposes  that  shouts    and  hosannas  will   terminate   the  trials  of 
this  day,  entertains  a  childish  fancy.     He  must  be  grossly  ignorant  of  the 
importance  and  value  of  the  prize  for  which  we  contend ;  we  must  be  equally 
ignorant  of  the  power' of  those  who  have  combined  against  us,  we  must  be 
blind  to  that  malice,  inveteracy,  and  insatiable  revenge  which  actuates  our 
enemies  public  and  private,  abroad  and  in  our  bosoms,  to  hope  that  we  shall 
end  this  controversy  without  the  sharpest — the  sharpest  conflict — to  flatter 
ourselves  that  popular  resolves,  popular  harangues,  popular  acclamations,  and 
popular  vapour  will  vanquish  our  foes.     Let  us  consider  the  issue.     Let  us 
look  to  the  end.     Let  us  weigh  and  consider  before  we  advance  to  those  mea- 
sures which  must  bring  on  the  most  trying  and  terrible  struggle  this  country 
ever  saw."     Excited  as  they  were  to  the  utmost  by  this  appeal,  the  question 
was  put  to  the  assembled  multitude — "  Will  you  abide  by  your  former  reso- 
lutions with  respect  to  not  suffering  the  tea  to  be  landed  ?  "     A  unanimous 
shout  was  the  reply,  and  as  Rotch,  who  had  been  to  the  governor  to  request  a 
permit,  now  returned  with  an  answer  in  the  negative,  the  excitement  attained 
its  utmost  pitch.  It  was  growing  dark,  and  there  was  a  cry  for  candles,  when  a 
man  disguised  as  a  Mohawk  Indian  raised  the  war-whoop  in  the  gallery, 
which  was  responded  to  in  the  street  without.     Another  voice   suddenly 
shouted,  "  Boston  harbour  a  tea-pot  to-night !    Hurra  for  Griffin's  wharf ! " 
The  meeting  instantly  adjourned,  and  the  populace,  pouring  into  the  street, 
hurried  rapidly  down  towards  the  port. 

Every  thing  had  been  previously  arranged.     It  was  now  a  fine  moonlight 


A.  D.  i.'Ii 


HISTORY  OF   AMERICA.  323 

evening,  and  armed  with  hatchets  and  clubs,  some  five  and  twenty  men,  dis-  c  h^a  p. 
guised  as  Indians,  made  their  appearance  in  the  streets,  and  hurried  down  to 
Griffin's  wharf.  "  When  I  first  appeared  in  the  street,"  says  one  of  the  actors 
in  this  momentous  scene,  "  after  being  thus  disguised,  I  fell  in  with  many 
who  were  dressed,  equipped,  and  painted  as  I  was,  and  who  fell  in  with  me, 
and  marched  in  order  to  the  place  of  our  destination.  When  we  arrived  at 
the  wharf,  there  were  three  of  our  number  who  assumed  an  authority  to  direct 
our  operations,  to  which  we  readily  submitted.  They  divided  us  into  three 
parties  for  the  purpose  of  boarding  the  three  ships  which  contained  the  tea, 
at  the  same  time.  The  name  of  him  who  commanded  the  division  to  which 
I  was  assigned,  was  Leonard  Pitt.  The  names  of  the  other  commanders  I 
never  knew."  The  parties  then  repaired  on  board  the  ships,  demanded  the 
keys  and  some  candles  of  the  captain,  and  in  about  three  hours  had  broken  and 
thrown  overboard  every  tea-chest  to  be  found.  They  were  surrounded  by 
armed  ships,  but  either  their  operations  were  unnoticed,  or  for  some  other 
reason,  no  opposition  was  offered  to  their  proceedings.  A  dense  mob  quietly 
stood  on  the  shore  while  the  devastation  was  going  on.  "  When  the  tea  was 
emptied,  we  quietly,"  continues  the  actor,  "  returned  to  our  several  places  of 
residence,  without  having  any  conversation  with  each  other,  or  taking  any 
measures  to  discover  who  were  our  associates.  There  appeared  to  be  an  under- 
standing that  each  individual  should  volunteer  his  services,  keep  his  own 
secret,  and  risk  the  consequences  for  himself."  No  disorder  took  place,  and  it 
was  observed  at  the  time,  that  the  stillest  night  ensued  that  Boston  had  en- 
joyed for  many  months. 

The  apathy  of  the  naval  and  military  force  is  almost  inexplicable,  except 
on  the  supposition  put  forth  by  the  papers  at  the  time,  that  the  officials  were 
glad  of  the  riot,  inasmuch  as  it  extricated  them  from  the  unpleasant  necessity 
of  forcing  the  tea  ashore,  when  a  serious  collision  must  inevitably  have  ensued. 
Admiral  Montague  was  on  shore  at  the  house  of  a  friend,  and  as  the  party 
marched  from  the  wharf,  raised  the  window  and  said,  "  Well,  boys,  you've  had 
a  fine  night  for  your  Indian  caper,  hav'n't  you  ?  But  mind,  you've  got  to  pay 
the  fiddler  yet."  "  Oh  never  mind,"  shouted  Pitt,  the  leader,  "never  mind, 
squire !  just  come  out  here  if  you  please,  and  we  '11  settle  the  bill  in  two 
minutes  ! "  The  admiral  wisely  shut  down  the  window,  while  the  mob  went 
on  their  way  with  music  and  shouting. 

The  die  was  now  cast,  and  the  colonists  might  speedily  look  for  the  utmost 
vengeance  of  an  irritated  ministry.  "  Last  night,"  says  John  Adams  in  his 
journal,  "  three  cargoes  of  Bohea  tea  were  emptied  into  the  sea.  This  morn- 
ing, a  man  of  war  sails.  This  is  the  most  magnificent  movement  of  all.  There 
is  a  dignity,  a  majesty,  a  sublimity,  in  this  last  effort  of  the  patriots,  that  I 
greatly  admire.  The  people  should  never  ris«  without  doing  something  to  be 
remembered,  something  notable  and  striking.  This  destruction  of  the  tea  is 
so  bold,  so  daring,  so  firm,  intrepid,  and  inflexible,  and  it  must  have  so  im- 
portant consequences,  and  so  lasting,  that  I  cannot  but  consider  it  as  an  epocha 
in  history."     The  excited  state  of  the  public  mind,  and  the  fury  to  which 


A.  D.  1773, 


324  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CI^AP-  party  animosity  had  arisen,  is  strikingly  displayed  in  what  follows:  "This, 
however,  is  but  an  attack  upon  property.  Another  similar  exertion  of  po- 
pular power  may  produce  the  destruction  of  lives.  Many  persons  wish  that 
as  many  dead  carcasses  were  floating  in  the  harbour,  as  there  are  chests  of  tea. 
A  much  less  number  of  lives,  however,  would  remove  the  causes  of  all  our 
calamities.  The  malicious  pleasure  with  which  Hutchinson  the  governor, 
the  consignees  of  the  tea,  and  the  officers  of  the  customs,  have  stood  and  looked 
upon  the  distresses  of  the  people,  and  their  struggles  to  get  the  tea  back  to 
London,  and  at  last  the  destruction  of  it,  is  amazing.  'Tis  hard  to  believe 
persons  so  hardened  and  abandoned." 

The  example  of  Massachusetts  was  followed  in  the  other  colonies.  At 
Charleston  alone  was  the  tea  landed,  and  being  stored  in  damp  cellars  was 
soon  spoiled.  At  Philadelphia,  the  captain  of  the  tea  ship,  on  learning  the 
proceedings  at  Boston,  put  about  and  returned.  At  New  York,  as  soon  as 
the  tea  ship  appeared  off  the  Hook,  she  was  boarded  by  a  self-constituted 
committee,  and  the  captain  compelled  to  retire  without  unloading  her  cargo. 

We  must  here  turn  aside  awhile  from  the  course  of  the  revolutionary  quar- 
rels to  glance  at  the  progress  of  emigration  at  this  period.  As  soon  as  peace 
had  been  established  with  the  North-western  Indians,  a  great  impulse  was 
given  to  emigration  from  the  Atlantic  sea-board  into  the  Far  West.  Settle- 
ments began  to  spring  up  around  the  few  military  posts  scattered  at  wide 
intervals  through  the  wilderness ;  and  routes  were  opened,  along  which  fresh 
stations  were  gradually  established.  A  town  had  been  already  laid  out  at  Fort 
Pitt,  or  Duquesne,  and  a  road  made  from  thence  to  the  Monongahela.  Settle- 
ments had  been  formed  on  that  river,  and  every  where  indeed  to  the  eastward 
of  Pennyslvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  After  the  French 
war,  a  vast  number  of  military  grants  had  been  issued  by  the  government  of 
Virginia,  and  an  army  of  land  surveyors  and  greedy  speculators  were  busy  in 
parcelling  out  the  virgin  wilderness,  hitherto  exclusively  occupied  by  the 
hunting-grounds  of  the  Indians. 

The  inevitable  result  was  a  collision  between  the  latter  and  the  whites. 
As  the  Indian  title  to  vast  tracts  of  the  land  now  seized  upon  had  never  been 
extinguished,  every  artifice  was  used  to  beguile  their  consent.  In  1744,  cer- 
tain commissioners  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  convened  a  portion  of  the 
Six  Nations  to  treat  with  them  for  the  relinquishment  of  a  large  portion  of  their 
territory,  when  by  the  aid  of  a  liberal  supply  of  whiskey  punch,  these  Indians 
were  inveigled  into  signing  a  treaty,  the  drift  of  which  they  probably  never 
understood,  and  which  they  afterwards  indignantly  repudiated.  The  more 
daring  and  lawless  portion  of  the  white  settlers  however  continued  to  advance, 
and  settle  down  upon  Indian  lands,  without  even  the  shadow  of  a  right. 
Against  these  continual  encroachments,  sustained  as  they  were  by  force  and 
outrage,  the  Indians  had  repeatedly  remonstrated  to  the  local  governments, 
but  to  little  or  no  purpose.  At  length,  on  the  6th  of  May,  1768,  a  deputation 
from  the  Six  Nations  repaired  to  Fort  Pitt,  to  present  a  remonstrance,  which 


A.D.  1773. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  325 

was  forwarded  to  the  assembly  of  Virginia.  The  president  of  the  council  in  chap 
his  message  declared,  "  that  a  set  of  men  regardless  of  the  laws  of  natural  jus- 
tice, unmindful  of  the  duties  they  owe  to  society,  and  in  contempt  of  the 
royal  proclamations,  have  dared  to  settle  themselves  upon  the  lands  near 
Redstone  Creek  and  Cheat  river,  which  are  the  property  of  the  Indians,  and 
notwithstanding  the  repeated  warnings  of  the  danger  of  such  lawless  proceed- 
ings, they  still  remain  unmoved,  and  seem  to  defy  the  orders  and  even  the 
powers  of  the  government."  The  royal  government  was  at  length  compelled 
to  interfere,  by  ordering  Sir  William  Johnson  to  purchase  from  the  Six  Nations 
the  lands  already  thus  occupied,  as  well  as  to  obtain  a  further  grant ;  and 
accordingly,  by  a  treaty  at  Fort  Stanwix,  large  bodies  of  land  extending  to 
the  Ohio  were,  as  it  was  said,  ceded  by  the  Indians,  but,  as  they  firmly  de- 
clared, by  an  unfair  construction  of  their  engagements. 

Thus,  by  force  and  fraud  combined,  or  rather  by  an  invincible  and  fatal 
necessity,  the  unhappy  Indians  were  by  degrees  forced  into  a  combination  for 
their  own  defence,  determined  to  resent  the  further  advance  of  the  white 
men  upon  their  forests,  and  to  cut  off  as  spies  such  as  dared  to  penetrate  into 
as  yet  undiscovered  regions. 

Nevertheless  there  were  a  few  daring  backwoodsmen,  who,  animated  by  a 
restless  love  of  adventure,  continued  to  defy  every  peril  in  order  to  make  fresh 
explorations.  Such  a  man  was  Daniel  Boone,  born  and  bred  upon  the  fron- 
tiers of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  west  of  the  Alleghany,  a  woodsman  and 
a  hunter  by  nature,  and  half  an  Indian  himself  in  that  tenacity  and  endurance 
that  no  peril  or  hardship  can  quail.  Buried  in  the  woods,  his  countenance 
had  acquired  that  grave,  sombre  cast,  that  distinguishes  the  red  man  himself; 
and  he  shunned  the  haunts  of  society,  devoured  by  one  single  passion,  that  of 
contending  with  the  wild  denizens  of  the  forest,  whether  man  or  beast,  and  of 
becoming  a  pioneer  for  the  further  advance  of  his  white  brethren. 

Allured  by  the  descriptions  of  one  Finley,  a  trader,  who  had  already  caught 
a  glimpse  of  the  land  of  promise,  Boone  eagerly  joined  in  an  exploring  expe- 
dition in  company  with  Finley,  John  Stuart,  and  three  other  companions. 
When  they  had  advanced  two  hundred  miles  to  the  west,  the  party  divided,  and 
Boone  and  Stuart  proceeded  in  company,  until  from  a  lofty  eminence  they 
saw  the  beautiful  plain  of  Kentucky,  and  its  river  rolling  at  their  feet.  Hardly 
had  this  splendid  prospect  opened  before  them,  when  they  were  surprised  by  a 
party  of  Indians,  from  whom  they  eventually  succeeded  in  making  their 
escape,  and  forming  a  hunting  camp,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  sent  to 
an  eastern  mart.  During  the  year,  Boone  and  Stuart  remained  the  sole  oc- 
cupants of  the  "forbidden  ground"  of  Kentucky,  eluding  the  constant  pursuit 
of  the  Indians,  until  the  former  returned  to  conduct  a  colony  thither,  but  was 
attacked  and  driven  back  by  the  Indians.  A  treaty  for  the  cession  of  the  lands 
south  of  Kentucky  now  being  at  length  accomplished,  Boone  set  off  with  a 
party,  and  opened  the  first  "  blazed  trace  "  or  outline  of  a  road  to  the  banks  of 
the  Kentucky  river,  where  he  laid  the  foundation  of  Boonesborough.  Such 
was  the  father  of  the  state  of  Kentucky,  to  whom  in  all  his  attributes  his 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

clJyf p'  children  have  ever  borne  a  marvellous  family  resemblance.  We  can  but 
— - — —  briefly  trace  the  further  career  of  this  extraordinary  man.  During  the  revo- 
lutionary war,  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians,  and  became  such  a 
favourite  that  he  was  adopted  into  their  tribe  as  a  brave;  but  on  learning  that 
a  body  of  British  and  Indians  had  assembled  for  the  invasion  of  Kentucky 
and  the  destruction  of  his  darling  Boonesborough,  he  suddenly  decamped, 
and  with  a  single  meal  in  his  pocket,  across  the  wilderness,  accomplishing  a 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  six  days,  and  gave  such  timely  notice  to  his  fellow 
citizens  as  set  aside  the  threatened  attack.  At  the  end  of  the  war  he  settled 
down  as  a  farmer,  but  found  that  the  lands  which  he  had  himself  first  dis- 
covered had  been  granted  away  to  some  land-speculator  in  an  eastern  city. 
Thus  driven  away,  he  retired  in  disgust  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  sought  a 
last  resting-place  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  beyond  the  extreme  verge  of 
civilization,  and  here  the  old  hunter  was  quietly  gathered  to  his  fathers. 
His  grateful  fellow  citizens  have  since  removed  his  bones  into  Kentucky,  and 
buried  them  with  those  of  his  wife  in  a  common  sepulchre. 

Meanwhile  the  stream  of  emigration  continued  to  pour  incessantly  west- 
ward. Since  the  treaty  concluded  by  Sir  William  Johnson,  the  Indians 
gradually  retired  toward  the  west  side  of  the  Ohio,  and  though  jealous  at  the 
rapid  encroachments  of  the  whites,  carefully  abstained  from  any  acts  of  hosti- 
lity towards  them.  By  the  atrocious  outrages  of  a  handful  of  sanguinary 
monsters,  the  offscouring  of  civilized  society,  they  were  at  length  goaded  into 
a  war  of  revengeful  extermination. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1774,  that  a  considerable  body  of  land-jobbers 
assembled  at  Wheeling,  where  a  fort  had  been  recently  erected,  anxious  to 
precipitate  a  collision  with  the  peaceful  Indians.  It  was  reported  that  the 
latter  had  stolen  some  of  their  horses,  and  the  rumour  was  eagerly  propa- 
gated that  they  were  meditating  an  immediate  rising,  which,  conscious,  as  too 
many  of  the  settlers  were,  of  outrages  and  injuries  committed  by  themselves, 
might  in  itself  have  appeared  probable.  A  few  days  afterwards,  it  was  known 
that  two  Indians  were  descending  the  river  in  a  canoe,  when  Captain  Cresap, 
the  commander  of  Fort  Fincastle,  proposed  to  put  them  to  death  at  once. 
Colonel  Zane,  proprietor  of  Wheeling,  remonstrated  upon  the  folly  and  wick- 
edness of  such  conduct,  but  in  vain.  Cresap  and  his  party  waylaid  the 
unsuspecting  Indians,  shot  them  down,  threw  them  overboard,  and  return- 
ed to  Wheeling  in  their  bloodstained  canoes.  A  still  more  base  and  bloody 
outrage  was  committed  by  one  Daniel  Greathouse,  who  contrived  to  decoy  a 
body  of  Indians  across  the  river,  and  after  making  them  drunk,  murdered 
them  in  cold  blood.  Atrocities  of  this  description  grew  common.  An  old 
and  distinguished  chief,  named  "  Bald  Eagle,"  who  had  been  friendly  to 
the  whites,  was  treacherously  killed  by  three  white  men,  who  afterwards 
placed  the  lifeless  body  of  their  victim  in  a  sitting  position  in  his  canoe,  and 
sent  it  floating  down  the  stream.  Every  outrage,  in  short,  was  perpetrated  by 
this  scum  of  the  wilderness  upon  the  unoffending  Indians ;  and  as  the  general 
feeling  was  so  strong  against  them,  and  the  members  of  the  executive  them- 


A.  D.  1T74. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  327       , 

selves   involved   in   the   charge,  no   redress  of  any  sort  was  likely  to  he   chap. 
afforded. 

The  passions  of  the  Indians  were  now  inflamed  to  the  utmost  pitch,  and 
the  long-smothered  feeling  of  revenge  broke  out  with  a  fearful  energy.  The 
Shawanese  were  the  principals  in  the  war,  but  the  other  northern  and  western 
tribes  soon  entered  into  alliance  with  them.  They  put  to  death  all  the  white 
men  they  could  lay  their  hands  on,  and  cutting  their  bodies  in  fragments, 
scattered  them  to  the  four  winds.  Among  the  victims  of  the  white  murder- 
ers was  the  whole  family  of  John  Logan,  an  Indian  chief,  who  had  ever  been 
the  fast  friend  of  the  whites,  and  the  strenuous  advocate  of  peaceful  counsels. 
Tortured  beyond  endurance,  he  was  among  the  first  to  declare  hostilities,  and 
left  "  the  war  club "  at  the  house  of  a  settler,  with  the  following  note  at- 
tached to  it. 

"  Captain  Cresap — 

Why  did  you  kill  my  people  on  Yellow  Creek  ?  The  white  people 
killed  my  kin  at  Conestago  a  great  while  ago,  and  I  thought  nothing  of  that. 
But  you  have  killed  my  kin  again  on  Yellow  Creek,  and  took  my  cousin 
prisoner.  Then  I  thought  I  must  kill  too,  and  I  have  been  three  times  to 
war  since :  but  the  Indians  are  not  angry,  it  is  only  myself. 

July  21,  1774.  Captain  John  Logan." 

The  whole  frontier  was  now  exposed  to  a  war  of  extermination,  many  set- 
tlements were  deserted,  and  the  inhabitants  fled  to  the  different  forts  for 
refuge  against  the  infuriated  savages. 

A  message  being  immediately  sent  to  Lord  Dunmore,  the  governor  of 
Virginia,  a  body  of  troops  was  speedily  organized,  commanded  by  General 
Lewis,  who  marched  through  a  trackless  wilderness  as  far  as  the  valley  of  the 
Kenhawa,  while  Lord  Dunmore  himself  hastened  to  join  him.  While  en- 
camped with  a  force  of  about  twelve  hundred  men  on  the  peninsula,  above  the 
mouth  of  the  great  Kenhawa,  Lewis  was  suddenly  attacked  by  an  immensely 
superior  body  of  Indians,  who  advanced  to  the  assault  with  the  most  darinar 
courage.  Intrenching  themselves  behind  a  breastwork  of  logs,  they  kept  ' 
up  a  deadly  fire  upon  the  Virginians ;  for  ten  hours  the  conflict  was  main- 
tained with  equal  courage  and  success.  The  Indian  force  comprised  the 
flower  of  the  tribes,  and  was  commanded  by  their  most  distinguished  chief- 
tains. Among  them  was  the  famous  Shawanese  chief,  Cornstalk,  with  his  son, 
Red  Hawk,  a  Delaware,  and  Logan  himself.  Cornstalk  had  previously  ad- 
vised a  truce,  but  being  overruled  by  the  eager  passions  of  his  brethren, 
sternly  declared,  "  Since  you  will  fight,  you  shall  fight."  His  voice  was  heard 
in  the  din  of  battle,  exclaiming  to  his  men,  "  Be  strong,  be  strong ! "  and  he 
cut  down  with  his  own  hand  any  one  who  offered  to  flinch.  At  length, 
General  Lewis,  unable  to  force  the  Indians  in  front,  detached  three  com- 
panies, who  stealthily  advancing  under  cover  of  the  underwood  till  they  had 
gained  the  rear  of  the  savages,  opened  upon  them  a  terrible  fire,  which 
creating  a  panic,  they  suddenly  fled  and  retreated  to  their  towns. 


A.  D.  1774. 


.        328  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  Lord  Dunmore  having  now  arrived,  the  Indians  were  vigorously  pressed 
on  all  sides,  and  compelled  to  make  overtures  to  the  commander-in-chief,  who 
consented  to  an  armistice,  and  ordered  Lewis  to  suspend  the  march  of  his 
army,  who  were  burning  with  desire  to  avenge  their  loss  on  the  bloody  day 
at  the  Kenhawa.  Lewis,  however,  twice  refused  to  obey,  and  continued  his 
march,  until  he  was  encountered  by  Lord  Dunmore,  who,  at  the  head  of  his 
staff,  peremptorily  ordered  him  to  halt  and  encamp,  and  a  conference  with  the 
Indians  was  immediately  opened. 

Cornstalk  then  arose,  and  with  a  voice  so  loud  as  to  be  heard  over  the 
whole  camp,  and  with  great  energy  and  dignity  of  manner,  exposed  the  wrongs 
of  his  brethren.  "  He  recited  the  former  power  of  the  Indians,  the  number 
of  their  tribes  compared  with  their  present  wretched  condition,  and  their 
diminished  numbers;  he  referred  to  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  and  the 
cessions  of  territory '  then  made  by  them  to  the  whites ;  to  the  lawless  en- 
croachments of  the  whites  upon  their  lands,  contrary  to  all  treaty  stipulations ; 
to  the  patient  forbearance  of  the  Indians  for  years  under  wrongs  exercised 
toward  them  by  the  frontier  people.  He  said  the  Indians  knew  their  weak- 
ness in  a  contest  with  the  whites,  and  they  desired  only  justice;  that  the  war 
was  not  sou g lit  by  the  Indians,  but  was  forced  upon  them  ;  for  it  was  com- 
menced by  the  whites  without  previous  notice  ;  that,  under  the  circumstances, 
they  would  have  merited  the  contempt  of  the  whites  for  cowardice  if  they  had 
failed  to  retaliate  the  unprovoked  and  treacherous  murders  at  Captina  and 
Yellow  Creeks  ;  that  the  war  was  the  work  of  the  whites,  for  the  Indians  de- 
sired peace." 

Terms  of  pacification  were  soon  arranged.  The  Indians  agreed  to  surrender 
their  prisoners  and  abstain  from  further  hostilities  against  settlements  east  and 
south-east  of  the  Ohio,  and  to  recognise  that  river  as  the  proper  boundary 
between  themselves  and  the  whites.  Presents  were  then  distributed,  and  the 
army  disbanded ;  upon  which  the  governor  shortly  afterwards  returned  home, 
where  he  issued  a  proclamation  warning  all  persons  from  trespassing  on  the 
Indian  lands  on  the  west  side  of  the  river. 

The  unhappy  Logan,  indignant  at  the  murder  of  his  family,  had  refused  to 
assist  at  the  treaty.  But  some  time  afterwards,  when  General  Gibson  was  sent 
into  the  west,  he  saw  Cornstalk  and  Logan  together  in  conference,  when  the 
latter,  taking  him  aside  into  a  covert,  seated  himself  on  a  log,  and  after  shed- 
ding abundance  of  tears,  delivered  to  him  the  following  speech,  to  be  trans- 
mitted by  the  general  to  the  royal  governor.  "  I  appeal  to  any  white  man  to 
say  if  ever  he  entered  Logan's  cabin  hungry,  and  he  gave  him  nothing  to  eat ; 
if  ever  he  came  cold  and  naked,  and  he  clothed  him  not.  During  the  course 
of  the  last  long  and  bloody  war,  Logan  remained  idle  in  his  cabin,  an  advo- 
cate for  peace.  Such  was  my  love  for  the  whites,  that  my  countrymen 
pointed  at  me  as  they  passed  and  said,  (  Logan  is  the  friend  oj  white 
men.'  I  had  even  thought  to  have  lived  with  you,  but  for  the  injuries  of  one 
man.  Captain  Cresap,  the  last  spring,  in  cold  blood,  and  unprovoked,  mur- 
dered all  the  relations  of  Logan,  sparing  not  even  my  women  and  children. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

There  runs  not  a  drop  of  my  blood  in  any  living  creature.  This  called  on  c  ha  p. 
me  for  revenge :  I  have  sought  it ;  I  have  killed  many  ;  I  have  fully  glutted 
my  vengeance.  For  my  country,  I  rejoice  at  the  beams  of  peace  :  but  do  not 
harbour  a  thought  that  mine  is  the  joy  of  fear.  Logan  never  felt  fear.  He 
will  not  turn  on  his  heel  to  save  his  life.  Who  is  there  to  mourn  for  Logan  ? 
Not  one ! " 


A.  D. 1774. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


PROM   THE   PASSING   OP  THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL,   TO   THE   DECLARATION   OP    INDEPENDENCE. 


The  news  of  the  destruction  of  the  tea  raised  the  feelings  of  the  king  and  c  vnP' 
ministry  to  the  highest  pitch  of  exasperation.  Hitherto,  while  determined  to  A  17?4 
maintain  the  right  of  taxation,  they  had  displayed  in  enforcing  it  the  utmost 
moderation  and  lenity.  The  governor  had  not  called  in  the  assistance  of  the 
military,  and  repeated  infraction  of  the  laws  had  been  allowed  to  pass  un- 
punished. But  the  daring  spirit  shown  in  the  recent  outrage,  determined 
them  to  trifle  no  longer  with  a  growing  evil,  but  to  adopt  the  most  vigorous 
measures  of  coercion.  Accordingly,  on  the  7th  of  March,  Lord  North  pre- 
sented a  message  from  his  Majesty  to  both  Houses,  pointedly  calling  their 
attention  to  the  "  violent  and  outrageous  proceedings  of  the  town  and  port  of 
Boston."  "  The  utmost  lenity  on  the  part  of  the  governor — perhaps  too 
much,"  observed  the  minister,  "  had  been  already  shown,  and  this  town,  by 
its  late  proceedings,  had  left  government  perfectly  at  liberty  to  adopt  any 
measures  they  should  think  convenient,  not  only  for  redressing  the  wrong 
sustained  by  the  East  India  Company,  but  for  inflicting  such  punishment  as 
their  factious  and  criminal  conduct  merited."  The  House  having  voted  a 
loyal  reply,  a  bill  was  brought  in  on  the  14th,  by  Lord  North,  "  for  the  im- 
mediate removal  of  the  officers  concerned  in  the  management  and  collection 
of  his  Majesty's  customs  from  the  town  of  Boston,  and  to  discontinue  the 
landing  or  shipping  of  goods  at  the  said  town,  or  within  the  harbour  thereof." 
As  the  capital  of  Massachusetts  was  in  fact,  as  Lord  North  observed,  "  the 
ringleader  in  every  riot,"  the  focus  Of  resistance  to  the  royal  authority, 
whence  the  spirit  of  insubordination  was  communicated  to  the  whole  conti- 
nent, the  ministers  not  only  felt  justified  in  inflicting  upon  her  this  ex- 
emplary punishment,  but  hoped  that  this  timely  severity  would  crush  the 
spirit  of  sedition  in  the  bud. 

The  motion  was  received  in  deep  silence.     Every  one  felt  what  momentous 
consequences  might  ensue,  but  even  the  advocates  of  colonial  liberties  shrunk 

2  u 


330  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  from  defending  this  last  instance  of  the  violent  and  lawless  conduct  of  the 

' —  Bostonians.     On  the  subsequent  reading  of  the  bill,  Mr.  Fuller  proposed  that 

'  a  fine  should  be  substituted  for  the  closing  of  the  port.  Lord  North,  how- 
ever, was  inflexible :  "  I  hope,"  he  said,  "  that  our  unanimity  will  go  half  way 
to  insure  the  obedience  of  the  people  of  Boston  to  this  bill.  The  honourable 
gentleman  tells  us  that  the  Act  will  be  a  piece  of  waste  paper,  and  that  an 
army  will  be  required  to  put  it  into  execution.  The  good  of  this  Act  is, 
that  four  or  five  frigates  will  do  the  business  without  any  military  force."  So 
ignorant  were  the  ministry  of  the  true  state  of  things  in  America.  On  the 
final  reading,  the  bill  was  opposed  by  Burke,  but  it  passed  with  hardly  a 
dissentient  voice,  and  was  immediately  ratified  by  the  Upper  House,  although 
the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  several  other  peers,  strongly  protested  against  it. 
As  if  this  bill  for  closing  of  their  port  were  not  sufficient  punishment, 
another  shortly  followed  it,  which  deprived  the  people  of  New  England  of 
almost  every  vestige  of  their  "ancient  liberties.  By  this  Act  "  for  better  regu- 
lating the  government  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  the  royal  governor  was  em- 
powered to  appoint  all  the  civil  authorities  whatever,  who  were  also  to  have 
the  nomination  of  juries,  functions  hitherto  vested  in  the  people  themselves  ; 
and  as  their  town  meetings  had  proved  the  nursery  of  opposition  to  govern- 
ment, they  were  now  entirely  prohibited,  except  for  the  purpose  of  electing  re- 
presentatives. A  third  Act,  ostensibly  designed  "  for  the  more  impartial  adminis- 
tration of  justice,"  provided,  in  view  of  such  cases  as  that  of  Captain  Preston — 
that  "  any  person  indicted  for  murder,  or  any  other  capital  offence,  committed 
in  aiding  the  magistracy,  the  governor  might  send  the  person  so  indicted  to 
another  colony,  or  to  Great  Britain,  for  trial." 

These  last  bills  called  forth  a  vigorous  spirit  of  opposition  from  the  friends 
of  America.  Among  these,  Barre  lifted  up  his  voice  with  characteristic  energy. 
"  You  may  think,"  he  said,  "  that  a  law  founded  on  this  motion  will  be  a  pro- 
tection to  the  soldier  who  imbrues  his  hand  in  the  blood  of  his  fellow  subjects. 
I  am  mistaken  if  it  will.  Who  is  to  execute  it  ?  He  must  be  a  bold  man 
indeed  who  will  make  the  attempt.  If  the  people  are  so  exasperated  that  it  is 
unsafe  to  bring  the  man  who  has  injured  them  to  trial,  let  the  governor  who 
withdraws  him  from  justice  look  to  himself.  The  people  will  not  endure  it ; 
they  would  no  longer  deserve  the  reputation  of  being  descended  from  the 
loins  of  Englishmen  if  they  did  endure  it.  You  have  changed  your  ground. 
You  are  becoming  the  aggressors,  and  offering  the  last  of  human  outrages 
to  the  people  of  America,  by  submitting  them  to  military  execution.  Instead 
of  sending  them  the  olive  branch,  you  have  sent  the  naked  sword.  By 
the  olive  branch,  I  mean  a  repeal  of  all  the  late  laws,  fruitless  to  you,  and 
oppressive  to  them.  Ask  their  aid  in  a  constitutional  manner,  and  they  will 
give  it  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability.  Your  journals  bear  the  recorded  ac- 
knowledgments of  the  zeal  with  which  they  have  contributed  to  the  general 
necessities  of  the  state.  What  madness  is  it  that  prompts  you  to  attempt 
obtaining  that  by  force  which  you  may  more  certainly  obtain  by  requisition  ? 
They  may  be  flattered  into  any  thing,  but  they  are  too  much  like  yourselves  to 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  331 

be  driven.  Respect  their  sturdy  English  virtue — retract  your  odious  exertions  c  ha  p. 
of  authority,  and  remember  that  the  first  step  toward  making  them  contribute  -  p  ^ 
to  your  wants  is  to  reconcile  them  to  your  government."  He  justly  repre- 
sented it  too  as  being  the  more  unreasonable,  that  Captain  Preston  himself, 
notwithstanding  the  general  feeling  against  him,  had  been  nobly  defended 
even  by  members  of  the  opposition,  and  acquitted  by  a  jury  of  Americans.  If, 
even  at  a  time  of  the  highest  excitement,  experience  had  shown  that  a  servant 
of  the  crown  could  obtain  a  fair  trial  in  America,  what  occasion  could  there  be 
for  bringing  him  over  to  England  ?  Notwithstanding  all  the  opposition  that 
could  be  offered,  the  bills  passed  by  a  majority  of  four  to  one. 

A  fourth  bill,  for  quartering  troops  in  America,  was  shortly  added  to  the 
former ;  on  which  occasion  Lord  Chatham,  who  owing  to  his  declining  health 
could  take  but  a  small  part  in  the  debates,  opposed  the  ministerial  policy  with 
his  usual  animation.  "I  condemn,"  he  said,  "in  the  severest  manner  the 
turbulent  and  unwarrantable  conduct  of  the  Americans  in  some  instances, 
particularly  in  the  late  riots  at  Boston ;  but,  my  Lords,  the  mode  which  has 
been  pursued  to  bring  them  back  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  is  so  diametrically  op- 
posed to  every  principle  of  sound  policy,  as  to  excite  my  utmost  astonish- 
ment. You  have  involved  the  guilty  and  the  innocent  in  one  common  punish- 
ment, and  avenge  the  crime  of  a  few  lawless  depredators  upon  the  whole  body 
of  the  inhabitants. 

"My  Lords,  it  has  always  been  my  fixed  and  unalterable  opinion,  I  will 
carry  it  with  me  to  the  grave,  that  this  country  has  no  right  under  heaven 
to  tax  America.  It  is  contrary  to  all  the  principles  of  justice  and  civil  policy, 
it  is  contrary  to  that  essential,  unalterable  right  ingrafted  into  the  British 
constitution  as  a  fundamental  law,  that  what  a  man  has  honestly  acquired  is 
absolutely  his  own,  which  he  may  freely  give,  but  which  cannot  be  taken  away 
from  him  without  his  consent."  Burke  also  strengthened  the  opposition  by 
one  of  his  most  famous  speeches.  But  all  was  in  vain,  and  the  measures  of 
the  ministers  passed  with  a  large  majority.  With  a  view  to  conciliate  the 
Canadians  in  case  of  an  appeal  to  arms,  they  wisely  placed  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  on  an  equality,  confirmed  to  the  Catholic  clergy  their  extensive 
landed  property,  allowed  the  administration  of  justice  to  be  carried  on  by  the 
old  French  law,  created  a  legislative  council  to  be  named  by  the  crown,  and 
enlarged  the  boundaries  of  the  province  southward  as  far  as  the  Ohio,  mea- 
sures to  which  it  was  doubtless  owing  that  the  Canadians  remained  entirely 
passive  during  the  revolutionary  war. 

As  the  reluctance  of  the  civil  governor  to  call  in  the  military  arm  had 
hitherto  paralysed  repressive  operations,  it  was  decided  that,  to  insure  greater 
promptitude  and  decision,  Hutchinson  should  be  superseded  by  General  Gage, 
in  whose  person  were  united  the  offices  of  governor  of  the  province  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  commander  of  his  Majesty's  forces  in  America. 

The  result  of  these  measures  was  fully  predicted  by  the  opposition.  After 
vainly  endeavouring  to  combat  the  obstinate  determination  of  the  cabinet, 
Rose  Fuller  exclaimed  to  them,  "  You  will  commence  your  ruin  from  this 

2  u  2 


A. D.  1774. 


33%  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c ha P-  day !  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  not  only  has  the  House  fallen  into  this  error,  but 
the  people  approve  of  the  measure.  The  people,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  are  misled. 
But  a  short  time  will  prove  the  evil  tendency  of  this  bill.  If  ever  there  was 
a  nation  rushing  headlong  to  ruin,  it  is  this." 

The  intelligence  of  the  passing  of  the  bill  for  closing  their  port  was  received 
by  the  Bostonians  only  a  few  days  before  the  arrival  of  General  Gage.  In  the 
midst  of  their  exasperation  he  had  looked  for  some  tokens  of  disrespect,  but  was 
received  with  all  the  distinction  due  to  his  rank  and  character.  But  his  appear- 
ance in  their  midst,  armed  as  he  was  with  such  extensive  power,  and  shortly  to 
be  followed  by  a  formidable  array  of  military  force,  operated  no  restraint  upon 
the  manifestation  of  their  feelings.  The  very  next  day  a  town  meeting  assem- 
bled, who  declared  that  "  the  impolicy,  injustice,  inhumanity,  and  cruelty  of 
the  Act  exceed  our  powers  of  expression.  We  therefore,"  they  say,  "leave  it 
to  the  just  censure  of  others,  and  appeal  to  God  and  the  world."  They  earn- 
estly recommend  a  joint  resolution  of  all  the  colonies  to  put  a  stop  to  all  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  Great  Britain.  "  The  bill,"  said  Quincy,  disregarding 
the  fact  that  the  whole  population  had  tacitly  involved  themselves  in  the  act 
which  had  led  to  its  imposition,  and  that  no  legal  conviction  of  any  offender 
could,  in  consequence  of  the  universal  complicity,  be  obtained,  "  condemns 
a  whole  town  unheard,  nay,  uncited  to  answer,  and  involves  thousands  in  ruin 
and  misery,  without  any  suggestion  of  the  crime  by  them  committed.  The 
destruction  of  the  tea,  which  took  place  without  any  illegal  procedure  of  the 
town,  is  the  only  alleged  ground  of  consigning  thousands  of  its  inhabitants  to 
ruin,  misery,  and  "despair."  It  was  a  moment  of  deep  anxiety  to  the  po- 
pular leaders  at  Boston.  Would  they,  who  had  taken  the  initiative  in  the 
struggle,  be  left  to  maintain  it  single-handed,  or  would  their  sister  colonies 
nobly  come  forward  to  fortify  their  resistance  and  mitigate  the  sufferings  they 
were  called  upon  to  endure  ?  Every  means  was  immediately  taken  to  obtain 
the  sympathy  of  their  fellow  colonists.  Copies  of  the  resolution  were  forwarded 
to  the  committees  of  correspondence.  The  bill,  printed  on  black-edged  paper, 
adorned  with  a  death's  head  and  cross-bones,  was  hawked  about,  coupled  with 
the  epithets  of  "  cruel,  barbarous,  bloody,  and  inhuman  murder,"  and  solemnly 
burned  by  the  assembled  populace.  Agents  were  sent  to  the  other  colonies  to 
engage  them  in  the  common  cause.  The  clergy  from  their  pulpits  animated  the 
people  to  resistance,  while  the  press  teemed  with  the  most  moving  and  vigorous 
appeals  to  their  feelings.  The  news  of  the  injury  inflicted  on  Boston  pro- 
duced throughout  the  colonies  a  general  and  spontaneous  feeling  of  indigna- 
tion. In  Connecticut,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland  addresses  of 
sympathy  and  promises  of  support  were  forwarded  to  the  citizens  of  Boston, 
and  suggesting  as  the  best  remedy  the  formation  of  a  continental  congress. 
In  Virginia,  the  House  of  Representatives  was  in  session  at  Williamsburg, 
when  the  news  of  the  passing  of  the  Boston  Port  bill  was  received.  Among 
them  was  Washington,  whom  we  now  again  meet  with  among  the  prominent 
actors  in  the  troubled  scene.  Since  the  close  of  the  Canadian  war,  he  had 
married  a  beautiful  and  wealthy  heiress,  and  quietly  settled  down  on  his  estates, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  333 

engaged  in  his  favourite  amusement  of  agriculture,  and  was  on  such,  terms  chap. 
with  the  royal  governor,  Lord  Dunmore,  that  he  was  about  to  join  him  m  an  — — — — 
excursion  to  the  western  country,  had  not  a  family  affliction  intervened  to 
prevent  him.  Notwithstanding,  he  has  been  among  the  very  first  to  oppose 
the  encroachments  of  the  English  ministry.  The  Stamp  Act  he  denounced  as 
"an  unconstitutional  method  of  taxation,  and  a  direful  attack  upon  the 
liberties  of  the  colonists."  He  had  been  present  in  the  Virginia  legislature, 
when  Patrick  Henry  delivered  his  thrilling  speech.  He  was  among  the 
most  decided  in  enforcing  the  non-importation  agreements,  but  his  conscien- 
tiousness was  manifested  by  his  protesting  against  the  convenient  doctrine 
of  non-payment  of  previous  debts  due  to  English  merchants.  His  opi- 
nions as  to  the  iniquity  of  the  ministerial  Acts,  and  the  small  chance  of 
obtaining  redress  by  petitioning  the  king  and  ministry,  were  unalterable. 
"  For  my  own  part,"  he  says  in  a  letter  to  a  friend, i(  I  shall  not  undertake  to 
say  where  the  line  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies  should  be  drawn, 
but  I  am  clearly  of  opinion  that  one  ought  to  be  drawn,  and  our  rights  clearly 
ascertained.  I  could  wish,  I  own,  that  the  dispute  had  been  left  for  posterity 
to  determine,  but  the  crisis  is  arrived  when  we  must  assert  our  rights,  or  sub- 
mit to  every  imposition  that  can  be  heaped  upon  us,  till  custom  shall  make  us 
tame  and  abject  slaves."  The  sentiments  of  Washington  were  those  of  the 
whole  assembly,  and  they  accordingly  passed  an  order  fully  displaying  that 
they  considered  the  cause  of  the  Bostonians  as  their  own.  "  Deeply  impressed 
with  apprehension  of  the  great  dangers  to  be  derived  to  British  America 
from  the  hostile  invasion  of  our  sister  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  they 
appoint  the  1st  of  June,  the  day  on  which  the  Port  bill  was  to  come  into  oper- 
ation, "  as  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation,  and  prayer,  to  implore  the  Divine  in- 
terposition for  averting  the  heavy  calamity  which  threatened  destruction  to 
their  civil  rights,  and  the  evils  of  civil  war,  and  to  give  them  one  heart  and 
one  mind  firmly  to  oppose  by  all  just  and  proper  means  every  injury  to  Ame- 
can  rights." 

Next  day  Lord  Dunmore,  considering  the  terms  of  this  resolution  as  "  re- 
flecting highly  upon  his  Majesty  and  the  parliament,"  dissolved  the  house. 
The  members  immediately  withdrew  to  the  Baleigh  Tavern,  and  organizing 
themselves  into  a  committee,  drew  up  a  resolution,  in  which,  after  enumerating 
the  injurious  measures  of  the  British  parliament,  they  express  their  opinion 
that  an  attack  made  on  one  of  our  sister  colonies  to  compel  submission  to 
arbitrary  taxes,  threatens  ruin  to  the  rights  of  all,  unless  the  united  wisdom  of 
the  whole  be  applied,  and  they  recommend  to  the  committee  of  correspond- 
ence to  communicate  with  their  several  corresponding  committees  on  the  ex- 
pediency of  appointing  deputies  to  meet  in  a  general  congress.  This  done,  most 
of  the  members  then  returned  to  their  own  homes.  On  the  1st  of  June — ap- 
pointed for  the  religious  services — "Washington  went  to  church  and  fasted  the 
whole  day. 

Similar  manifestations  of  public  grief  took  place  in  most  of  the  other  cities. 
At  Philadelphia,  a  stillness  reigned  over  the  city,  which  exhibited  an  appear- 


A.I).  1774 


834:  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  ance  of  the  deepest  distress.  At  Boston,  on  the  1st  of  June,  the  day  designated 
by  the  Act,  business  was  finished  at  twelve  o'clock  at  noon,  and  the  harbour 
shut  up  against  all  vessels.  As  that  sea-port  was  entirely  dependent  upon  com- 
merce, the  ministerial  measure  cut  off  at  once  the  subsistence  of  a  great  part 
of  its  citizens.  The  rich  merchant  was  threatened  with  ruin,  the  poor  man 
with  the  loss  of  his  daily  bread.  The  rents  of  wharf-holders  ceased,  and  by  the 
stoppage  of  the  multifarious  operations  of  a  commercial  city,  all  hands  were 
reduced  to  idleness,  and  all  heads  given  up  with  increased  exasperation  to  the 
consideration  of  their  political  grievances.  The  Bostonians  endured  their 
sufferings  with  the  most  inflexible  fortitude.  Addresses  and  congratulations 
poured  in  upon  them  from  all  sides,  and  they  received  more  substantial  proofs 
of  the  sympathy  of  their  fellow  colonists,  in  contributions  raised  for  their 
relief,  which,  however,  could  but  very  partially  mitigate  the  severity  of 
their  distress.  If  the  English  government,  whose  policy  was  always  to  foment 
a  collision  of  interests  between  the  different  colonists,  flattered  themselves  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Salem  would  secretly  rejoice  at  a  measure  that  promised  to 
enrich  themselves,  they  were  speedily  disabused.  The  inhabitants  of  that 
port  concluded  an  address  to  General  Gage  in  terms  most  honourable  to  their 
patriotic  sympathy.  "  By  shutting  up  the  port  of  Boston,  some  imagine  that 
the  course  of  trade  might  be  turned  hither,  and  for  our  benefit,  but  nature,  in 
the  formation  of  our  harbour,  forbids  our  becoming  rivals  in  commerce  to  that 
convenient  mart ;  and  were  it  otherwise,  we  must  be  dead  to  every  idea  of 
justice,  lost  to  every  feeling  of  humanity,  could  we  indulge  one  thought  to 
seize  on  wealth,  and  raise  ourselves  on  the  ruins  of  our  suffering  neighbours." 
The  inhabitants  of  Marblehead  also  generously  offered  to  the  Boston  mer- 
chants the  free  use  of  their  wharves  and  warehouses,  and  their  personal 
attendance  upon  the  lading  and  unlading  of  their  goods. 

The  sitting  of  the  representatives  of  Massachusetts,  who  assembled  at 
Boston  on  the  25th  of  May,  was  perhaps  the  most  anxious  hitherto  ever 
known  in  the  history  of  the  colony.  The  first  act  of  the  governor  was  to  in- 
form them  that  he  should  in  a  few  days  adjourn  them  to  Salem,  where  he 
expected  they  would  be  less  under  the  control  of  popular  influence.  He  also 
stretched  his  prerogative  to  the  utmost  by  giving  his  negative  to  thirteen  of 
the  liberal  members  chosen  by  the  assembly  for  the  council,  and  among 
whom  were  Bowdoin,  Quincy,  and  John  Adams.  The  representatives  adopted 
resolutions  advising  the  people  to  be  firm  and  patient,  and  to  adhere  with 
inflexible  steadiness  to  the  non-importation  agreement.  Shortly  after,  the 
court  of  representatives  removed  to  Salem.  There,  on  the  17th  of  June,  they 
proceeded  to  adopt  and  sign  "  a  solemn  league  and  covenant,"  and  to  vote  a 
committee  of  members  to  attend  the  general  congress  to  meet  next  September 
at  Philadelphia,  and  to  vote  a  suitable  provision  for  their  expenses.  The 
governor  having  received  from  a  political  friend  among  the  members  some 
intimation  of  what  was  going  forward,  despatched  his  secretary  to  dissolve  the 
assembly.  Samuel  Adams,  however,  secured  the  key,  and  locked  the  doors 
of  the  chamber,  until  the  proceedings  had  been  terminated,  while  the  secre- 


A.D.  1774. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  335 

tary,  who  had  forced  his  way  into  the  house,  was  compelled  to  stand  without  c"£p- 
and  read  his  proclamation  on  the  staircase.  The  delegates  chosen  to  congress 
were  Bowdoin,  Cushing,  Paine,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Adams.  How  im- 
portant was  the  moment,  and  how  anxious  the  feelings  it  excited,  may  be  best 
gathered  from  an  entry  made  on  this  occasion  in  the  diary  of  the  last-named 
patriot.  It  is  related  of  him,  that  being  advised  by  a  friend  not  to  accept  of 
the  appointment  of  delegate,  as  Great  Britain  was  determined  to  subdue  the 
colonies,  and  her  power  was  irresistible,  he  replied  that,  tc  as  to  his  fate,  the 
die  was  cast ;  the  Rubicon  was  passed ;  sink  or  swim,  live  or  die — to  survive 
or  perish  with  his  country  was  his  unalterable  resolution."  His  perturbation 
was  nevertheless  extreme.  u  There  is,"  he  writes,  "  a  new  and  a  grand  scene 
open  before  me,  a  congress.  This  will  be  an  assembly  of  the  wisest  men  upon 
the  continent,  who  are  Americans  in  principle,  that  is,  against  the  taxation  of 
Americans  by  authority  of  parliament.  I  feel  myself  unequal  to  this  business. 
A  more  extensive  knowledge  of  the  realm,  the  colonies,  and  of  commerce,  as 
well  as  law  and  policy,  is  necessary,  than  I  am  master  of.  What  can  be  done  ? 
Will  it  be  expedient  to  propose  an  annual  congress  of  committees  1  To  petition  ? 
Will  it  do  to  petition  at  all  ?  To  the  king  ?  to  the  Lords  ?  to  the  Commons  ? 
What  will  such  consultations  avail  ?  Deliberations  alone  will  not  do.  We 
must  petition,  or  recommend  the  assemblies  to  petition,  or — 

"  The  ideas  of  people  are  as  various  as  their  faces.  One  thinks,  no  more 
petitions — former  having  been  neglected  and  despised.  Some  are  for  resolves, 
spirited  resolves ;  and  some  are  for  bolder  counsels.  I  wander  alone  and 
ponder,  I  muse,  I  mope,  I  ruminate.  I  am  often  in  reveries  and  brown 
studies.  The  objects  before  me  are  too  grand  and  multifarious  for  my  com- 
prehension. We  have  not  men  fit  for  the  times.  We  are  deficient  in  genius, 
in  education,  in  travel,  in  fortune,  in  every  thing.  I  feel  unutterable  anxiety. 
God  grant  us  wisdom  and  fortitude.  Should  the  opposition  be  suppressed, 
should  this  country  submit,  what  infamy  and  ruin  !  God  forbid.  Death  in 
any  form  is  less  terrible." 

The  advocates  of  the  "  bolder  counsels  "  alluded  to  by  Adams,  were  already 
preparing  for  an  open  struggle.  The  great  bulk  of  the  citizens  formed 
themselves  into  companies,  most  of  them  headed  by  officers  who  had  served 
in  the  late  wars.  The  excitement  rapidly  spread,  on  all  sides  were  to  be 
seen  the  marching  and  exercising  of  militia  regiments,  the  founding  of 
bullets  and  the  making  of  cartouches.  By  this  time  several  English  regi- 
ments had  been  concentrated  about  Boston,  five  of  which  were  quartered  in  the 
town  itself.  A  collision  might  be  expected  at  any  moment.  Aware  that  the 
inhabitants  were  endeavouring  to  form  magazines,  Gage  sent  a  body  of  sol- 
diers to  seize  some  powder  belonging  to  the  province,  lest  it  should  be  made 
use  of  for  insurrectionary  purposes.  No  sooner  had  this  got  wind,  than 
the  inhabitants  flew  to  arms,  and  were  with  difficulty  restrained  by  their  leaders 
from  marching  down  to  Boston  to  attack  the  garrison.  Several  councillors  re- 
siding at  Cambridge,  who  had  been  nominated  by  the  crown,  were  tumultu- 
ously  mobbed  and  compelled  to  resign  their  appointments.    While  the  people 


336  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

C  vn.P'  were  in  this  excited  state  a  report  having  by  some  means  got  abroad  that 
A  D  1774  the  British  ships  were  bombarding  the  town,  in  a  few  hours  some  thirty 
thousand  militia-men  were  in  motion  towards  Boston,  and  only  turned  back 
when  they  ascertained  that  the  report  was  unfounded.  Amidst  this  effer- 
vescence, Gage  had  deemed  it  but  prudent  to  fortify  Boston  Neck,  so  as  to 
command  the  only  land  access  to  the  isthmus  upon  which  the  town  is  built, 
and  to  place  himself  in  security  against  any  sudden  surprise ;  although  as 
yet  the  communication  between  the  city  and  the  country  was  allowed  to  re- 
main undisturbed. 

The  quarrel  between  the  governor  and  the  people  was  now  open  and  un- 
disguised. A  convention  of  popular  delegates  met  and  resolved,  "  that  no 
obedience  was  due  to  either  or  any  of  the  recent  Acts  of  Parliament,"  and  ex- 
horted the  tax-gatherers  not  to  pay  over  any  money  into  the  hands  of  govern- 
ment until  it  should  be  constitutionally  organized.  The  governor  retorted 
by  declaring  this  and  similar  meetings  "  unlawful  and  traitorous,"  but  to  no 
purpose.  He  soon  found  himself  blockaded  in  Boston,  without  the  shadow 
of  power,  the  real  administration  of  the  province  having  been  assumed  by 
the  convention.  The  recent  Acts  were  completely  nullified.  Of  the  council- 
lors who  had  been  appointed  by  Gage,  some,  apprehensive  of  popular  violence, 
had  resigned,  and  the  rest  were  voted  "  obstinate  and  incorrigible  enemies 
of  their  country."  Juries  refused  to  be  sworn  in,  lest  by  so  doing  they  should 
recognise  the  authority  of  the  crown.  Such  as  ventured  to  oppose  themselves 
to  the  popular  feeling  were  tarred  and  feathered,  and  compelled  to  take  refuge 
with  the  troops.  The  partisans  and  opponents  of  government,  mutually  call- 
ing each  other  "  Tories  "  and  "  Rebels,"  had  commenced  that  career  of  dis- 
cord which  grew  every  day  more  bitter  and  envenomed,  and  which  proved  one 
of  the  most  melancholy  features  in  the  revolutionary  conflict.    . 

Some  time  previously,  when  Governor  Hutchinson  took  his  departure  for 
England,  many  of  the  wealthier  inhabitants  of  Boston  had  drawn  up  a  com- 
plimentary address  to  him,  but  soon  found  that  they  had  thereby  rendered 
themselves  the  objects  of  general  odium.  They  were  stigmatized  as  "  ad- 
dressers," and  to  avoid  worse  handling,  were  compelled  to  put  forth  a  public 
recantation  of  their  offence.  Dreading  the  pass  to  which  things  were  coming,  a 
hundred  and  twenty  merchants  of  Boston  now,  signed  an  address  to  Gage,  who 
had  replaced  Hutchinson,  expressing  their  willingness  to  pay  for  the  tea 
destroyed.  Others,  who  were  desirous  of  peace  at  all  events,  revolted  at 
seeing  the  ministers  of  religion  lending  their  influence  from  the  pulpit  to 
inflame  the  popular  clamour,  and  they  protested  also  against  the  revolutionary 
tendency  of  the  measures  of  the  committee  of  correspondence.  But  vain  was 
the  attempt  to  stem  the  stream  ;  these  efforts  of  the  moderate  party  only  led 
to  a  popular  vote  of  confidence  in  the  committee ;  while  by  giving  to  the 
English  ministry  an  erroneous  idea  that  the  rebellion  was  mainly  the  work  of 
the  mob,  it  tended  still  more  strongly  to  fortify  them  in  the  fatal  policy  of 
coercion. 

On  the  10th  of  August  the  Massachusetts  delegates  set  out  for  Philadelphia, 


VII. 

A.  D. 1774. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  337 

and  were  received  with  enthusiasm  in  the  different  towns  in  their  way.  By  c ha  p. 
the  4th  of  September  all  the  delegates  from  the  colonies  had  assembled,  except 
those  from  North  Carolina,  who  did  not  arrive  till  ten  days  afterwards ;  and 
on  the  5th  the  congress  commenced  its  session.  The  number  of  its  mem- 
bers was  fifty-one,  among  whom  the  following,  for  ever  illustrious  in  the 
American  annals,  deserve  especial  mention.  They  were  Peyton  Randolph, 
Richard  H.  Lee,  Patrick  Henry,  and  George  Washington,  from  Virginia ; 
Samuel  Adams  and  John  Adams,  from  Massachusetts  ;  Henry  Middleton  and 
John  Rutledge,  from  South  Carolina ;  John  Jay,  of  New  York ;  and  "William 
Livingston,  of  New  Jersey. 

The  greater  part  of  the  delegates  were  men  of  property  and  consideration 
in  their  respective  States,  all  animated  with  the  same  patriotic  spirit,  though 
differing  widely  among  themselves  as  to  the  measures  to  adopt  in  the  crisis 
which  had  summoned  them  together.  It  was  determined,  that  each  colony 
should  have  but  one  vote,  that  their  session  should  be  held  with  closed 
doors,  and  their  transactions  kept  secret.  Peyton  Randolph  was  unanimously 
elected  president,  and  Charles  Thompson,  secretary.  They  were  then  at 
liberty  to  commence  their  momentous  deliberations,  which  were  to  decide  upon 
the  destinies  of  America. 

"  The  most  eminent  men  of  the  various  colonies  were  now,"  says  Wirt, 
"  for  the  first  time  brought  together,  known  to  each  other  by  fame,  but 
personally  strangers.  The  meeting  was  awfully  solemn.  The  object  which 
had  called  them  together  was  of  incalculable  magnitude.  The  liberties  of  no 
less  than  three  millions  of  people,  with  that  of  all  their  posterity,  was  staked 
on  the  wisdom  and  energy  of  their  counsels.  No  wonder,  then,  at  the  long 
and  deep  silence  which  is  said  to  have  followed  upon  their  organization ;'  at  the 
anxiety  with  which  the  members  looked  round  upon  each  other ;  and  the  re- 
luctance which  every  individual  felt  to  open  a  business  so  fearfully  momentous. 
In  the  midst  of  this  deep  and  death-like  silence,  and  just  when  it  was  begin- 
ning to  become  painfully  embarrassing,  Mr.  Henry  arose  slowly,  as  if  borne 
down  by  the  weight  of  the  subject.  After  faltering,  according  to  his  habit, 
through  a  most  impressive  exordium,  in  which  he  merely  echoed  back  the 
consciousness  of  every  other  heart,  in  deploring  his  inability  to  do  justice  to 
the  occasion,  he  launched  gradually  into  a  recital  of  the  colonial  wrongs. 
Rising,  as  he  advanced,  with  the  grandeur  of  his  subject,  and  glowing  at 
length  with  all  the  majesty  of  the  occasion,  his  speech  seemed  more  than  that 
of  mortal  man.  Mr.  Henry  was  followed  by  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Lee,  in  a 
speech  scarcely  less  powerful,  and  still  more  replete  with  classic  eloquence. 
One  spirit  of  ardent  love  of  liberty  pervaded  every  breast,  and  produced  an 
unanimity  as  advantageous  to  the  cause  they  advocated  as  it  was  unexpected 
and  appalling  to  their  adversaries." 

On  receiving  the  resolutions  of  the  Massachusetts  convention,  congress 
resolved  that  they  were  entirely  legitimate,  and  that  every  person  who  should 
accept  any  office  under  the  new  and  illegal  form  of  government  "  ought  to  be 
held  in  abhorrence,  and  considered  the  wicked  tool  of  that  despotism  which 


338  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap  wag  preparing  to  destroy  those  rights  which  God,  nature,  and  compact 
r— —  had  given  to  America.  To  define  these  rights  a  committee  of  two  from  each 
province  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  series  of  resolutions,  which  were  ratified 
by  the  whole  congress.  These  were  declared  to  consist  in  the  enjoyment  of 
life,  liberty,  and  property;  the  privilege  of  submitting  to  no  law  which  they 
had  not  consented  to  by  their  representatives.  The  sole  legislative  power  was 
declared  to  belong  to  the  colonial  assemblies,  but  the  right  of  enacting  laws 
for  the  bona  fide  regulation  of  trade  was  conceded,  unless  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  taxes,  either  internal  or  external.  Trial  by  a  local  jury,  and  the  right  of 
public  meetings  and  petitions,  were  also  claimed.  A  protest  was  made  against 
standing  armies  maintained  in  the  colonies  without  their  consent.  Immunities 
hitherto  enjoyed  by  the  colonies,  whether  by  charter  or  custom,  were  claimed 
as  rights,  which  the  mother  country  could  not  abrogate.  They  then  pro- 
ceeded to  enumerate  those  Acts  "  adopted  since  the  late  war,  which  demon- 
strated a  system  formed  to  enslave  America.  These  were — the  Sugar  Act, 
the  Stamp  Act,  the  two  Quartering  Acts,  the  Tea  Act,  the  Act  suspending 
the  New  York  Legislature,  the  Acts  for  transmitting  offenders  to  England 
for  trial,  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  the  Act  for  regulating  the  government  of 
Massachusetts,  and  lastly,  the  Quebec  Act.  "To  these  grievous  acts  and 
measures,"  they  proceed  to  say,  "  America  cannot  submit ;  but  in  hopes  their 
fellow  countrymen  in  Great  Britain  will,  on  a  revision  of  them,  restore  us  to 
that  state  in  which  both  countries  found  happiness  and  prosperity,  we  have, 
for  the  present,  only  resolved  to  pursue  the  following  peaceable  measures : 
1.  To  enter  into  a  non-importation  association.  2.  To  prepare  an  address  to 
the  people  of  Great  Britain,  and  a  memorial  to  the  inhabitants  of  British 
America.    And,  3.  To  prepare  a  loyal  address  to  his  Majesty. 

To  give  effect  to  the  first  of  these  resolutions,  an  agreement  called  the 
"  American  Association,"  was  signed  by  all  the  members  of  congress,  pledging 
them  to  a  total  commercial  non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and 
the  "West  Indies.  The  importation  of  slaves  was  expressly  prohibited. 
Domestic  manufactures  were  also  to  be  encouraged ;  and  to  watch  over  the 
carrying  out  of  these  resolutions/  committees  were  to  be  appointed  to  detect 
and  publish  the  names  of  all  such  as  infringed  them,  who  were  to  be  held 
as  "  enemies  of  American  liberty,"  and  with  whom  all  dealings  were  in  con- 
sequence to  be  broken  off. 

The  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  was  drawn  up  by  John  Jay. 
After  enumerating  the  grievances  of  which  the  Americans  complained,  it 
alludes  in  the  following  energetic  style  to  the  prejudices  commonly  entertain- 
ed against  them.  "  You  have  been  told,"  say  they,  "that  we  are  seditious, 
impatient  of  government,  and  desirous  of  independency.  Be  assured  that 
these  are  not  facts,  but  calumnies.  Permit  us  to  be  as  free  as  yourselves, 
and  we  shall  ever  esteem  a  union  with  you  to  be  our  greatest  glory  and  our 
greatest  happiness ;  we  shall  ever  be  ready  to  contribute  all  in  our  power  to 
the  welfare  of  the  whole  empire ;  we  shall  consider  your  enemies  as  our  ene- 
mies, and  your  interest  as  our  own.     But  if  you  are  determined  that  your 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  339 

ministers  shall  wantonly  sport  with  the  rights  of  mankind  ;    if  neither  the    c  h  a  p 

voice  of  justice,  the  dictates  of  the  law,  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  or — - 

the  suggestions  of  humanity,  can  restrain  your  hands  from  shedding  human 
blood  in  such  an  impious  cause,  we  must  then  tell  you,  that  we  will  never 
submit  to  be  hewers  of  wood  or  drawers  of  water  for  any  ministry  or  nation 
in  the  world." 

The  address  to  the  king  was  the  work  of  Dickenson,  and  abounds  in  pro- 
fessions of  loyalty  which,  if  they  may  be  deemed  inconsistent  with  the  acts  of 
congress,  were  in  themselves  perfectly  sincere.  "  Permit  us  then,  most  gra- 
cious sovereign,  in  the  name  of  all  your  faithful  people  in  America,  with  thv 
utmost  humility  to  implore  you,  for  the  honour  of  Almighty  God,  whose  pure 
religion  our  enemies  are  undermining ;  for  your  glory,  which  can  be  advanced 
only  by  rendering  your  subjects  happy,  and  keeping  them  united  ;  for  the 
interests  of  your  family,  depending  on  an  adherence  to  the  principles  that 
enthroned  it ;  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of  your  kingdoms  and  dominions, 
threatened  with  almost  unavoidable  dangers  and  distresses ;  that  your  Ma- 
jesty, as  the  loving  father  of  your  whole  people,  connected  by  the  same  bonds 
of  law,  loyalty,  faith,  and  blood,  though  dwelling  in  various  countries,  will 
not  suffer  the  transcendent  relation  formed  by  these  ties  to  be  further  violated, 
in  uncertain  expectations  of  effects  that,  if  obtained,  never  can  compensate  for 
the  calamities  through  which  they  must  be  gained." 

The  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  Canada,  also  drawn  up  by  Dickenson, 
striving  to  awaken  them  to  a  joint  resistance,  could  not  fail  to  give  the  deepest 
offence  to  the  ministry,  and  was,  besides,  entirely  unsuccessful  in  its  object. 

Such  were  the  principal  measures  of  the  first  continental  congress,  and  they 
were  not  carried  without  much  opposition  and  controversy.  "  Every  man  in 
this  assembly,"  wrote  John  Adams  to  his  wife,  "  is  a  great  man,  an  orator, 
a  critic,  a  statesman,  and  therefore  every  man,  upon  every  question,  must  show 
his  oratory,  his  criticism,  and  his  political  abilities.  The  consequence  is,  that 
business  is  spun  out  to  an  immeasurable  length."  Great  difference  besides 
existed  as  to  the  extent  to  which  resistance  to  Great  Britain  should  be  carried, 
and  as  to  the  hopes  of  a  final  accommodation.  •  The  Adamses,  who  had  borne 
the  brunt  of  the  struggle  in  Massachusetts,  despaired.  Lee  was  very  sanguine. 
"  We  shall  undoubtedly  carry  all  our  points,"  he  said.  "  You  will  be  com- 
pletely relieved,  all  the  offensive  Acts  will  be  repealed,  the  army  and  the  fleet 
will  be  recalled,  and  Britain  will  give  up  her  foolish  projects.  Others,  among 
whom  was  "Washington,  had  little  faith  in  petitions  and  remonstrances,  and 
Gadsden  from  South  Carolina  even  proposed  to  attack  Gage  and  drive  him  at 
once  from  Boston.  Thus,  as  Guizot  well  observes,  "  Men  of  very  different 
dispositions  met  together.  Some  full  of  respect  and  attachment  to  the  mother 
country,  others  passionately  absorbed  in  that  American  fatherland  which  was 
rising  under  their  eyes  and  by  their  hands ;  the  former  grieved  and  anxious, 
the  latter  daring  and  confident,  but  all  governed  and  united  by  the  same 
feeling  of  dignity,  a  like  resolve  of  resistance,  giving  free  play  to  the  variety 
of  their  ideas  and  fancies,  without  any  lasting  or  wide  division  occurring  be- 

2x2 


A.  D.  1774. 


340  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  tween  them.  On  the  contrary,  respecting  one  another  in  their  reciprocal 
liberty,  and  discussing  the  great  affair  of  the  country  together  with  conscienti- 
ous respect,  with  that  spirit  of  mutual  deference  and  of  justice,  which  assures 
success  and  makes  its  purchase  less  costly."  The  secrecy  which  veiled  the 
debates  concealed  their  differences  from  the  eye  of  the  public,  who  looked  up 
to  them  as  men  upon  whom  was  worthily  imposed  the  task  of  extricating  their 
country  from  her  difficulties,  and  regarded  their  recommendations  as  having  all 
the  force  of  law. 

This  session  of  congress  had  the  effect  of  introducing  to  each  other's  per- 
sonal knowledge  the  most  eminent  men  in  America,  and  of  preparing  them  to 
act  in  concert.  One  of  the  members  was  Joseph  Galloway,  who  afterwards  be- 
came a  royalist,  and  has  given  some  glimpses  of  the  personages  behind  the  scenes. 
Of  Samuel  Adams  he  says,  "  He  eats  little,  drinks  little,  sleeps  little,  thinks 
much,  and  is  most  indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of  his  object.  It  was  this  man 
who,  by  his  superior  application,  managed  at  once  the  factions  in  congress  and 
the  factions  of  New  England."  No  one  however  made  greater  progress  in  the 
estimation  of  his  fellow  members  than  Washington,  although  far  from  being 
among  the  most  prominent  debaters.  It  is  said  that  shortly  after  the  return  of 
the  members,  Patrick  Henry  was  asked  whom  he  thought  the  greatest  man  in 
congress.  "  If  you  speak  of  eloquence,"  he  replied,  "  Mr.  Rutledge  of  South 
Carolina  is  by  far  the  greatest  orator ;  but  if  you  speak  of  solid  information 
and  sound  judgment,  Colonel  Washington  is  unquestionably  the  greatest 
man  on  that  floor." 

Congress  adjourned  a  session  of  four  months.  The  firmness  and  dignity  of 
their  proceedings,  and  the  style  of  the  state  papers  they  put  forth,  were  justly 
regarded  as  extraordinary.  "  When  your  Lordships,"  said  Pitt  to  the  British 
senate,  "  have  perused  the  papers  transmitted  to  us  from  America,  when  you 
consider  the  dignity,  the  firmness,  and  the  wisdom  with  which  Americans 
have  acted,  you  cannot  but  respect  their  cause.  History,  my  Lords,  has  been 
my  favourite  study,  and  in  the  celebrated  writings  of  antiquity,  I  have  often 
admired  the  patriotism  of  Greece  and  Pome ;  but,  my  Lords,  I  must  declare  and 
avow  that,  in  the  master  states  of  the  world,  I  know  not  the  people  nor  the 
senate  who,  in  such  a  complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  can  stand  in  pre- 
ference to  the  delegates  of  America  assembled  in  general  congress  at  Phila- 
delphia. I  trust  it  is  obvious  to  your  Lordships,  that  all  attempts  to  impose 
servitude  upon  such  men,  to  establish  despotism  over  such  a  mighty  conti- 
nental nation,  must  be  vain — must  be  futile." 

In  almost  all  the  colonies  power  had  already  fallen  from  the  hands  of  the  royal 
governors,  into  that  of  provincial  assemblies  acting  independently  of  them. 
Gage  had  convoked  a  general  court  of  representatives  to  meet  at  Salem,  but 
fearing  the  spirit  which  animated  the  people,  had  judged  it  more  prudent  to 
countermand  it.  The  delegates  however  insisted  that  the  governor  had  no  right 
to  remand  them,  and  after  waiting  a  whole  day  for  his  appearance,  resolved 
themselves  into  a  provincial  congress,  and  adjourned  to  Concord.  John 
Hancock  was  chosen  as  their  president.     Hence  they  despatched  an  address 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  341 

to  Gage,  still  ardent  in  protestations  of  loyalty  to  the  king,  but  complaining  of  C*J£P- 
the  recent  Acts  of  Parliament,  and  particularly  of  the  fortifications  recently  -  - 

erected  at  Boston.  Gage  replied  with  some  warmth,  that  he  had  no  inten- 
tion of  invading  their  liberties ;  but  when  threats  of  open  resistance  were 
every  where  rife,  and  military  companies  were  already  forming,  he  could  not 
renounce  his  defensive  preparations.  He  expressed  a  wish  for  reconcili- 
ation, and  earnestly  required  them  to  desist  from  their  illegal  proceedings. 
Far  from  listening  to  his  advice,  the  Massachusetts  congress,  now  adjourned 
to  Cambridge,  proceeded  to  organize  a  Committee  of  Safety,  with  power  to  call 
out  the  militia,  together  with  a  Committee  of  Defence,  empowered  to  raise 
money  for  the  supply  of  military  stores.  The  tax-gatherers  were  required  to 
pay  the  taxes  into  the  hands  of  the  congress.  In  a  subsequent  session  they 
voted  a  levy  of  twelve  thousand  men,  one  fourth  of  whom  were  to  be  called 
"minute  men,"  from  their  holding  themselves  ready  to  march  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice.  Jedediah  Preble,  an  old  officer  of  the  militia,  Seth  Pomeroy, 
who  had  fought  at  the  battle  of  Lake  George,  with  Artemas  Ward,  a  civilian, 
were  commissioned  as  generals .  It  was  determined,  however,  that  the  British 
should  not  be  attacked,  unless  they  proved  the  first  aggressors  by  marching 
into  the  interior  of  the  country.  A  circular  was  also  sent  round  to  the  clergy, 
urging  them  to  use  their  influence  in  animating  the  spirit  of  the  people,  to 
which,  for  the  most  part,  they  heartily  responded.  The  position  of  Gage  be- 
came every  day  more  critical.  He  was  virtually  shut  up  in  Boston,  and  even 
there  he  had  no  support  but  in  the  military  and  government  officials.  The 
winter  was  approaching,  and  he  was  unable  to  procure  materials  to  erect 
quarters  for  his  soldiers.  The  straw  he  had  purchased  was  set  on  fire,  his 
timber  seized,  and  so  great  was  the  detestation  of  the  people,  that  he  was  un- 
able to  procure  either  workmen,  clothing,  or  provisions. 

At  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  the  people  removed  from  the  public  battery 
forty  pieces  of  cannon,  and  when  Captain  Wallace,  on  his  return  from  a  cruise, 
called  upon  Governor  Wanton  to  demand  the  meaning  of  this  act,  the  latter 
frankly  avowed  to  him  that  "  it  had  been  done  to  prevent  them  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  king,  or  any  of  his  servants,  and  that  they  meant  to  make  use  of 
it  against  any  power  that  should  offer  to  molest  them."  This  happened  in 
consequence  of  the  receipt  of  a  royal  proclamation,  prohibiting  the  export  of 
military  stores  to  America.  This  proclamation  was  forwarded  from  Boston, 
by  Paul  Revere,  one  of  the  most  active  patriots,  to  the  committee  at  Ports- 
mouth, who  were  not  slow  to  act  upon  the  hint,  for  the  day  after  Revere's 
arrival,  a  large  body  collected  and  took  forcible  possession  of  Port  William 
Mary,  broke  open  the  powder-house,  and  carried  away  all  the  powder  and 
ammunition  in  the  place. 

With  the  sole  exception  of  Georgia,  where  the  influence  of  the  governor 
prevailed,  the  rest  of  the  colonies  warmly  approved  and  sanctioned  the  re- 
commendations of  the  colonial  congress,  and  copied  the  example  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts convention.  In  Maryland,  the  popular  convention  had  assumed  all 
the  powers  of  government,  and  called  out  the  militia.     South  Carolina  had 


A.  1).  1771. 


34:2  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

C  vn  P'  ac^e^  m  ^ne  same  way«  Greater  difference  of  feeling  was  manifested  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  the  Quaker  party  put  forth  a  "testimony"  at  their  annual 
meeting,  in  which  their  members  were  called  upon  to  "  unite  in  abhorrence  of 
every  measure  and  writing  tending  to  break  off  the  happy  connexion  of  the 
colonies  with  the  mother  country,  or  to  interrupt  their  just  submission  to  the 
king."  Such  might  be  regarded  as  the  general  language  of  the  royalists,  or 
Tory  party,  numbering  in  that  city  a  large  proportion  of  the  wealthier  inhabit- 
ants. On  the  other  hand,  those  citizens,  dissatisfied  with  the  tone  adopted 
by  the  assembly  of  representatives,  formed  a  convention  in  which  they 
declared  it  to  be  their  duty  "  to  defend  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America  by 
force."  In  New  York,  where  the  royalist  and  Episcopalian  influence  was  very 
strong,  the  assembly  declined  to  sanction  the  measures  of  congress,  though 
they  forwarded  to  Burke,  their  agent,  petitions  to  parliament  scarcely  less 
decided  in  their  tenor.  Notwithstanding  these  local  differences,  never  perhaps 
was  there  a  people  so  united  in  their  opposition  to  a  foreign  power.  To  quote 
the  language  of  Dr.  Warren,  already  cited  as  one  of  the  most  ardent  advocates 
of  colonial  liberty,  and  destined  unhappily  to  prove  among  its  earliest  sacri- 
fices :  "  It  is  the  united  voice  of  America,  to  preserve  their  freedom  or  lose 
their  lives  in  defence  of  it.  Their  resolutions  are  not  the  results  of  inconsider- 
ate rashness,  but  the  sound  result  of  sober  inquiry  and  deliberation.  I  am 
convinced  that  the  true  spirit  of  liberty  was  never  so  universally  diffused 
through  all  ranks  and  orders  of  people,  in  any  country  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  as  it  now  is  through  all  North  America." 

Of  the  state  of  things  in  Boston  at  this  period  a  lively  picture  is  given  by 
Botta.  "  The  garrison  was  formidable,  the  fortifications  imposing,  so  that  there 
was  little  hope  of  wresting  the  city  from  the  hands  of  the  British.  Nor  could 
the  inhabitants  flatter  themselves  with  the  hope  of  escaping  by  sea,  inasmuch 
as  the  harbour  was  blockaded  by  a  squadron.  Shut  up  thus  in  the  midst  of 
an  irritated  soldiery,  the  citizens  beheld  themselves  exposed  to  all  the  outrage 
that  might  be  dreaded  from  military  licence.  Their  city  was  become  for  them 
a  confined  prison,  and  they  themselves  but  hostages  in  the  hands  of  the  Eng- 
lish general.  This  consideration  was  alone  sufficient  to  embarrass  all  the 
military  and  civil  operations  projected  by  the  Americans.  Various  means 
were  proposed  to  extricate  them  from  so  cruel  a  position,  and  if  they  displayed 
no  very  great  prudence,  they  gave  proof  at  least  of  extraordinary  determina- 
tion. Some  persons  suggested  that  all  the  inhabitants  should  evacuate  the 
city,  to  take  refuge  in  other  places,  where  they  should  be  maintained  at  the 
common  expense.  But  this  was  impracticable,  since  it  was  open  to  General 
Gage  to  oppose  its  being  carried  out.  Certain  individuals  then  proposed  that 
the  houses  and  furniture  of  the  inhabitants  should  be  valued,  and  the  city  set 
on  fire,  these  losses  to  be  paid  for  out  of  the  public  treasury.  After  a  grave 
inquiry,  this  project  was  decided  to  be  not  only  very  difficult,  but  even  im- 
possible to  execute.  Nevertheless,  many  of  the  inhabitants  quitted  the  city 
by  stealth,  and  retired  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  some  out  of  disgust  at 
the  sort  of  captivity  in  which  they  were  held,  others  for  fear  of  imminent 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  343 

hostilities,  or  lastly,  in  the  apprehension  that  they  might  be  dragged  before  a  CIJ*P- 

court  of  justice  as  criminals  of  state.     Still. a  great  number  determined  not  to  ■ — 

stir  out  of  Boston,  and  to  brave  all  hazards,  whatever  they  might  be.  The 
soldiers  of  the  garrison,  weary  of  seeing  themselves  shut  up,  demanded  to 
be  led  against  the  rebels  who  intercepted  their  provisions,  and  for  whom  they 
entertained  the  most  supreme  contempt.  The  people  of  Massachusetts,  on 
their  part,  were  indignant  at  hearing  themselves  accused  of  cowardice  by  the 
soldiers,  and  longed  for  an  opportunity  of  proving  by  some  signal  revenge,  the 
falsity  of  such  reproaches."  The  wished-for  opportunity  was  not  long  in 
presenting  itself.  General  Gage  had  already  sent  to  seize  some  military  stores 
at  Salem,  when  a  collision  was  with  difficulty  prevented.  He  now  received 
information  that  another  supply  had  been  deposited  at  Concord,  distant  about 
eighteen  miles  from  Boston.  Every  possible  precaution  had  been  taken  by  the 
patriots  against  a  sudden  surprise.  At  Charlestown,  Cambridge,  and  Box- 
bury  men  were  stationed  to  keep  an  eye  upon  the  movement  of  the  troops, 
signals  were  agreed  upon,  and  expresses  kept  ready  to  carry  information  into 
the  country.  In  Boston  itself  there  were  always  persons  ready  to  penetrate 
the  designs  of  the  general,  who  was  driven  to  all  sorts  of  expedients  in  order 
to  disguise  his  plans.  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  had  been  obliged  to 
retire  to  Lexington,  and  the  painful  divisions  which  agitated  society  are  well 
illustrated  by  the  fact,  that  the  former  received  a  private  message  from  a 
"  daughter  of  liberty,"  herself  the  wife  of  a  royalist,  that  an  expedition  was 
shortly  expected,  warning  them  to  look  to  their  personal  safety.  On  the  18th 
of  April  General  Gage  sent  out  a  party  of  officers,  ostensibly  to  dine  and  spend  . 
the  day  in  amusement  at  Cambridge,  but  who,  when  night  came  on,  dis- 
persed themselves  on  the  road  to  Lexington  and  Concord,  ready  to  intercept 
any  expresses  who  might  be  sent  to  give  notice  of  his  designs.  A  body  of 
troops  was  then  secretly  got  ready,  who  embarking  about  eleven  at  night  at 
the  foot  of  Boston  common,  crossed  the  river  Charles,  and  landing  at  Phipps' 
farm  in  Cambridge,  marched  on  rapidly  and  silently  towards  Concord.  But 
the  patriots  were  on  the  alert,  for  Dr.  Warren,  who  received  notice  of  the  ex- 
pedition only  just  before  the  embarkation  of  the  troops,  hurried  off  several 
expresses ;  and  though  some  were  intercepted,  one  of  them  succeeded  in  eluding 
the  patrols,  and  speedily  raised  the  alarm,  which,  by  the  firing  of  signal  guns 
and  the  ringing  of  church  bells,  and  volleys  of  musketry,  flew  rapidly  over 
hill  and  dale  until  the  whole  country-side  was  fully  aroused. 

It  was  about  five  in  the  morning  when  the  troops  marched  into  Lexington. 
A  body  of  about  seventy  minute-men  had  assembled  upon  the  green  in  front 
of  the  church  to  oppose  their  further  progress.  It  was  a  critical  moment, 
most  trying  to  the  courage  of  the  colonists.  The  bravery  of  the  British  troops 
was  proverbial — they  were  the  victors  in  a  thousand  fights ;  a  secret  feeling  of 
their  inferiority  to  them,  as  mere  soldiers,  might  well  have  lurked  at  the  bottom 
of  every  patriot's  heart  at  that  decisive  moment ;  yet  they  determined  to  make 
K  a  sfcmd,  and  perish  as  an  example  to  their  countrymen.  The  little  band  stood 
J      firm  while  Major  Pitcairn,  riding  forward,  exclaimed  in  a  threatening  voice, 


344  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

c^^p>  "  Disperse,  you  rebels!  throw  down  your  arms  and  disperse."  Not  being  attended 
^-~  to,  he  discharged  his  pistol  and  ordered  his  men  to  fire.  The  order  was  instantly 
obeyed ;  several  of  the  militia  fell  dead ;  the  others  retired,  returning  the  fire 
of  the  soldiers;  but  as  the  latter  advanced,  scattered  and  fled  on  all  sides. 
This  was  the  first  resistance  offered  by  the  Americans,  and  it  showed  what 
stuff  they  were  made  of,  and  by  what  spirit  they  were  animated.  "  One  of  the 
victims,  Jonas  Parker,  had  been  heard  to  say,  that,  be  the  consequences  what 
they  might,  and  let  others  do  as  they  please,  he  would  never  run  from  the 
enemy.  He  was  as  good  as  his  word— better.  Having  loaded  his  musket, 
he  placed  his  hat  containing  his  ammunition  on  the  ground  before  his  feet, 
in  readiness  for  a  second  charge.  At  the  second  fire  he  was  wounded,  and  sunk 
on  his  knees,  and  in  this  condition  discharged  his  gun.  While  loading  it  again 
upon  his  knees,  and  striving  in  the  agonies  of  death  to  redeem  his  pledge,  he 
was  transfixed  by  a  bayonet,  and  thus  died  on  the  spot  where  he  stood  and  fell." 
After  assembling  on  the  green,  and  firing  off  three  volleys  in  triumph  over 
the  militia,  the  troops  now  marched  on  to  Concord.  The  minute-men  of  that 
place  had  assembled  on  a  hill  in  front  of  the  meeting-house,  but  seeing  the 
strong  force  by  which  they  were  threatened,  they  crossed  the  bridge  to  another 
rising  ground  in  the  rear  of  the  town.  The  bridge  was  immediately  seized 
by  the  troops  and  a  strong  guard  posted  there,  while  another  was  detached 
into  the  town  to  destroy  the  stores,  which  they  successfully  accomplished,  dis- 
abling two  cannon,  throwing  a  quantity  of  ball  into  the  rivers  and  wells,  and 
breaking  in  pieces  about  sixty  barrels  of  flour.  While  they  were  thus  en- 
.  gaged  the  militia  on  the  hill  were  receiving  reinforcements,  and  Major  But- 
trick  of  Concord  came  forward  to  lead  them  against  the  enemy,  carefully  warn- 
ing them  however  not  to  fire  unless  first  fired  upon.  They  descended  the  hill 
and  advanced  towards  the  bridge,  the  planks  of  which  were  being  removed  by 
the  English  soldiers.  As  Buttrick  approached,  he  remonstrated  with  a  loud  tone 
against  this  proceeding,  and  ordered  his  men  to  quicken  their  step.  Seeing 
that  the  Americans  were  determined  to  pass  the  bridge,  the  soldiers  fired  a 
volley  into  their  midst,  and  one  or  two  of  them  fell  dead  on  the  spot.  On 
this  Buttrick  loudly  exclaimed  to  his  men — "  Fire,  fellow  soldiers,  for  God's 
sake,  fire ! "  The  order  flew  with  electric  speed  along  the  American  line, 
and  was  re-echoed  by  hundreds  of  voices.  The  citizens  fired,  and  hurry- 
ing over  the  bridge,  pursued  the  English,  who  immediately  commenced  a 
precipitate  retreat.  By  this  time  the  country  was  fully  aroused,  the  militia- 
men seemed,  to  use  the  words  of  an  English  officer,  "  to  drop  from  the 
clouds."  The  farmer  left  his  plough,  and  ran  for  his  gun,  and  from  every 
quarter  the  minute-men  swarmed  down  to  the  road-side,  lining  the  hedges, 
posting  themselves  in  nooks  and  corners,  harassing  at  once  the  front,  flank, 
and  rear  of  their  retreating  enemies,  and  picking  them  off  at  advantage,  as 
they  hurriedly  retreated  towards  Lexington.  Suffering  most  severely  from 
this  galling  fire,  exhausted  by  the  heat  and  dust,  their  leader  wounded, 
and  disorder  rapidly  increasing,  it  is  probable  the  whole  detachment  would 
have  been  cut  off,  had  not  Gage  most  opportunely  happened  to  despatch  to 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  345 

their  support  a  column  of  nine  hundred  men  under  the  command  of  Lord  chap. 

Percy,  with  a  couple  of  pieces  of  artillery,  who,  as  the  fugitives  reached  Lex ■ — 

ington,  formed  his  troops  into  a  hollow  square  to  receive  them.  Exhausted  by 
their  long  march,  the  tired  soldiers  lay  down  for  rest  on  the  ground,  their 
tongues  hanging  out  of  their  mouths,  like  those  of  hounds  after  a  chase. 
The  artillery  kept  the  assailants  at  bay,  and  as  soon  as  the  men  had  recovered 
a  little  from  their  fatigue,  the  retreat  recommenced  in  perfect  order,  Percy 
throwing  out  flanking  parties  to  cover  his  main  body.  But  it  was  like  run- 
ning the  gauntlet  the  whole  way ;  the  numbers  of  the  minute-men  continually 
increased,  and  acquainted  as  they  were  with  the  best  vantage  ground,  and  all 
of  them  excellent  marksmen,  they  kept  up  an  irregular  but  deadly  fire  upon 
the  retreating  soldiers,  three  hundred  of  whom  were  killed  or  wounded.  The 
main  body,  almost  exhausted  with  fatigue,  at  length,  after  a  march  of  five  and 
thirty  miles,  reached  Bunker  Hill  at  sun-set,  and  encamped  for  the  night, 
under  cover  of  the  ships  of  war  in  the  river.  The  next  day  they  crossed  over 
into  the  city. 

Such  was  the  issue  of  this  momentous  skirmish,  the  melancholy  forerunner  of 
a  long  and  sanguinary  war.  The  royal  troops  were  desperately  chagrined  at 
being  compelled  to  retreat  before  a  crowd  of  undisciplined  and,  as  they  had 
hitherto  regarded  them,  contemptible  Yankees.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Ameri- 
cans had  discovered  that  the  boasted  English  troops  were  not  invincible,  and 
their  courage  and  determination  were  elevated  to  an  enthusiastic  pitch.  Both 
parties  however  strove  to  cast  on  each  other  the  blame  of  having  first  pro- 
ceeded to  extremities.  General  Gage  had  given  express  orders  that  the  troops 
should  fire  only  in  case  they  were  attacked.  The  English  affirmed  that  the 
Lexington  militia  fired  first,  which,  though  their  withstanding  the  progress  of 
the  king's  troops  could  not  be  construed  into  any  thing  short  of  an  overt  act  of 
hostility,  was  certainly  not  the  case.  Both  parties  reproached  each  other 
moreover  with  horrible  instances  of  cruelty.  The  Massachusetts  convention, 
being  then  in  session,  despatched  a  special  packet  to  England  to  prove  that 
the  troops  had  fired  first.  It  was  accompanied  with  an  address  to  the  people 
of  Great  Britain,  in  which,  appealing  to  Heaven  for  the  justice  of  their  cause, 
they  declare  their  intention  to  die  or  to  be  free ;  and  while  still  professing 
loyalty  to  the  king,  express  their  determination  "  not  tamely  to  submit  to  the 
persecution  and  tyranny  of  his  evil  ministry."  This  address  was  committed 
to  Franklin,  upon  whom,  as  their  agent,  its  publication  devolved ;  but  deeply 
wounded  at  the  treatment  he  had  personally  received,  and  finding  that  all 
hopes  of  reconciliation  were  likely  to  prove  abortive,  he  had  already  set  sail 
on  his  return  to  Philadelphia. 

The  news  of  the  affair  of  Lexington — the  first  blood  shed  in  the  defence  of 
liberty  upon  the  American  soil,  produced  an  extraordinary  excitement,  vary- 
ing of  course  according  to  the  feelings  and  convictions  of  its  recipients.  By 
the  more  ardent  patriots,  secretly  anxious  to  throw  off  the  allegiance  of 
England,  it  was  welcomed  as  the  signal  of  a  deadly  and  incurable  quarrel ;  and 
by  those  who  yet  hoped  for  a  reconciliation  with  the  parent  country,  it  was, 

2  T 


346  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  for  the  same  reason,  regarded  with  unfeigned  sorrow  and  alarm.  The  ge- 
neral  effect  was  incontestably  to  inflame  the  ardent  and  to  confirm  the  timid, 
to  unite  all  classes  in  a  feeling  of  intense  bitterness  towards  the  ministers  who, 
by  their  criminal  obstinacy,  had  stained  the  once  happy  plains  of  America  with 
the  blood  of  her  own  citizens,  and  to  give  a  great  impulse  towards  the  growing 
desire  for  independence.  These  feelings  cannot  be  better  expressed  than  in  a 
letter  written  not  long  afterwards  by  Franklin,  who,  after  his  ineffectual  at- 
tempts at  conciliation,  had  recently  returned  from  England,  and  been 
chosen  a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  assembly,  to  his  old  friend  Strahan, 
the  kind's  printer,  with  whom,  during  his  sojourn  in  London,  he  had  been 
upon  terms  of  intimate  and  playful  familiarity.  To  his  old  companion,  a 
steady  supporter  of  Lord  North's  administration,  he  now  writes  in  the  follow- 
ing indignant  strain :  "  You  are  a  member  of  parliament,  and  one  of  that 
majority  which  has  doomed  my  country  to  destruction.  You  have  begun  to 
burn  our  towns  and  murder  our  people.  Look  upon  your  hands  !  They  are 
stained  with  the  blood  of  your  relations !  You  and  I  were  long  friends — you 
are  now  my  enemy,  and  I  am  yours."  If  one  of  the  most  pacific  of  human 
beings,  and  who  detested  war  alike  upon  moral  and  economical  principles, 
could  be  thus  exasperated  by  that  oppression  which  makes  the  wise  man  mad, 
we  may  easily  conceive  what  must  have  been  the  feelings  of  the  more  ardent 
and  excitable  of  the  people. 

Scarcely  had  the  news  of  the  battle  arrived,  when  a  great  public  meeting 
was  held  at  Philadelphia,  at  which,  in  spite  of  the  more  pacific  of  the  citi- 
zens, a  volunteer  military  association  was  formed,  towards  the  expenses  of 
which  the  assembly,  which  met  shortly  after,  voted  a  considerable  sum. 
The  solemn  sanction  of  religion  was  also  given  by  the  clergy  to  the  cause  of 
American  liberty.  It  has  been  already  observed,  that  the  Congregationalist 
ministers  of  New  England  were  extremely  jealous  of  the  introduction  of  Epis- 
copalianism,  and  a  project  of  this  kind,  with  which  they  had  been  recently 
threatened,  had  given  equal  alarm  and  offence.  Justly  regarding  the  cause 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  as  identical,  they  were  easily  induced  to  throw 
the  weight  of  their  influence  into  the  popular  scale.  The  Presbyterians 
r.:'cturally  sympathized  with  the  Congregationalists  in  a  traditionary  dislike  to 
Jie  predominance  of  English  influence,  with  which  Episcopalianism  was  natur- 
ally identified.  Accordingly,  after  the  affair  of  Lexington,  which  was  regarded 
as  an  act  of  overt  hostility,  the  synods  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  published 
a  pastoral  letter,  which  was  read  in  all  the  churches,  and  produced  an  immense 
influence  on  the  minds  of  the  people.  Hitherto,  they  declared,  not  willing  to 
be  instruments  of  discord  between  the  colonists  and  their  brethren,  they  had 
abstained  from  pronouncing  an  opinion ;  but  now,  in  the  altered  state  of  affairs, 
they  declared  that  they  could  no  longer  hesitate  in  counselling  their  flocks  to 
take  up  arms,  under  the  full  belief  that  the  cause  of  oppressed  America  was  the 
cause  of  Heaven.  Some  attempt  at  conciliation  was  made  by  John  Penn,  one 
of  the  descendants  of  the  great  founder  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  last  of  the 
royal  governors  of  that  state.     In  obedience  to  his  instructions  he  laid  before 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  347 

the  assen  .bly  the  proposition  of  Lord  North,  observing  "  that,  as  being  the  first   chap. 

assembly  to  whom  it  had  been  communicated,  they  would  deservedly  be  re- : — 

vered  by  the  latest  posterity,  if  by  any  means  they  could  be  instrumental  in  A" D* 1775' 
restoring  public  tranquillity,  and  rescuing  both  countries  from  the  horrors  of 
a  civil  war«"     They  refused  however  to  adopt  it,  even  should  it  prove  to  be 
unexceptionable,  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  their  sister  colonies,  who, 
united  by  just  motives  and  mutual  faith,  were  guided  by  general  councils. 

The  Massachusetts  congress  now  proceeded  to  improve  the  recent  success, 
and  give  a  profitable  and  permanent  direction  to  the  martial  spirit  of  the 
people,  by  the  formation  of  twenty-seven  regiments,  consisting  of  thirteen  thou- 
sand men,  and  by  calling  upon  the  neighbouring  States  to  make  up  the  num- 
ber to  thirty  thousand  ;  an  appeal  that  was  responded  to  with  spirit.  Volunteer 
companies  were  formed,  some  of  .hem  under  the  command  of  men  who  after- 
wards became  famous  in  the  progress  of  the  war.  Conspicuous  among  these 
was  the  fiery  and  impetuous  Benedict  Arnold,  who  combined  the  trades  of  a 
druggist  and  bookseller — "  from  London,"  who  was  at  that  time  captain  of  the 
governor  of  Connecticut's  guards,  at  Newhaven.  No  sooner  did  the  news  of 
the  skirmish  at  Lexington  reach  that  place,  than  Arnold,  leaving  to  others  the 
custody  of  his  books  and  gallipots,  summoned  his  corps  and  proposed  to  start 
instantly  for  a  more  congenial  scene  of  action.  About  forty  of  his  company  con- 
sented to  go.  Arnold  then  requested  the  town  authorities  to  furnish  him  with 
ammunition,  sending  in  word  that  if  the  keys  were  not  delivered  to  him  in  five 
minutes,  he  would  break  in  and  help  himself.  The  keys  were  delivered,  the 
ammunition  secured,  and  Arnold  marched  off  with  his  corps  to  Cambridge, 
where  its  discipline  was  so  superior  that  it  was  selected  to  deliver  to  General 
Gage  the  body  of  a  British  officer  who  had  died  of  wounds  received  at  Lex- 
ington. Another  kindred  spirit  was  Colonel  Ethan  Allen,  who  had  emigrated 
from  Connecticut  to  Vermont,  and  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  disputes 
that  arose  between  the  settlers  and  the  State  of  New  York.  He  was  a  tall, 
sinewy  man,  a  perfect  dare-devil  in  courage,  of  fervid  patriotism,  with  a 
wild,  eccentric  enthusiasm  peculiar  to  himself.  A  singular  story  is  related 
of  him  by  Rivington,  the  king's  printer,  who  was  one  of  the  politest  men  in 
Boston,  and  highly  fashionable  in  his  dress, — wore  curled  and  powdered  hair, 
claret-coloured  coat,  scarlet  waistcoat  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  buck-skin 
breeches,  and  top-boots ;  and  he  kept  the  best  society.  As  a  royalist,  he  greatly 
despised  the  rebels,  and  had  made  some  remarks  in  his  journal  which  so  irritated 
Ethan  Allen  that  he  threatened  "  ro  chastise  him  for  it  on  the  first  opportunity." 
"  I  was  sitting,"  says  Rivington,  "  after  a  good  dinner  alone,  with  my  bottle  of 
Madeira  before  me,  when  I  heard  an  unusual  noise  in  the  street,  and  a  huzza 
from  the  boys.  I  was  in  the  second  story,  and,  stepping  to  the  window,  saw 
a  tall  figure  in  tarnished  regimentals,  with  a  large  cocked  hat  and  an  enor- 
mous long  sword,  followed  by  a  crowd  of  boys,  who  occasionally  cheered  him 
with  huzzas,  of  which  he  seemed  insensible.  He  came  up  to  my  door  and 
stopped.  I  could  see  no  more.  My  heart  told  me  it  was  Ethan  Allen.  I 
shut  down  my  window,  and  retired  behind  my  table  and  bottle.     I  was  cer- 

2  y  2 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  tain  the  hour  of  reckoning  had  come.    There  was  no  retreat.    Mr.  Staples,  my 

- —  clerk,  came  in  paler  than  ever,  and  clasping  his  hands,  said,  l  Master,  he  is 

a.d.  1775.  come  j  j  (  j  know  fa*     <  He  entered  the  store  and  asked  '  if  James  Rivington 
lived  there.'  I  answered,  '  Yes,  sir.'  ( Is  he  at  home  ? '  '  I  will  go  and  see,  sir,' 
I  said.  And  now,  master,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  There  he  is  in  the  store,  and  the 
boys  peeping  at  him  from  the  street.'     I  had  made  up  my  mind.     I  looked  at 
the  bottle  of  Madeira — possibly  took  a  glass.     '  Show  him  up,'  said  I ;  f  and  if 
such  Madeira  cannot  mollify  him,  he  must  be  harder  than  adamant.'    There 
was  a  fearful  moment  of  suspense.     I  heard  him  on  the  stairs,  his  long  sword 
clanking  at  every  step.  In  he  stalked.  '  Is  your  name  James  Rivington  ?  '  { It 
is,  sir,  and  no  man  could  be  more  happy  than  I  am  to  see  Colonel  Ethan  Allen.' 
'  Sir,  I  have  come—'    f  Not  another  word,  my  dear  colonel,  until  you  have 
taken  a  seat  and  a  glass  of  old  Madeira.'     '  But,  sir,  I  don't  think  it  proper — ' 
'  Not  another  word,  colonel.    Taste  this  wine  ;  I  have  had  it  in  glass  for  ten 
years.     Old  wine,  you  know,  unless  it  is  originally  sound,  never  improves  by 
age.'     He  took  the  glass,  swallowed  the  wine,  smacked  his  lips,  and  shook  his 
head  approvingly.    f  Sir,  I  come — '  '  Not  another  word  until  you  have  taken 
another  glass,  and  then,  my  dear  colonel,  we  will  talk  of  old  affairs,  and  I 
have  some  droll  events  to  detail.'     In  short,  we  finished  two  bottles  of  Ma- 
deira, and  parted  as  good  friends  as  if  we  never  had  cause  to  be  otherwise." 
Such  was  this  gunpowder  captain,  whom  nothing  but  wine  could  mollify. 
Putnam  too,  who,  as  we  have  already  seen,  had  served  with  great  distinction 
during  the  Canadian  wars,  and  now  a  veteran  of  sixty-five,  hastened  from  his 
plough  to  join  the  insurgents.     Another  body  of  volunteers  from  Rhode 
Island  also  repaired  to  the  camp  under  the  command  of  Nathaniel  Greene,  a 
young  Quaker,  but  of  too  warlike  a  turn  of  mind  to  prove  an  acceptable 
member  of  that  community.      He  was  appointed  a  brigadier-general,  and 
afterwards  became  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  continental  chiefs.     By 
the  junction  of  these  different  forces  Boston  was  soon  invested  by  an  army  of 
twenty  thousand  men,  who,  irregular  as  they  were  in  discipline,  had  given 
abundant  proof  they  were  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  contemptible  opponents. 
Arnold  and  Allen  speedily  found  an  opportunity  of  displaying  their  enthu- 
siastic daring.     In  full  -.nticipation  of  a  struggle,  Samuel  Adams  and  Dr. 
Warren  had  sent  an  agent  into  Canada  to  sound  the  temper  of  the  people. 
He  reported  that  they  were  but  little  disposed  to  join  the  Americans,  and 
counselled  the  surprise  of  Ticonderoga  upon  the  earliest  outbreak  of  hostility. 
The  enterprise  was  secretly  concocted,  and  Allen,  with  a  body  of  "  Green 
Mountain  boys  "  from  Vermont,  was  joined  near  Lake  Champlain  by  a  number 
of  other  volunteers.   Arnold,  burning  to  distinguish  himself,  and  having,  it  is 
supposed,  got  wind  of  the  intended  expedition,  contrived  to  obtain  the  com- 
mand of  it  from  the  provincial  congress,  and  hurried  down  to  the  scene  of  action, 
but  on  producing  his  commission  found,  to  his  great  chagrin,  that  the  fellow 
mountaineers  of  Allen  refused  to  follow  any  other  leader  than  himself.     Re- 
solved to  share  in  the  glory  of  the  enterprise  if  he  could  not  assume  its  com- 
mand, Arnold  then  attached  himself  to  the  expedition  in  the  capacity  of  a 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  349 

simple  volunteer.     The  whole  body  now  marched  down  to  the  shores  of  the  chap. 

lake  opposite  to  Ticonderoga,  where,  as  no  attack  was  dreamed  of,  the  vigil '— 

ance  of  the  garrison  was  very  greatly  relaxed ;  and  a  guide  being  found  who 
was  acquainted  with  every  secret  way  about  the  fortress,  Allen  and  Arnold 
crossed  over  during  the  night  with  about  eighty  of  their  men,  the  rest  being 
unable  to  follow  them  for  want  of  a  supply  of  boats.  Landed  under  the  walls 
of  the  fort,  they  found  their  position  extremely  critical ;  the  dawn  was  begin- 
ning to  break,  and  unless  they  could  succeed  in  instantly  surprising  the  gar- 
rison, they  ran  themselves  the  most  imminent  risk  of  capture.  Ethan  Allen  did 
not  hesitate  a  moment,  but,  drawing  up  his  men,  briefly  explained  to  them  the 
position  of  affairs,  and  then,  with  Arnold  by  his  side,  hurried  up  immediately 
to  the  sally-port.  The  sentinel  snapped  his  fusee  at  them,  and  rushing  into 
the  fort,  the  Americans  followed  close  at  his  heels,  and  entering  the  open 
parade,  awoke  the  sleeping  garrison  with  a  tremendous  shout  of  triumph. 
The  English  soldiers  started  from  their  beds,  hurried  on  their  arms  and  rushed 
below,  and  were  immediately  taken  prisoners  and  obliged  to  capitulate. 

Meanwhile  Allen,  attended  by  his  guide,  hurried  up  to  the  chamber  of  the 
commandant,  Captain  La  Place,  who  was  in  bed  with  his  wife,  and  knocking  at 
his  door  with  the  hilt  of  his  huge  sword,  ordered  him  in  a  stentorian  voice  to 
make  his  instant  appearance,  or  the  entire  garrison  should  immediately  be 
put  to  death.  To  the  commandant,  just  awakened,  all  this  seemed  like  a 
dream,  and  as  he  opened  the  door,  but  half  dressed,  with  his  terrified  wife 
peeping  over  his  shoulder,  he  authoritatively  demanded  the  meaning  of  this 
incomprehensible  summons.  "  I  order  you  instantly  to  surrender,"  roared 
Allen.  "  But  by  what  authority  do  you  demand  it  ?  "  inquired  the  bewildered 
officer.  "  In  the  name  of  the  Great  Jehovah  and  the  continental  congress, 
by  G — d,"  was  the  thundering  reply ;  to  which  Allen  gave  additional  em- 
phasis by  flourishing  his  long  sword  to  and  fro  like  a  madman  above  La 
Place's  head.  The  latter  knew  not  what  to  make  of  it,  but  had  no  alter- 
native but  to  give  up  the  place  to  his  combustible  captor ;  and  the  fort  and 
stores  were  accordingly  surrendered.  Another  body  followed  up  this  success 
by  surprising  Crown  Point.  The  continental  congress,  which  had  then  but  just 
opened  its  second  session,  and  in  whose  name  Allen  had  boldly  captured  the" 
fortress,  had  as  little  expected  as  they  had  authorized  this  achievement: 
they  gave  orders  that  the  cannon  and  stores  should  be  removed  to  the  south 
end  of  Lake  George,  and  an  exact  inventory  of  them  taken,  "  in  order 
that  they  may  be  safely  returned  when  the  restoration  of  harmony  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  so  ardently  desired  by  the  latter,  shall  render 
it  prudent  and  consistent  with  the  overpowering  law  of  self-preservation."  It 
is  unnecessary  to  say  that  that  period  was  never  destined  to  arrive. 

The  state  of  American  affairs  about  the  opening  of  parliament  was  justly 
regarded  with  the  greatest  anxiety,  both  by  the  government,  the  opposition, 
and  the  people  at  large.  "  It  had  been  hoped,"  says  Botta,  "  and  the  ministers 
themselves  had  confidently  predicted,  that  the  recent  enactments,  and  espe- 
cially the  troops  that  were  sent  over  to  the  colonies,  would  promptly  extin- 


A.  D. 1775. 


350  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  vn  P*  guisk  sedition,  and  reduce  the  factious  to  obedience.  It  was  not  doubted  but 
that  the  partisans  of  the  royal  cause,  encouraged  by  the  presence  of  the 
soldiers,  would  display  great  energy,  and  join  themselves  to  the  royal  troops, 
in  order  to  establish  the  authority  of  government.  There  was  a  profound 
conviction  that  the  southern  provinces,  when  they  beheld  the  storm  about  to 
burst  upon  them,  would  not  embrace  the  quarrel  of  those  of  the  north,  and 
it  seemed  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  dissensions  which  divided  one  from  the 
other  would  bring  about  the  submission  of  the  whole.  But  these  hopes  had 
been  completely  frustrated.  The  popular  movements,  which  at  first  had  been 
but  partial,  now  extended  over  the  whole  continent.  The  governors,  far  from 
having  re-established  the  royal  authority,  had  been  compelled  to  fly  and  take 
refuge  on  board  the  ships.  The  Americans,  who  had  been  represented  as 
trembling  and  ready  to  yield,  displayed  every  day  increasing  strength  and 
audacity." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  obstinacy  of  ministers  had  at  first  been  greatly 
fortified  by  the  belief  that  the  number  of  the  discontented  was  comparatively 
small,  that  their  leaders  were  turbulent  and  unimportant,  and  that  the  mass 
of  the  respectable  inhabitants  only  awaited  the  display  of  energy  on  the  part 
of  the  government  in  order  to  throw  their  influence  into  the  scale  and  reduce 
the  factious  to  obedience.  Nor  was  this  delusion,  which  continued  for  a  long 
time  afterwards  to  influence  the  proceedings  of  government,  without  some  ap- 
pearance of  foundation.  The  royal  governors  and  officials  had  always  per- 
sisted in  holding  this  language,  and  besides,  the  partisans  of  the  English  w&re 
really  very  numerous,  especially  among  the  more  wealthy  and  influential 
classes.  This  was  known  to  be  more  particularly  the  case  in  New  York  and 
the  southern  provinces.  Franklin,  it  is  true,  had  endeavoured,  but  without 
effect,  to  open  the  eyes  of  ministers  to  the  truth,  but  in  the  disunited  state  of  the 
colonies,  and  in  the  preponderance  of  loyalty  among  the  inhabitants,  it  was 
supposed  that  a  very  small  display  of  force  would  suffice  to  reduce  the  dis- 
affected. The  British  officers,  who  entertained  strong  prejudices  against  the 
colonists,  and  looked  down  upon  them  with  a  contemptuous  feeling  of  supe- 
riority, boasted,  and  doubtless  believed,  that  at  the  head  of  a  few  regiments 
they  could  march  triumphantly  from  one  end  of  America  to  the  other.  Ac- 
cordingly, far  from  sending  over  a  really  imposing  force,  government  had 
contented  themselves  with  despatching  such  a  handful  of  men  as,  without  in- 
timidating the  colonists,  had  only  stimulated  them  to  increased  opposition; 
and  such  is  the  inconsistency  of  party. spirit,  that  this  very  reluctance  to  put 
forth  a  crushing  display  of  power  was  now  accused  by  those  very  members  of 
the  opposition  who  had  been  the  first  to  protest  against  the  employment  of 
force. 

A  general  election  had  taken  place,  but  the  result  was  decidedly  in  favour 
of  the  Tory  party,  and  Lord  North  and  his  friends  might  count  upon  an 
overwhelming  majority.  It  was  by  this  time  fully  understood  that  the  king 
was  firmly  resolved  to  reduce  the  rebellious  colonists  to  obedience,  and  that 
no  measures  of  concession  were  to  be  expected  from  his  advisers.     We  have 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  351 

already  remarked,  that  a  conviction  to  this  effect  had  dawned  slowly  on  the  c ha  p. 
mind  of  Franklin,  and  that  he  had  been  at  first  disposed  to  regard  the  king  as  A  p  ^- 
under  the  influence  of  his  ministers,  but  was  now  fully  convinced  that  the 
reverse  of  this  was  really  the  case.  The  pride  of  the  monarch  had  engaged 
his  advisers  not  to  give  way,  but  go  on  until  America  was  reduced  to  obe- 
dience. In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Quincy,  who  had  recently  come  over 
from  Boston,  Lord  North,  after  reminding  him  of  the  power  of  England, 
declared  his  determination  to  exert  it  to  the  utmost  in  order  to  effect  the  sub- 
mission of  the  colonies.  "  We  must  try,"  said  he,  "  what  we  can  do  to  sup- 
port the  authority  we  claim  over  America.  If  we  are  defective  in  power,  we 
must  sit  down  contented,  and  make  the  best  terms  we  can,  and  nobody  will 
blame  us  after  we  have  done  our  utmost,  but  till  we  have  tried  what  we  can  do 
we  can  never  be  justified  in  receding." 

Such  was  the  feeling  and  policy  of  the  ministry  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  in  October,  1774.  In  his  message  to  parliament,  the  king  declared, 
"  that  a  most  daring  spirit  of  resistance  and  disobedience  to  the  laws  still  un- 
happily prevailed  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts,  and  had  broken  forth  in 
fresh  violences  of  a  very  criminal  nature ;  and  that  these  proceedings  had  been 
countenanced  and  encouraged  in  other  of  his  colonies,  and  unwarrantable 
attempts  had  been  made  to  obstruct  the  commerce  of  his  kingdoms  by  unlaw- 
ful combinations ;  and  that  he  had  taken  such  measures  and  given  such  orders 
as  he  judged  most  proper  and  effectual  for  carrying  into  execution  the  laws 
which  were  passed  in  the  last  session  of  the  late  parliament  for  the  protection 
and  security  of  the  commerce  of  his  subjects,  and  for  restoring  and  preserving 
peace,  order,  and  good  government  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts.  The 
usual  address  in  reply  to  the  royal  speech,  though  carried  by  a  large  majority, 
was  not  voted  without  a  very  spirited  debate.  Among  the  opponents  of 
ministerial  infatuation  on  this  occasion  was  the  celebrated  John  Wilkes,  the 
leader  of  the  rising  popular  party,  and  one  of  the  earliest  advocates  of  that 
so-called  radical  reform,  which  is  now  being  gradually  carried  out  in  Eng- 
land. Horribly  licentious  in  private  life,  he  was  no  less  the  idol  of  the  com- 
mon people.  His  principles  naturally  inclined  him  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
the  Americans,  and  in  the  present  instance  he  delivered  himself  with  unusual 
and  prophetic  solemnity.  .  After  defending  the  colonists  from  the  charges 
brought  against  them,  and  denouncing  the  measures  intended  to  reduce  them 
to  obedience,  he  continued  thus  :  "  Whether  their  present  state  is  that  of  re- 
bellion, or  of  a  fit  and  just  resistance  to  the  unlawful  acts  of  power,  to  our 
attempts  to  rob  them  of  their  property  and  liberties,  as  they  imagine,  I  shall 
not  declare.  But  I  well  know  what  will  follow ;  nor,  however  strange  and 
harsh  it  may  appear  to  some,  shall  I  hesitate  to  announce  it,  that  I  may  not 
be  accused  hereafter  of  having  failed  in  my  duty  to  my  country,  on  so  grave 
an  occasion,  and  at  the  .approach  of  such  direful  calamities.  Know,  then,  a 
successful  resistance  is  a  revolution,  not  a  rebellion.  Rebellion,  indeed,  ap- 
pears on  the  back  of  a  flying  enemy,  but  revolution  flames  on  the  breastplate 
of  the  victorious  warrior.    Who  can  tell,  whether  in  consequence  of  this  day's 


352  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

°  vn.P'  violent  and  mad  address  to  his  Majesty,  the  scabbard  may  not  be  thrown  away 
A,  d.  ma.  ty  t*iem  as  we^  as  ky  ns>  anc*  whether  in  a  few  years  the  independent  Ameri- 
cans may  not  celebrate  the  glorious  era  of  the  Revolution  of  1775,  as  we  do 
that  of  1668.  You  would  declare  the  Americans  rebels,  and  to  your  injustice 
and  oppression  you  add  the  most  opprobrious  language,  and  the  most  insulting 
scoffs.  If  you  persist  in  your  resolution,  all  hope  of  a  reconciliation  is  ex- 
tinct. The  Americans  will  triumph,  the  whole  continent  of  North  America 
will  be  dismembered  from  Great  Britain,  and  the  wide  arch  of  the  raised  em- 
pire fall.  But  I  hope  the  just  vengeance  of  the  people  will  overtake  the 
authors  of  these  pernicious  counsels,  and  the  loss  of  the  first  province  of  the 
empire  be  speedily  followed  by  the  loss  of  the  heads  of  those  ministers  who 
first  invented  them." 

Shortly  afterwards,  accounts  of  the  proceedings  of  congress  were  received  in 
England,  which,  by  showing  the  imminence  of  the  peril,  gave  increased  ve- 
hemence to  the  feelings  and  language  of  the  Whig  opposition.  On  the  20th 
of  January,  the  parliament  having  re-assembled,  the  venerable  Lord  Chatham, 
whose  increasing  infirmities  had  for  a  long  time  kept  him  absent  from  the  House, 
moved  that  orders  might  be  despatched  to  General  Gage  for  the  removal  of  the 
troops  from  Boston,  a  proposition  which  he  supported  with  his  accustomed 
earnestness.  This  motion  of  Lord  Chatham's  was  seconded  by  Lord  Camden, 
w^io  affirmed  that  "  whenever  oppression  begins  resistance  becomes  lawful  and 
right,"  and  supported  by  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  and  Lord  Shelburne, 
but  in  spite  of  his  utmost  efforts  was  lost  by  a  very  large  majority. 

Determined  to  follow  out  their  policy  of  compulsion,  the  ministry  turned 
a  deaf  ear  not  only  to  the  strenuous  efforts  of  the  opposition,  which  they  thought 
proper  to  attribute  to  party  spirit,  but  also  to  the  numerous  petitions  flowing 
in  from  London  and  other  principal  cities,  which  they  referred  for  consider- 
ation to  some  future  committee,  well  nick-named  by  the  opposition,  "  a  com- 
mittee of  oblivion."  The  petition  from  the  continental  congress  to  the  king 
shared  the  same  fate.  Franklin,  Bollan,  and  Lee,  to  whose  care  it  had  been 
intrusted,  desired  to  be  heard  by  counsel  at  the  bar  of  the  House,  but  their 
request  was  refused  on  the  ground  that  the  congress  was  an  illegal  assembly. 

Lord  Chatham  next  introduced  a  new  measure  of  conciliation,  respecting 
which  he  had  consulted  Franklin,  who,  though  certain  alterations  he  had 
sketched  had  not  been  introduced,  was  requested  by  his  Lordship  to  be  pre- 
sent at  the  debates  upon  it.  Franklin  accordingly  repaired  to  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  bill  provided  that  no  tax  should  be  levied  upon  the 
Americans  without  their  consent ;  but  on  the  other  hand  it  required  a  full  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  supremacy  of  parliament,  and  the  voting  of  a  free  grant 
to  the  king  of  a  certain  annual  revenue,  to  be  at  the  disposition  of  parliament. 
Matters  however  had  now  gone  too  far  for  such  a  bill  to  have  been  received 
in  America,  where  the  claims  of  the  colonists  had  increased  with  their  suc- 
cessful opposition,  even  had  it  passed  the  House,  but  it  was  rejected  by  a  large 
majority  on  its  first  reading.  Lord  Dartmouth,  one  of  the  ministers,  was  at 
first  disposed  to  have  the  bill  lie  upon  the  table,  but  Lord  Sandwich  moved 


A.  D. 1775. 


HISTORY     .F    AMERICA.  353 

that  it  be  immediately  "  rejected  with  the  contempt  it  deserved."  "  He  could  c  ha  p. 
never  believe/'  he  said,  "  that  it  was  the  production  of  a  British  peer,  it  appear- 
ed to  him  rather  the  work  of  some  American.  He  fancied  (such  were  his 
words  as  he  looked  round  severely  upon  Franklin)  that  he  had  in  his  eye  the 
person  who  drew  it  up,  one  of  the  bitterest  and  most  mischievous  enemies  this 
country  had  ever  known."  To  this  invective  Lord  Chatham  replied  with 
warmth,  that  the  proposition  was  entirely  his  own,  but  that  "  were  he  the  first 
minister  of  this  country,  and  had  the  care  of  settling  this  momentous  business, 
he  should  not  be  ashamed  of  publicly  calling  to  his  assistance  a  person  so  per- 
fectly acquainted  with  the  whole  of  American  affairs  as  the  gentleman  alluded 
to,  and  so  injuriously  reflected  on,  one  whom  all  Europe  held  in  estimation 
for  his  knowledge  and  wisdom,  and  ranked  with  our  Boyles  and  Newtons, 
who  was  an  honour  not  to  the  English  nation  only,  but  to  human  nature." 
The  utmost  efforts  of  Lord  Chatham  failed  to  obtain  even  a  second  reading 
for  his  bill. 

Notwithstanding  the  strenuous  efforts  of  the  opposition,  a  joint  address  from 
the  Lords  and  Commons  was  presented  to  the  king,  in  which  they  declared 
"that  a  rebellion  actually  existed  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
besought  his  Majesty  to  adopt  measures  to  enforce  the  authority  of  the 
supreme  legislature,  and  solemnly  assured  him  that  it  was  their  fixed  resolution*, 
at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  properties,  to  stand  by  him  against  his  re- 
bellious subjects."  This  declaration  the  minister  shortly  followed  up  by  a  bill 
restraining  the  commerce  of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut  to  Great  Britain  and  the  West  Indies,  and,  what  was  still 
more  cruel,  prohibiting  these  provinces  from  fishing  on  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland, an  occupation  vital  to  their  interests.  This  proposition  gave  rise  to 
a  very  animated  debate,  in  the  midst  of  which  Lord  North  surprised  both  his 
political  friends  and  adversaries  by  suddenly  bringing  forward  a  measure  ap- 
parently conciliatory,  and  perhaps  intended  to  be  so,  differing  in  substance  but 
little  from  that  of  Chatham,  but  more  vague  and  cautiously  worded.  It  pro- 
vided that,  so  long  as  the  colonial  assemblies  should  voluntarily  furnish  such 
sums  as  were  required  for  the  government  in  defence  of  the  colony,  to  be  dis- 
posable by  parliament,  and  satisfactory  to  that  body  and  the  king,  the  right  of 
taxation  should  be  waived  by  government,  except  in  regard  to  the  external 
regulation  of  commerce.  Pressed  by  the  objections  of  his  party,  who  com- 
plained that  his  measure  conceded  the  very  point  in  dispute,  Lord  North  was 
forced  to  declare,  in  order  to  pacify  them,  that  it  really  conceded  nothing,  and 
was  designed  rather  to  divide  parties  in  America,  than  expected  to  be  cordially 
received  there.  With  this  explanation  it  passed  the  House,  and  was  transmitted 
to  the  colonial  governors,  with  orders  to  press  its  acceptance  warmly  upon  the 
different  legislatures,  but  it  experienced  the  usual  fate  of  insincere  and  tem- 
porizing expedients. 

Not  long  after  the  passing  of  the  New  England  Restraining  Bill,  arrived 
the  unwelcome  news  that  the  middle  and  southern  colonists  were  joining  heart 
and  hand  with  their  brothers  of  the  north.     The  ministers  were  now  in  con- 

2  z 


354  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

C  vuP'  S^stency  obliged  to  impose  the  same  restrictions  upon  all  the  offending  States, 
D  New  York,  Delaware,  and  North  Carolina  alone  excepted.  Even  these  States 
however,  in  which  the  ministry  had  fondly  hoped  to  have  found  adherents, 
proved  to  be  no  less  earnest  in  their  opposition  to  their  measures  than  the 
others.  Towards  the  end  of  the  session,  Burke,  as  agent  for  New  York,  pre- 
sented a  petition  from  the  general  assembly  of  that  province  ;  but  as  this  was 
found  to  be  hardly  less  emphatic  in  its  declarations  and  claims  than  those  of 
Massachusetts  itself,  Lord  North,  on  the  ground  that  it  denied  the  supreme 
legislative  authority  of  parliament,  succeeded  in  carrying  an  amendment  that 
it  should  not  be  entertained  by  the  House. 

Previously  to  this,  Burke  had  brought  forward  a  proposal  for  entirely  re- 
nouncing all  attempts  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  trusting  to  the  local  assemblies 
for  a  free  grant  of  such  sums  as  should  be  required.  In  one  of  his  most 
deeply  studied  and  statesmanlike  speeches  he  proposed  to  "  establish  the 
equity  and  justice  of  a  taxation  of  America  by  grant,  and  not  by  imposition,  to 
mark  the  legal  competency  of  the  colonial  assemblies  for  the  support  of  their 
government  in  peace  and  for  the  public  aids  in  time  of  war,  to  acknowledge 
that  this  legal  competency  has  had  a  dutiful  and  beneficial  exercise,  and  that 
experience  has  shown  the  benefit  of  their  grants  and  the  futility  of  parliament- 
ary taxation  as  a  measure  of  supply."  But  the  utmost  eloquence  of  Burke 
failed  to  render  this  conciliatory  proposition  acceptable  to  the  House. 

We  must  now  turn  from  the  British  parliament  to  the  city  of  Boston, 
destined  to  become  the  scene  of  those  hostilities  that  could  no  longer  be 
averted.  "  This  city,"  says  Botta,  "  is  situated  in  about  the  centre  of  the 
province  of  Massachusetts,  on  a  tongue  of  land  which,  joined  to  the  con- 
tinent by  a  very  narrow  isthmus,  expands  afterwards  enough  to  contain  a 
city  of  considerable  size.  The  form  of  this  peninsula  is  irregular,  forming 
alternately  bays  and  promontories.  One  of  these  bays,  on  the  eastern  side, 
serves  as  the  port,  receiving  equally  ships  of  war  and  merchant  vessels.  To- 
wards the  north,  the  ground  is  divided  into  two  points  or  horns,  one  of  which, 
looking  north-east,  is  called  Point  Hudson ;  the  other,  facing  the  north-west, 
is  denominated  Point  Barton.  Opposite  these  two  points  appears  another 
peninsula,  which,  from  the  name  of  a  large  suburb  opposite  the  city,  is  called 
Charlestown,  and  it  is  joined  to  the  continent  by  a  very  narrow  isthmus,  which 
bears  the  same  denomination.  The  sea  forms  an  arm  of  about  half  a  mile 
broad  between  Hudson  and  Barton  Points,  and  Charlestown  (now  united  by 
7l  bridge) ;  it  afterwards  extends  itself  so  as  to  surround  the  western  portion  of 
the  peninsula  of  Boston.  Several  rivers  or  creeks  discharge  themselves  into 
this  bay,  the  principal  being,  the  Muddy,  the  Charles,  the  Mistic,  and  the 
Medford.  Not  far  from  the  isthmus  of  Boston,  the  continent  advances  into 
the  sea  and  forms  a  long  promontory,  which  extends  on  the  right  hand  east- 
ward, which  form  another  sort  of  peninsula,  although  joined  to  the  mainland 
by  an  isthmus  much  larger  than  those  of  Boston  and  Charlestown,  and  bearing 
the  name  of  the  isthmus  and  point  of  Dorchester.  The  peninsulas  of  Charles- 
town and  Dorchester  are  so  near  that  of  Boston,  that  batteries  erected  on  them 


r 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  355 

carry  even  into  the  city ;  these  peninsulas  are  moreover  covered  with  hills  chap. 

singularly  favourable   for  the   placing   of  artillery.     One  of  these,  named ~ 

Breed's  Hill,  rises  conspicuously  above  Charlestown,  and  commands  the  city 
of  Boston;  another,  near  the  extremity  of  the  isthmus,  and  consequently 
farther  off  from  Boston,  bears  the  name  of  Bunker's  Hill  (These  heights,  it 
should  be  remarked,  entirely  commanded  the  great  northern  road  into  the 
country.)  On  the  peninsula  of  Dorchester  are  conspicuous  the  so-called 
Dorchester  Heights,  and  finally,  another  called  Nook's  Hill,  crowning  the 
point  nearest  to  Boston.  The  bay  is  dotted  over  with  small  islands,  the  most 
conspicuous  of  which  are  Noddle,  Thompson,  Governor's,  Long  Island,  and 
Castle  Island.  Westward  of  Boston,  on  the  Charles  river,  is  situated  the  large 
village  of  Cambridge,  (the  seat  of  the  so-often  mentioned  university,)  and  south- 
ward, at  the  entry  of  the  isthmus,  that  of  Roxbury."  The  American  army 
rested  its  left  wing  on  the  river  Mistic,  and  intercepted  the  isthmus  of  Charles- 
town,  The  centre  occupied  Cambridge,  and  the  right  wing,  carried  as  far  as 
Roxbury,  kept  the  garrison  in  check  upon  that  side  of  the  isthmus,  which  being 
fortified,  might  facilitate  their  sorties  and  expeditions  into  the  open  country. 

To  continue  the  graphic  description  of  this  author  :  <{  In  this  situation  were 
the  two  armies  respectively  placed,  but  the  number  and  quality  of  the  com- 
batants, their  opinions,  military  knowledge,  arms,  ammunition,  and  provisions, 
render  their  condition  widely  different.  The  Americans  were  far  superior  in 
number,  but  this  number  was  subject  to  continual  fluctuations.  That  rigid 
discipline,  without  which  there  can  exist  neither  order  nor  stability  in  an  army, 
was  not  yet  introduced  among  them;  the  militia  rejoined  or  quitted  their 
colours  at  pleasure  ;  every  day  one  troop  replaced  another  in  the  camp.  They 
enjoyed  an  abundance  of  all  sorts  of  provisions,  and  especially  of  the  vege- 
tables, so  necessary  to  a  soldier's  health.  But  their  arms  were  far  from  being 
adequate ;  they  possessed  in  all  but  sixteen  field-pieces,  of  which  six,  at  the 
utmost,  were  in  a  condition  to  do  service.  Their  bronze  cannon,  of  which 
they  had  but  a  very  short  number,  were  of  the  very  weakest  calibre.  They 
had  some  stronger  ones  of  iron,  with  three  or  four  mortars  and  hoAvitzers,  and 
a  small  stock  of  balls  and  bombs.  Powder  was  almost  totally  wanting.  There 
was  an  abundance  of  muskets,  but  they  were  of  all  sorts  of  calibres,  every 
militia-man  bringing  with  him  his  own.  For  the  rest,  they  knew  how  to  use 
them  with  surprising  skill,  which  rendered  them  singularly  fit  for  sharp- 
shooters and  skirmishers ;  but  not  so  suited,  on  the  other  hand,  for  fighting 
in  order  of  battle.  They  had  no  uniform,  and  no  magazines  of  provisions,  they 
lived  day  by  day  without  taking  thought  for  the  morrow ;  but  at  the  outset,  at 
least,  every  thing  was  abundant  around  them,  thanks  to  the  zeal  of  their  sur- 
rounding countrymen.  Cash  was  hardly  known  in  the  army,  but  paper- 
money,  which  at  this  period  was  fully  equal  in  value.  The  officers  were 
deficient  in  military  knowledge,  except  those  who  had  served  in  the  preceding 
wars.  They  were  scarcely  even  recognised  by  their  soldiers ;  the  organization 
of  the  corps  was  not  yet  completed,  and  the  changes  were  perpetual.  Orders 
were  badly  executed,  every  one  desired  to  command  and  to  do  as  he  pleased, 

2  z  2 


356  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CIvnP"  and  very  few  deigned  to  obey.     In  short,  with  the  exception  of  certain  regi- 


ments, who  had  been  formed  in  certain  provinces  by  experienced  leaders,  the 
rest  formed  rather  an  assemblage  than  an  army.  But  all  these  defects  were 
compensated  by  a  warmth  and  obstinacy  of  party  spirit,  and  by  the  profonnd 
persuasion  of  the  justice  of  their  cause,  entertained  by  all  alike.  Moreover 
the  leaders  of  the  army  and  the  ministers  of  religion  neglected  no  means  of 
exciting  every  day,  a  people  already  disposed  to  enthusiastic  ideas  of  religion, 
to  redouble  their  firmness  and  valour  in  an  enterprise  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  God 
and  all  good  men.  It  was  thus,  with  these  scanty  preparations,  but  with  this  un- 
common ardour,  that  the  Americans  commenced  a  war,  which  every  thing  an- 
nounced as  likely  to  be  both  long  and  bloody.  It  might  be  foreseen  nevertheless, 
that  whatever  were  the  reverses  in  store  for  them  at  the  first,  an  unshaken 
constancy  must  insure  their  eventual  triumph;  and  in  acquiring  discipline 
and  tactics,  the  soldiers  would  not  fail  to  prove  equal  to  any  that  could  be 
brought  against  them." 

"  As  to  the  British  troops,  they  were  abundantly  provided  with  every  thing 
necessary  for  a  campaign ;  their  arsenals  were  crammed  with  artillery  of  every 
calibre,  excellent  muskets,  plenty  of  powder,  and  arms  of  all  descriptions. 
The  soldiers  were  perfectly  disciplined,  accustomed  to  fatigue  and  danger,  and 
for  a  long  period  formed  to  the  first,  but  most  difficult  of  the  arts  of  war — that 
of  obedience.  They  recalled  the  exploits  by  which  they  had  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  service  of  their  country,  in  contending  with  the  most  war- 
like nations  in  the  world.  An  especial  motive  added  still  more  to  the  martial 
ardour  of  this  army,  the  consciousness  of  fighting  under  the  banners  of  their 
king,  a  consideration  which  generally  adds  fresh  force  to  the  sense  of  military 
honour.  The  English  besides  regarded  the  enemies  they  were  about  to 
encounter  as  rebels,  and  at  that  name  alone  they  felt  an  animosity  far  beyond 
ordinary  courage.  They  burned  with  the  desire  of  revenging  themselves  for 
the  affront  of  Lexington,  and  could  not  bring  themselves  to  believe  that  the 
insurgents  were  capable  of  resisting  them  ;  they  persisted  in  regarding  them  as 
cowards,  who  owed  their  success  at  Lexington  only  to  their  numbers  and 
their  advantage  of  the  ground.  They  were  convinced  that  upon  the  first 
serious  encounter,  the  first  pitched  battle,  the  colonists  would  not  dare  to 
await  them  with  firm  foot.  But  until  the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements  pro- 
mised by  the  English  government,  prudence  required  them  to  act  with  cir- 
cumspection towards  the  Americans,  whose  forces  were  more  than  triple. 
Meanwhile  the  blockade  was  so  rigid  that,  as  no  supply  of  provisions  could 
any  longer  enter  the  city,  fresh  meat  and  vegetables  began  to  get  extremely 
scarce.  Although  the  English  had  the  command  by  sea,  and  a  great  number 
of  light  vessels  at  their  disposal,  they  could  draw  no  supplies  whatever  from 
the  New  England  coasts,  as  the  inhabitants  bad  driven  all  their  cattle  into  the 
interior  of  the  country.  Nor,  as  to  the  other  provinces,  could  they  obtain 
any  thing  freely,  and  they  dared  not  employ  force,  since  they  were  not  as  yet 
declared  to  be  rebels.  The  scarcity  at  Boston  thus  became  extreme,  the  gar- 
rison as  well  as  inhabitants  being  reduced  to  salted  provisions.     Thus  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA  357 

English  longed  for  the  arrival  of  reinforcements  from  home,  so  as  to  be  able    chap. 
to  hazard  some  sudden  blow,  and  thus  extricate  themselves  from  the  critical 


situation  in  which  they  were  placed." 

"  The  besiegers,  aware  that  the  inhabif  ants  of  Boston  had  no  other  resources 
than  the  royal  magazines,  redoubled  their  vigilance  in  intercepting  all  external 
succours.  They  trusted  that  the  exhaustion  of  these  magazines  would  at  length 
force  the  governor  to  consent  that  the  inhabitants  should  evacuate  the  city, 
or  at  least  allow  all  useless  mouths,  namely,  the  women  and  children,  to  take 
their  departure.  The  insurgents  had  several  times  made  this  demand  with 
great  urgency,  but  the  governor,  in  spite  of  his  difficulty  in  feeding  the  troops, 
appeared  but  little  disposed  to  listen  to  this  proposition.  He  looked  upon  the 
inhabitants  as  so  many  hostages  who  should  answer  for  the  city  and  its  gar- 
rison, fearing  lest  the  Americans  should  try  to  take  the  place  by  a  general 
assault.  The  latter  had  indeed  given  out  a  report  to  that  effect,  though  they 
had  not  the  slightest  intention  of  doing  so.  Their  generals  were  too  experi- 
enced not  to  see  what  a  fatal  and  discouraging  impression  could  not  fail  to  be 
produced  upon  the  public  mind,  by  a  blow  of  this  importance,  struck  without 
success  in  the  very  outset  of  the  war.  Now  there  was  but  a  very  slender 
chance  in  favour  of  this  assault,  the  intrenchments  of  the  isthmus  being  of 
prodigious  strength;  and  in  the  second  place,  that  there  was  but  little  hope,  so 
long  as  the  English  were  masters  at  sea,  and  possessed  a  numerous  marine.  But 
at  length  General  Gage,  urged  by  necessity,  and  also  desiring  to  get  their 
arms  out  of  the  hands  of  the  citizens,  on  which  score  he  was  not  without  con- 
siderable apprehensions,  opened  a  lengthened  conference  with  the  council  of 
the  city.  The  following  conditions  were  agreed  upon.  Those  citizens  who 
should  deposit  their  arms  at  Faneuil  Hall,  or  some  other  public  place,  were  to 
be  allowed  to  retire  with  all  their  property  to  whatever  place  they  pleased^ 
and  a  promise  was  even  made  to  restore  their  arms  when  an  opportune  period 
had  arrived.  Thirty  vehicles  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  city  to  carry  away 
the  effects  belonging  to  the  emigrants,  and  the  Admiralty  were  to  furnish  such 
vessels  of  transport  as  should  be  equally  deemed  necessary.  This  convention 
was  at  first  punctually  observed  on  both  sides,  the  inhabitants  deposited  their 
arms,  and  the  general  delivered  to  them  their  permits.  But  shortly  after- 
wards, whether  he  was  unwilling  to  deprive  himself  entirely  of  hostages,  or 
whether  he  feared,  as  the  report  ran,  that  the  insurgents  intended  to  set  fire  to 
the  city  as  soon  as  their  partisans  had  left  it,  he  pretended  that  individuals 
who  had  left  on  the  service  of  persons  attached  to  the  royal  cause'  had  been 
maltreated,  and  he  began  to  refuse  the  passports.  These  refusals  led  to  vio- 
lent complaints,  both  among  the  inhabitants  as  well  as  the  provincial  troops. 
Nevertheless  the  governor  persisted  in  his  resolution.  If  he  allowed  some  of 
the  citizens  to  depart,  it  was  no  longer  but  on  the  condition  that  they  should 
leave  behind  them  their  furniture  and  effects." 

In  the  mean  time  the  second  session  of  the  colonial  congress  was  opened  at 
Philadelphia,  in  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  May.  Since  its  first  meeting 
affairs  had  ripened  towards  a  crisis,  the  British  had  marched  into  the  interior 


CHAP. 

vir. 


a.  d. i/; 


358  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

of  the  country,  the  blood  that  had  been  shed  had  deepened  the  growing  ani- 
mosity towards  the  parent  country.  In  Massachusetts,  at  least,  every  linger- 
ing trace  of  loyalty  was  gone,  and  independence  was  openly  talked  of.  The 
die  was  cast,  to  retrace  their  steps  was  impossible,  to  advance,  though  peril- 
ous, the  only  consistent  and  honourable  course.  Accordingly,  while  in  their 
first  session  congress  had  expressly  disclaimed  political  power,  and  contented 
themselves  with  merely  recommending  certain  measures  for  the  general  adop- 
tion, they  were  now,  by  the  exigency  of  the  occasion,  compelled  to  assume  the 
direct  authority  of  a  government,  which,  although  undefined  in  its  limits,  was 
invested  with  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  entire  country. 

Nevertheless,  whatever  might  have  been  the  views  of  a  certain  party,  and 
although  the  great  majority  might  have  felt  that  matters  had  gone  too  far  to 
be  amicably  made  up  with  England,  it  was  still  the  policy  of  congress  to 
disclaim  any  intention  of  throwing  off  their  allegiance.  The  influence  of 
Dickenson  and  those  who  yet  hoped  for  a  reconciliation  with  Great  Britain 
was  allowed  for  a  while  to  prevail,  and  though  contrary  to  the  general  belief 
in  the  futility  of  .such  expedients,  fresh  addresses  to  the  king  and  to  the  people 
of  Great  Britain  were  ordered  to  be  prepared.  Upon  one  point  however  all 
were  agreed.  The  British  had  been  the  first  aggressors,  the  temper  of  the 
ministry  was  still  unyielding,  and  they  evinced  by  the  importation  of  fresh 
troops  a  firm  determination  to  suppress  the  liberties  of  America  by  force.  It 
was  therefore  resolved  that  the  most  vigorous  measures  should  be  adopted  for 
the  security  of  the  country.  The  Massachusetts  convention  had  requested 
congress  to  assume  the  direction  of  the  forces  before  Boston,  and  they  now 
resolved  to  raise  ten  additional  companies  of  riflemen  in  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, and  Virginia,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  funds.  Committees  were 
appointed  to  prepare  reports  on  subjects  connected  with  the  defence  of  the 
country,  and  such  was  the  opinion  already  entertained  of  Washington's  abilities 
and  judgment,  that  he  was  chosen  to  preside  over  them.  His  own  mind,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  was  fully  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  the  sword. 
In  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  England  at  this  period,  he  thus  writes,  in  reference 
to  the  affair  of  Lexington.  "  Unhappy  it  is  to  reflect,  that  a  brother's  sword 
has  been  sheathed  in  a  brother's  breast,  and  that  the  once  happy  and  peaceful 
plains  of  America  are  either  to  be  drenched  in  blood  or  inhabited  by  slaves. 
Sad  alternative  !     But  can  a  virtuous  man  hesitate  in  his  choice  ?  " 

The  congress  next  proceeded  to  the  important  and  delicate  business  of 
selecting  a  commander-in-chief.  In  so  doing  they  had  many  claims  to  consi- 
der, many  difficulties  to  reconcile,  and  many  jealousies  to  appease.  Their 
task  might  well  have  proved  impossible,  or  their  choice  ruinous,  had  not  Pro- 
vidence already  prepared  that  individual  who,  of  all  others  upon  the  soil  of 
America,  alone  possessed  the  many  qualities  required  by  the  perils  of  the 
time.  This,  as  the  reader  will  already  have  anticipated,  could  be  no  other  than 
"Washington  himself.  His  military  talents  had  been  fully  displayed  in  the 
campaigns  with  the  French  and  Indians,  while  his  prudence,  firmness,  saga- 
city,  and  self-command  had  conspicuously  attracted  the  notice  of  congress 


VII. 
A.  D. 1775. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  359 

during  their  preceding  session.  There  were  other  officers,  natives  of  the  c ha  p 
country,  such  as  Putnam  and  Ward,  then  leaders  of  this  army  before  Boston, 
whose  claims  could  not  be  overlooked ;  and  it  seemed  doubtful  how  far  the 
New  Englanders,  who  had  taken  the  brunt  of  the  struggle,  and  already  so 
nobly  distinguished  themselves,  might  be  willing  to  accept  a  commander  from 
any  but  their  own  States.  Happily,  after  a  due  consideration  of  all  the  bear- 
ings of  the  question,  the  generous  New  Englanders  were  themselves  the  first 
to  suggest  the  nomination  of  Washington.  During  the  discussion  on  military 
affairs,  John  Adams,  after  moving  that  the  levies  then  before  Boston  should 
be  adopted  by  congress  as  a  continental  army,  declared  that  it  was  his  inten- 
tion "to  propose  for  the  office  of  commander-in-chief  a  gentleman  from  Virgi- 
nia, who  was  at  that  time  a  member  of  their  own  body."  Conscious  that  this 
pointed  observation  had  reference  to  himself,  Washington  arose  and  withdrew 
from  the  assembly.  On  the  appointed  day  the  nomination  was  made  by  Mr. 
Johnson  of  Maryland,  and  on  inspecting  the  ballot,  it  was  found  that  Wash- 
ington had  been  unanimously  elected.  In  rising  to  express  his  thanks  for  the 
signal  honour  thus  conferred  upon  him,  he  begged  "  to  declare  with  the  ut- 
most sincerity  that  he  did  not  think  himself  equal  to  the  command  he  was 
honoured  with ; "  and  in  reference  to  a  vote  previously  passed  by  congress, 
assured  them,  "  that  as  no  pecuniary  consideration  could  have  tempted  him 
to  accept  this  arduous  employment  at  the  expense  of  his  domestic  ease  and 
happiness,  he  could  accept  of  no  other  remuneration  than  the  payment  of  his 
expenses,  of  which  he  would  keep  an  exact  account."  His  letters  to  his  wife 
breathe  the  same  spirit  of  self-distrust  and  reliance  upon  a  higher  power. 
t(  As  it  has  been  a  kind  of  destiny,"  he  observes,  "  that  has  thrown  me  upon  this 
service,  I  shall  hope  my  undertaking  it  is  designed  to  answer  some  good  pur- 
pose. I  shall  rely  therefore  on  that  Providence,  which  has  heretofore  pre- 
served and  been  bountiful  to  me." 

Four  days  afterwards  Washington  formally  received  his  commission  as 
commander-in-chief,  and  the  members  of  congress  solemnly  pledged  them- 
selves to  adhere  to  him  with  their  lives  and  fortunes.  In  fact,  besides  the 
peril  of  encountering  a  valiant  and  experienced  adversary,  the  American 
generals  must  have  been  conscious,  to  use  the  insulting  expression  of  the 
English,  that  they  "  fought  with  halters  around  their  necks,"  and  that  if  taken 
prisoners  they  had  nothing  less  to  expect  than  the  confiscation  of  their  pro- 
perty, and  perhaps  an  ignominious  death  upon  the  scaffold.  At  the  same  time 
were  appointed  several  other  officers,  afterwards  celebrated  during  the  war. 
Putnam  and  Ward  were  chosen  major-generals,  as  was  also  Lee,  while  Gates 
was  adjutant-general  with  the  rank  of  brigadier  Gates,  as  before  observed, 
was  an  Englishman,  and  had  fought  with  Washington,  at  the  disastrous 
defeat  of  Braddock.  Lee  had  been  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  British  service, 
but  for  some  unknown  reason  had  taken  bitter  offence,  resigned  his  commission, 
and  embraced  the  cause  of  the  Americans.  Notwithstanding  the  ability  and 
experience  of  these  officers,  they  were  naturally  distrusted  by  congress,  but 
were  ultimately  appointed  through  the  influence  of  Washington.     Richard 


A.  D. 1775. 


360  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  Montgomery,  a  young  Irishman,  had  served  under  Wolfe  at  Louisburg  and 
Quebec,  and  having  married  an  American  wife,  sold  his  commission  and  re- 
tired to  New  York.  Philip  Schuyler  was  a  gentleman  of  large  property 
and  influence  near  Albany.  Both  of  these  gentlemen,  at  the  recommendation  of 
the  New  York  provincial  congress,  were  appointed  generals;  as  were  also 
Sullivan,  of  New  Hampshire  ;  Pomeroy,  Heath,  and  Thomas,  of  Massachusetts ; 
Wooster  and  Spencer,  of  Connecticut ;  and  Greene,  of  Rhode  Island. 

As  in  the  disorganized  state  of  the  army  the  immediate  presence  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief was  indispensable,  no  time  was  Lost  by  Washington  in  repair- 
ing to  the  scene  of  his  duties.  On  the  21st  of  June  he  left  Philadelphia, 
accompanied  by  Lee  and  Schuyler.  He  was  every  where  received  with  great 
honour.  The  provincial  congress  of  New  York,  then  in  session,  deputed  a  com- 
mittee to  meet  him  at  Newark,  and  attend  him  across  the  river.  At  New 
York  he  received  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  which  induced  him 
to  hasten  forward,  leaving  General  Schuyler  as  commander  in  New  York.  He 
pursued  his  journey  attended  by  volunteer  military  companies,  and  on  the  2nd 
of  July  arrived  at  Cambridge.  Two  days  afterwards  the  provincial  congress 
of  Massachusetts  presented  to  him  a  cordial  and  flattering  address,  the  army 
received  him  with  genuine  warmth,  and  he  entered  upon  his  arduous  labours 
cheered  by  universal  esteem  and  confidence.  In  truth,  he  needed  the  ut- 
most support  in  order  to  contend  with  the  Herculean  difficulties  which  shortly 
developed  themselves  before  him. 

About  the  end  of  the  previous  May  Gage  had  received  considerable  rein- 
forcements from  England,  under  Generals  Howe,  Burgoyne,  and  Clinton, 
which  raised  his  army  to  upwards  of  ten  thousand  men.  He  now  issued  a  pro- 
clamation in  the  king's  name,  offering  pardon  to  all  persons  who  should  lay 
down  their  arms  and  return  to  their  allegiance,  "  excepting  only  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Hancock,  whose  offences,"  it  declared,  "  were  of  too  flagitious  a  nature 
to  admit  of  any  other  consideration  than  that  of  condign  punishment."  Mar- 
tial law  was  also  proclaimed,  "  for  so  long  as  the  present  unhappy  occasion 
should  necessarily  require." 

So  far  were  these  measures  from  intimidating  the  insurgents,  that  they 
tended  to  draw  them  still  closer  together,  and  to  inspire  them  with  still  more 
determined  energy.  As  the  forces  of  Gage  had  now  so  greatly  increased,  it 
was  apprehended  that  he  would  no  longer  submit  to  be  cooped  up  within  the 
walls  of  Boston,  but  break  through  the  enemy's  line  of  blockade  and  advance 
into  the  open  country.  Private  information  having  been  received  that  he  in- 
tended to  assume  the  offensive,  with  the  view  of  more  completely  cutting  off 
the  communication  with  the  country,  Colonel  Prescott,  with  a  company  of 
about  a  thousand  men,  including  a  company  of  artillery  and  two  field-pieces, 
was  detached  at  nightfall  to  take  possession  of  Bunker's  Hill,  a  bold  eminence 
at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Charlestown.  By  some  mistake 
however  the  party  went  past  Bunker's  Hill,  and  commenced  operations  on 
Breed's  Hill,  near  the  southern  termination  of  the  peninsula,  and  overlooking 
and  commanding  Boston.    There,  directed  by  the  engineer  Gridley,  and  under 


A.  D.  1775. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  361 

cover  of  the  darkness,  they  worked  away  in  silence,  and  so  vigorously,  that   chap, 
when  morning  dawned  they  had  thrown  up  a  considerable  redoubt  on  the 
crest  of  the  hill,  and  were  still  toiling  on  to  complete  the  remainder  of  the 
intrenchments. 

About  four  in  the  morning  of  the  17th  June,  the  works  were  first  perceived 
from  a  man-of-war  in  the  harbour,  whence  a  cannonade  was  immediately  opened 
upon  the  workmen.  This  firing  immediately  gave  the  alarm  to  the  city,  and 
crowds  of  people  rushed  down  to  the  shore  to  discover  what  had  occasioned 
it.  The  British  generals,  ascending  the  steeples  and  eminences  of  the  city, 
reconnoitred  the  new  works,  at  which,  in  spite  of  the  cannonade,  both  from 
the  ships,  the  town,  and  the  floating  batteries,  the  provincials,  commanded  by 
Gridley  and  Knox,  continued  to  labour  on  with  undiminished  assiduity.  To 
allow  them  to  complete  their  fortifications,  and  occupy  this  position,  would 
have  placed  the  ships  in  the  harbour,  and  even  the  city  itself,  in  peril ;  it  was 
therefore  determined  to  dislodge  them  without  a  moment's  loss  of  time. 

The  position  now  occupied  by  the  Americans  was  as  follows  :  The  newly 
constructed  redoubt  formed  its  crest  and  centre,  on  the  right  was  Charles- 
town,  and  on  the  left  an  unfinished  breastwork,  which  was  continued  down  to 
the  river  Mystic,  by  a  barricade  constructed  of  two  lines  of  rails  from  the  neigh- 
bouring fences,  filled  up  with  new -mown  hay.  This  part  of  the  works  was  de- 
fended by  General  Starke,  with  two  New  Hampshire  regiments,  who  reached 
the  ground  just  before  the  battle  commenced.  The  Massachusetts  and  Connec- 
ticut troops  were  distributed  along  the  rest  of  the  line.  Warren  had  hurried 
up  to  the  scene  of  action  only  just  in  time,  and  took  post  among  the  defenders  of 
the  redoubt.  There  was  little  expectation  of  attack,  and  hardly  any  prepar- 
ation to  repel  it.  No  cannon  was  mounted,  the  quantity  of  ammunition 
was  small,  and  the  provincials  were  unprovided  with  bayonets.  Nor  was 
there  even  any  regular  commander,  although  the  brave  "  Old  Putnam,"  as  he 
was  called,  assumed,  by  common  consent,  the  general  direction  of  affairs. 

During  the  whole  morning  Boston  was  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  excitement 
with  the  stir  of  military  preparation ;  and  soon  after  noon,  about  three 
thousand  British  troops  embarked  under  the  orders  of  Generals  Howe  and 
Pigot,  and  landed  at  Morton's  Point,  at  the  foot  of  the  long  hill  on  which  the 
American  redoubt  was  erected,  under  cover  of  the  guns  of  the  ships  of  war  in 
the  harbour.  Having  observed  the  firm  attitude  of  the  insurgents,  General 
Howe  thought  it  prudent  to  send  for  some  additional  reinforcements.  His 
plan  was  to  attack  the  redoubt  and  Charlestown  in  front,  while  another  body, 
penetrating  the  rail  fence,  should  take  the  defenders  in  flank,  and  thus  at  once 
storm  their  works  and  cut  off  their  retreat  frcm  the  peninsula. 

The  reinforcements  having  arrived,  Howe  prepared  for  action,  and  in  a 
short  speech  assured  his  soldiers  "  that  he  would  require  no  man  to  venture 
where  he  himself  was  not  the  first  to  show  the  way."  About  three  o'clock, 
under  cover  of  their  artillery,  the  British  troops  advanced  slowly  and  steadily 
up  to  the  redoubt.  It  was  a  fearful  moment,  upon  which  the  fate  of  America 
seemed  to  be  suspended.    The  steeples  and  roofs  in  Boston,  every  corner  in  tfie 

3  A 


362  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  city  and  every  spot  in  the  neighbourhood  that  commanded  a  view  over  the 

■ —  scene  of  hostilities,  was  crowded  with  anxious  spectators,  men,  women,  and 

*  children,  whose  very  souls  were  fixed  with  painful  intensity  upon  the  issue 
of  the  coming  conflict.  It  was  the  decisive  trial — would  the  provincials 
await  with  firm  foot  the  point  of  the  dreaded  British  bayonet,  or  would  they 
flinch  and  fly  ?  Prescott  had  warned  them  not  to  waste  a  shot,  but  reserve 
their  fire  until  they  could  see  the  white  of  their  enemies'  eyes ;  and  knowing 
moreover  that  they  were  all  of  them  good  marksmen,  counselled  them  to 
take  steady  aim  at  their  opponents,  and  especially  to  pick  off  the  officers. 
They  obeyed  him,  upon  the  whole,  with  admirable  steadiness.  As  the 
British  line  neared  the  redoubt,  a  thousand  muskets  flashed  at  once  with 
simultaneous  aim  and  unerring  precision ;  the  head  of  the  advancing  column 
was  instantly  shattered,  and  that  redoubtable  infantry,  after  firing  an  irregular 
volley,  and  receiving  others  aimed  as  fatally  as  was  the  first,  at  length  fell 
back  and  retreated  in  disorder  to  the  landing.  Sensitive  to  this  disgrace,  the 
officers  were  instantly  seen  running  to  and  fro,  encouraging  or  threatening 
their  men,  and  in  a  short  time  the  line  was  rallied,  and  ready  to  renew  the 
attack.  Meanwhile,  with  a  view  of  expelling  the  provincials,  the  village  of 
Charlestown  was  set  on  fire  by  the  British,  the  tall  spire  of  the  church  soon 
became  a  pillar  of  flame,  and  vast  columns  of  fire  and  smoke  added  to  the 
terrific  interest  of  the  spectacle.  A  second  time  the  British  advanced  to  the 
charge,  and  a  second  time  the  provincials  opened  upon  them  the  same  close  and 
unerring  fire,  and  drove  them  back  in  confusion  towards  the  shore ;  so  terrible 
was  the  slaughter,  that  most  of  the  officers  around  General  Howe  were  shot 
down,  and  he  remained  at  one  time  almost  alone  upon  the  field  of  battle. 
At  this  critical  moment,  General  Clinton,  who  had  been  watching  the  issue 
of  the  conflict  from  Cop's  Hill,  hastened  over  from  Boston  with  fresh  rein- 
forcements, the  soldiers  were  led  up  a  third  time  to  the  attack,  directed  to 
receive  the  enemy's  fire,  and  then  rush  in  and  carry  the  redoubt  with  the 
bayonet.  The  ammunition  of  the  defenders  was  by  this  time  nearly  ex- 
hausted, their  fire  upon  the  advancing  column  sensibly  slackened ;  the  grena- 
diers, leaping  on  the  redoubt  with  fixed  bayonets,  dashed  into  it  on  three 
sides  at  once.  The  provincials,  without  bayonets  to  oppose  to  those  of 
the  British,  defended  themselves  desperately  for  a  moment  with  the  butt- 
ends  of  their  muskets.  Some  pieces  of  artillery,  meanwhile,  had  been 
pushed  in  between  the  rail  fence  and  the  breastwork,  and  pointed  upon  them, 
rendering  further  resistance  impossible.  Starke's  troops  had  bravely  defended 
the  stockade,  conscious  that  if  the  enemy  had  forced  their  position,  and 
taken  in  the  rear  the  defenders  of  the  redoubt,  their  discomfiture  must 
have  been  inevitable.  Seeing  that  this  had  now  happened,  in  spite  of  the 
entreaties  of  Putnam,  who  sought  to  lead  them  against  the  victorious  Eng- 
lish, they  1iow  effected  their  retreat,  with  a  degree  of  order  and  steadiness 
which  savoured  but  little  of  a  rout.  Their  only  means  of  returning  was  by  the 
narrow  isthmus  of  Charlestown  Neck,  swept  by  an  incessant  fire  from  the 
floating  batteries,  which  however  occasioned  them  but  little  loss.     They  fell 


A.D.  1775. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  363 

• 

back  and  intrenched  themselves  at  Prospect  Hill,  only  about  a  mile  from  chap. 
the  field  of  battle. 

The  British  had  gained  a  nominal  triumph,  not  however,  as  they  had  proudly 
anticipated,  with  little  or  no  effort  on  their  part ;  it  had  cost  them  the  utmost 
exertion  of  their  gallantry  to  achieve  it,  and  they  had  purchased  it  at  a  fearful 
price,  one  third  of  their  number  lay  killed  or  wounded  on  the  field.  Their 
victory  too  was  utterly  inconclusive ;  they  had  stormed  the  works,  their  de- 
fenders had  retreated  in  good  order,  and  with  a  loss  comparatively  trifling  ;  a 
redoubt  and  a  breastwork  was  all  they  had  acquired  at  the  cost  of  so  much 
blood.  The  result  of  the  engagement  at  length  convinced  General  Gage,  in 
the  words  of  his  letter  to  the  ministry,  that  "  the  provincials  were  not  the 
despicable  rabble  he  had  supposed  them  to  be/'  that  they  had  in  nowise  de- 
generated from  the  courage  of  their  English  forefathers,  and  that  it  would 
cost  a  far  greater  exertion  of  power  to  reduce  them  to  obedience  than  the 
army  in  the  plenitude  of  its  pride,  and  the  ministry  in  the  plenitude  of  its 
ignorance,  had  hitherto  supposed  to  be  needful.  On  the  other  hand,  the  con- 
fidence of  the  Americans  was  greatly  raised  by  the  success  of  this  en- 
counter ;  a  second  and  more  signal  proof  had  been  afforded  that  their  enemies 
were  not  invincible. 

The  loss  of  the  Americans,  sheltered  as  they  were  by  their  defences,  was 
far  less  than  that  of  the  British ;  but  among  the  fallen  was  Joseph  "Warren, 
whose  loss  was  deeply  felt,  as  being  one  of  the  most  ardent  and  influential  of 
the  popular  leaders.  He  was  born  at  Roxbury  near  Boston,  and  having  gra- 
duated at  Harvard  college,  followed  the  profession  of  medicine,  in  which  he 
had  attained  considerable  eminence.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  advocates  of 
popular  rights,  and  in  conjunction  with  Samuel  Adams,  had  laboured  suc- 
cessfully at  the  establishment  of  local  committees  of  correspondence.  With  an 
integrity  above  suspicion,  and  a  character  peculiarly  amiable,  he  had  naturally 
acquired  increasing  influence  with  his  fellow  patriots;  he  was  chosen  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  safety,  and  after  distinguishing  himself  in  many 
skirmishes  with  the  enemy,  had  received  the  commission  of  Major-General 
only  four  days  before  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill.  As  soon  as  he  heard  that  the 
British  were  meditating  an  attack,  he  hurried  up  to  the  scene  of  action,  and 
shared  with  the  Massachusetts  soldiers  in  the  peril  of  defending  the  intrench- 
ments.  When  they  were  at  length  forced,  and  the  Americans  conrpclled  to 
retreat  across  Charlestown  Neck,  he  was  the  last  to  leave  the  redoubt,  and  im- 
mediately afterward  received  a  mortal  wound.  The  loss  of  Warren  caused  a 
profound  impression  throughout  America.  He  was  the  first  person  of  any 
note  that  had  as  yet  fallen  in  the  quarrel,  and  his  amiable  qualities  deep- 
ened the  general  concern  at  his  loss.  He  was  regarded  as  the  first  martyr  to 
the  cause  of  American  liberty,  and  his  death  became  the  favourite  theme  of 
popular  orators,  who  failed  not  to  denounce  the  unnatural  tyranny  which  had 
brought  so  valuable  a  citizen  to  an  untimely  end. 

When  Washington  reached  the  head-quarters  of  the  American  army  at 
Cambridge,  his  first  business  was  to  ascertain  its  strength  and  position.     He 

3  a  2 


364  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

• 

Cvn.P*  f°un(l  that  it  occupied  a  complete  line  of  siege  round  Boston,  extending 
A  D  xm  nearly  twelve  miles,  from  Mystic  river  to  Dorchester,  of  which  Cambridge 
formed  the  centre.  To  defend  this  immense  line,  there  were  but  about 
twelve  thousand  men  fit  for  duty.  Intrenchments  and  redoubts  had  been 
thrown  up  at  the  most  important  points,  and  other  works  were  still  in 
progress.  The  British  army,  cut  off  from  supplies,  and  unable  to  pene- 
trate into  the  open  country,  numbered  about  eleven  thousand  men,  General 
Gage  being  in  the  city,  and  the  bulk  of  his  forces  intrenched  upon  Bunker's 
Hill,  or  occupying  Boston  Neck,  the  only  direct  access  to  the  city  from 
the  interior. 

A  council  of  war  being  called,  it  became  a  serious  question  whether 
this  extensive  line,  which  it  was  feared  the  enemy  might  be  able  to  pe- 
netrate, should  be  maintained,  or  whether  a  stronger  position  should  be  oc- 
cupied at  some  distance  further  inland.  As  such  a  measure  must  have  proved 
very  discouraging  to  the  troops,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  the  present 
position  of  the  army  should  at  all  risks  be  occupied. 

A  formidable  task  now  awaited  Washington,  that  of  giving  form  and  sta- 
bility to  the  loose  and  heterogeneous  materials  of  which  the  army  was  composed. 
Prompted  by  the  impulse  of  patriotism,  the  citizens  had  eagerly  shouldered 
their  rifles  and  hurried  down  to  the  camp,  they  had  already  given  abundant 
proofs  of  courage,  and  were  excited  to  the  highest  pitch  by  their  recent  suc- 
cesses over  the  enemy.  But  the  same  ardent  spirit  that  had  stimulated  them 
to  action,  proved  itself  a  serious  obstacle  to  their  military  organization.  They 
were  impatient  of  the  restraints  required  by  discipline,  and  alarmed  at  the 
prospect  of  a  protracted  service.  Most  of  them  had  been  enlisted  for  a  brief 
period  by  their  respective  States,  many  had  left  their  families  and  business  in 
the  anticipation  of  a  speedy  return,  and  after  the  first  brush  with  the  enemy, 
were  impatient  to  return  to  their  homes.  Few  of  them  foresaw  the  duration 
of  hostilities,  and  had  they  done  so,  would  have  been  unwilling  to  engage 
themselves  for  so  lengthened  a  period. 

Besides  the  disjointed  stale  of  the  soldiery,  they  were  most  miserably  pro- 
vided with  every  necessary,  except  provisions.  There  was  no  military  chest, 
no  stock  of  clothing,  few  tents  or  stores  of  any  kind,  and  the  supply  of  ammu- 
nition was  so  low  that,  on  instituting  an  examination,  Washington  discovered, 
to  his  surprise  and  consternation,  that  there  was  not  enough  for  nine  cartridges 
a  man  to  the  whole  camp. 

But  what  was  perhaps  of  most  importance,  there  was  as  yet  no  regular  or- 
ganization or  discipline.  At  first  the  regiments  had  elected  their  own  leaders, 
and  there  had  been  no  general  officers  invested  with  a  recognised  command. 
And  when  congress  at  length  proceeded  to  remedy  this  deficiency,  their  ap- 
pointments were  received  with  great  dissatisfaction,  and  gave  rise  to  such 
jealousy  and  dissension,  that  many  threatened  to  leave  the  camp  altogether, 
unless  the  evil  was  speedily  redressed. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  army,  when  Washington,  having  matured  his 
plans,  began  the  gradual  and  difficult  work  of  its  reconstruction.    He  formed  it 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  365 

into  three  grand  divisions,  the  left  wing  commanded  by  Lee,  the  right  by   c  it  a  p 

Ward,  and  the   centre,  at  Cambridge,  by  Putnam.     A  system  of  rules  and ■ — 

regulations  had  been  agreed  upon  by  congress,  to  which,  although  many 
of  the  existing  levies  refused  their  compliance,  all  fresh  recruits  were  com- 
pelled to  subscribe.  Among  these  new  comers  were  several  companies  of 
riflemen  from  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  ;  one  of  the  latter  regi- 
ments being  commanded  by  Daniel  Morgan,  who  afterwards  attained  consi- 
derable distinction. 

Besides  the  organization  of  the  army,  there  devolved  on  Washington  the 
arduous  task  of  arranging  its  operations  with  congress,  and  stimulating  that 
body  to  provide  for  its  manifold  wants.  "  My  best  abilities,"  he  writes,  "  are 
at  all  times  devoted  to  the  service  of  my  country.  But  I  feel  the  weighty 
importance  and  variety  of  my  present  duties  too  sensibly  not  to  wish  a  more 
frequent  communication 'with  congress.  I  fear  it  may  often  happen,  in  the 
course  of  eur  present  operations,  that  I  shall  need  that  assistance  and  direc- 
tion from  them,  which  time  and  distance  will  not  allow  me  to  receive."  But 
congress  was  at  that  time  almost  as  unsettled  as  the  army  itself.  It  was  com- 
posed of  men  differing  in  opinion  as  to  the  dispute  with  England,  some  of 
them  yet  hoping  for  a  reconciliation,  and  others  doubtless  looking  forward  to 
independence.  They  had  hurriedly  assumed  the  functions  of  government, 
and  their  authority  as  yet  rested  entirely  upon  public  opinion.  But  recently 
come  together  from  the  different  States,  they  brought  with  them  their  sectional 
interests  and  jealousies.  In  one  thing  they  were  indeed  united,  to  defend 
themselves  by  force  of  arms  against  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  the  English 
ministry.  But  while  strenuously  contending  against  a  foreign  despotism,  might 
they  not,  by  building  up  a  powerful  standing  army  of  their  own,  lay  them- 
selves open  to  an  equally  formidable  peril  ?  As  yet  all  was  new  and  untried, 
and  Washington  himself,  though  highly  respected,  had  not,  by  a  long  career  of 
disinterested  patriotism,  rooted  himself  profoundly  in  the  universal  confidence 
of  his  country.  "  We  have  the  fullest  assurance,"  say  they,  "  that  whenever 
this  important  contest  shall  be  decided,  by  that  fondest  wish  of  every  American 
soul,  an  accommodation  with  our  mother  country,  you  will  cheerfully  resign 
the  important  deposit  committed,  to  your  hands,  and  reassume  the  character  of 
our  worthiest  citizen."  This  distrust,  so  natural  in  the  position  of  congress, 
was  not  unperceived  by  Washington,  but,  conscious  of  his  high  and  patriotic 
motives,  he  laboured  to  inspire  them  with  increasing  confidence,  while  by  his 
intimate  knowledge  of  military  details  he  necessarily  rendered  himself  the 
centre  of  all  their  operations. 

Nor  was  it  a  less  arduous  task  to  stimulate  to  action  the  governments  of  the 
respective  colonies,  upon  whom  in  fact  devolved  the  execution  of  the  measures 
decided  on  by  congress.  There  was  from  the  first  that  jealousy  on  the  part 
of  the  different  States,  not  only  of  each  other,  but  also  of  the  authority  of 
the  central  government,  to  appease  which  has  ever  proved  the  most  difficult 
problem  of  American  statesmen.  Although  at  the  present  moment  one  com- 
mon impulse  animated  the  whole,  yet  the  furnishing  their  respective  quotas  of 


A.  D.  1775. 


866  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  men  and  money,  for  the  common  cause,  was  frequently  accompanied  by  hesi- 
tation and  delay.  Nothing  but  invincible  patience  and  temper,  together  with 
consummate  prudence  and  wisdom,  could  have  enabled  Washington  to  meet 
and  overcome  such  varied  and  formidable  difficulties. 

Meanwhile,  Washington  heard  that  several  prisoners  who  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  English  at  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  were  treated  with  great 
severity  by  General  Gage.  Washington  and  Gage  had  served  together  as 
aides-de-camp  to  the  unfortunate  Braddock,  and  had  fought  side  by  side  in 
the  bloody  battle  of  the  Monongahela.  Ever  since  that  time  they  had  main- 
tained a  friendly  correspondence,  and  now,  in  the  chapter  of  accidents,  they 
stood  opposed  to  each  other  as  the  leaders  of  opposing  armies.  The  British 
general,  who  regarded  the  Americans  in  the  light  of  "  rebels,"  denied  the 
charge  of  cruelty,  and  boasted,  on  the  contrary,  of  having  spared  many  "  whose 
lives  by  the  law  of  the  land  were  destined  to  the  cord."  He  also  professed  to 
ignore  all  rank  which  was  not  derived  from  the  king.  The  reply  of  Wash- 
ington was  temperate  and  noble.  "  You  affect,  sir,"  he  said,  "  to  despise  all 
rank  not  derived  from  the  same  source  as  your  own.  I  cannot  conceive  one 
more  honourable  than  that  which  flows  from  the  uncorrupted  choice  of  a  brave 
and  free  people,  the  purest  source  and  original  fountain  of  all  power."  He 
threatened  at  first  to  retaliate  the  ill  usage  of  American  prisoners  upon  such 
of  the  British  as  fell  into  his  power,  but  adopting  more  merciful  counsels, 
eventually  released  them  upon  parole,  in  the  hope  that  "  such  conduct  would 
compel  their  grateful  acknowledgments  that  Americans  are  as  merciful  as  they 
are  brave."  Shortly  after  this  incident,  General  Gage  was  recalled  to  Eng- 
land, ostensibly  "  in  order  to  give  his  Majesty  exact  information  of  every  thing, 
and  suggest  such  matters  as  his  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  service  en- 
abled him  to  furnish."  He  was  succeeded  by  General  Howe,  a  brother  of  the 
same  Lord  Howe,  who  had  been  killed  before  Ticonderoga,  and  whose 
memory  was  affectionately  cherished  by  the  Americans.  This  change  of 
command  however  led  to  no  increased  activity  on  the  part  of  the  British,  who 
remained  quietly  within  their  intrenchments,  sending  out  only  small  foraging 
parties,  who  often  came  into  collision  with  the  American  outposts.  This 
inaction  appears  greatly  to  have  surprised  Washington,  who  was  well  aware 
that  the  enemy  were  acquainted  with  his  deficiency  of  ammunition,  and  it 
has  with  much  probability  been  attributed  to  the  desire  of  Howe  not  to  in- 
crease the  difficulty  of  a  speedy  adjustment  of  the  quarrel  by  any  further 
acts  of  hostility. 

We  must  now  glance  awhile  at  the  operations  of  congress.  Their  first  care 
was  to  provide  the  sinews  of  war  by  large  emissions  of  bills  of  credit,  the 
liability  to  redeem  which  devolved,  in  just  proportion,  upon  the  respective 
colonies.  As  the  royal  post-office  had  fallen  to  the  ground,  a  continental 
one  was  now  organized,  and  Franklin,  now  returned  from  England,  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster-general.  An  army  hospital  was  also  created,  and  placed 
under  the  direction  of  Doctor  Benjamin  Church. 

In  the  future  conduct  of  the  war,  there  were  two  subjects  of  anxiety  to  con- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


367 


gress,  what  part  the  Indians  might  be  induced  to  take  in  it,  and  what  would  c  ha  p. 
be  the  disposition  of  the  Canadians.  The  deplorable  policy  which  had  already  a  -  — 
led  to  so  many  sanguinary  scenes,  of  engaging  the  Indians  in  the  quarrels  of 
the  whites,  was  now  renewed  to  a  certain  extent  by  both  parties.  Even  before 
the  battle  of  Lexington,  the  provincial  congress  of  Massachusetts  had  enlisted 
in  their  service  a  company  of  minute-men  among  the  Stockbridge  Indians. 
Overtures  were  made  to  the  Six  Nations,  but  were  defeated  by  the  agency  of 
Guy  Johnson,  son  of  the  celebrated  Sir  William  Johnson,  and  a  stanch  loyal- 
ist, and  who  had  inherited  his  father's  influence  over  these  tribes.  The 
Cagnawagas,  or  French  Mohawks,  were  however  brought  over  to  the  cause. 
These  efforts  to  obtain  the  alliance  of  the  Indians  were  strenuously  counter- 
worked by  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  then  governor  of  Canada.  The  question  next 
arose,  whether  the  inhabitants  of  this  province  would  be  disposed  to  join  the 
insurgents,  or  rather  to  assist  in  their  subjugation.  Addresses  had  been  voted 
to  them  by  congress,  but  the  conciliatory  policy  of  the  British  government  had 
hitherto  induced  them  to  observe  a  prudent  neutrality.  After  the  surprise  of 
Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  Allen  and  Arnold  had  strenuously  urged  upon 
congress  the  desirableness  of  advancing  into  Canada,  where  the  British  force  was 
very  small,  and  of  seizing  upon  the  important  strongholds  of  that  country.  This 
measure  was  at  first  repugnant  to  congress,  inasmuch  as  it  seemed  to  be  stepping 
out  of  the  line  of  resistance  they  had  marked  out  for  themselves,  and  com- 
mencing a  war  of  aggression.  But  as  the  designs  of  the  British  to  reduce 
them  to  obedience  by  an  increased  display  of  force  became  apparent,  the  war 
assumed  another  character,  and  congress  readily  adopted  the  project  of  an 
attack  upon  Canada  as  a  measure  of  self-defence,  which  was  fully  sanctioned 
by  Washington  himself,  who  regarded  it  as  "  being  of  the  utmost  consequence 
to  the  interests  and  liberties  of  America." 

The  command  of  the  detachment  which  was  to  invade  Canada,  by  way  of 
Lake  Champlain,  was  conferred  on  General  Schuyler.  Montgomery,  who  ac- 
companied him,  was  ordered  to  proceed  in  advance,  and  attack  the  strong  post 
of  St.  John's,  at  the  northern  extremity  of  Lake  Champlain,  which,  as  com- 
manding the  chief  entry  into  Canada,  had  been  carefully  strengthened  by  Sir 
Guy  Carleton.  This  order  he  proceeded  to  execute,  and  was  shortly  after- 
wards rejoined  by  Schuyler,  who  finding  the  fort  defy  his  utmost  efforts, 
retired  to  Isle  aux  Noix,  whence  illness  compelled  him  to  return  to  Ticonde- 
roga, leaving  the  command  of  the  army  in  the  hands  of  Montgomery. 

The  siege  of  St.  John's  was  now  continued,  but  at  first  with  very  little 
success,  until  the  American  general,  learning  that  Fort  Chambly,  at  the  rapids 
on  the  river  Sorel,  a  few  miles  to  the  northward,  was  but  slenderly  gar- 
risoned, succeeded  in  surprising  and  capturing  it.  No  sooner  had  Carleton, 
who  was  then  at  Montreal,  heard  of  this  disaster,  than  he  immediately  crossed 
the  St.  Lawrence  with  a  reinforcement  for  the  garrison  of  St.  John's.  Colonel 
Warner,  however,  placed  himself  in  ambush  on  the  shore,  and  as  the  English 
boats  approached,  opened  upon  them  so  heavy  a  fire  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  recross  the  river  in  great  confusion.     On  learning  the  discomfiture 


A.  D. 1775. 


368  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  of  these  succours,  the  commandant  of  St.  John's,  who  had  already  held  out 
vii.  .  J 

for  six  weeks,  surrendered  on  honourable  terms.     Montgomery  now  prepared 

to  push  over  to  the  opposite  shore.  He  had  already  been  severely  tried  with 
the  insubordination  and  bad  discipline  of  his  troops,  and  many  of  them  now 
threatened  to  return  home,  but  by  his  earnest  persuasion  were  at  last  induced 
to  assist  in  the  capture  of  Montreal.  Crossing  the  St.  Lawrence  he  now 
entered  tfye  city,  which  immediately  surrendered.  Montgomery  had  detached 
a  strong  force  to  the  mouth  of  the  Sorel  to  intercept  the  British  vessels  as 
they  retired  down  the  stream,  and  if  possible  effect  the  capture  of  Sir  Guy 
Carleton,  whose  talents  and  activity  were  regarded  as  the  soul  of  the  English 
cause.  In  this  design  they  were  but  partially  successful.  The  vessels  were 
taken,  together  with  Prescott  and  a  body  of  soldiers,  who  were  on  board ; 
but  Carleton,  embarking  in  a  small  boat  furnished  with  muffled  oars,  suc- 
ceeded under  cover  of  the  night  in  eluding  the  watchfulness  of  the  American 
guard  boats ;  and  effecting  his  escape  by  an  obscure  channel  of  the  river, 
rapidly  descended  to  assume  the  command  of  Quebec,  which  was  at  that  mo- 
ment threatened  by  the  second  division  of  the  American  army.  To  effect  a 
junction  with  this  body  was  the  next  object  of  Montgomery,  but  he  was 
doomed  to  struggle  with  the  same  insubordination  and  discontent  that  had 
already  so  seriously  impeded  his  movements,  and  threatened  his  entire  failure. 
Many  of  his  levies  insisted  on  returning  home,  and  abandoned  the  army.  At 
length  however  he  succeeded  in  persuading  a  small  force  to  march  on  with 
him  to  the  rencontre  of  their  brethren. 

Some  time  before,  while  besieging  St.  John's,  Montgomery  detached  Ethan 
Allen  to  endeavour  to  arouse  the  Canadians  to  revolt,  and  induce  them  to 
join  his  standard.  With  the  wild  energy  of  his  character,  he  had  entirely 
succeeded  in  his  object,  and  was  on  his  way  to  join  the  camp  before  St.  John's, 
when  he  fell  in  with  Major  Brown,  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  Americans  and 
Canadians,  who  reported  that  Montreal  was  feebly  garrisoned,  and  proposed 
that  they  should  surprise  it  in  concert.  This  project,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was 
utterly  unauthorized  by  the  general  in  command,  but  then  it  was  extremely 
tempting  to  an  ardent  spirit  like  that  of  Allen ;  and  in  those  early  days  of  the 
American  army,  every  man,  spurning  the  restraints  of  discipline,  sought  only 
to  do  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,  and  above  all,  to  win  fame  and 
promotion  by  the  performance  of  some  gallant  exploit. 

Accordingly  it  was  agreed,  that  while  Allen  procured  canoes,  and  traversed 
the  St.  Lawrence  by  night,  a  little  below  Montreal,  Brown  should  cross  over 
at  the  same  time,  not  far  above  the  city,  and,  at  a  given  signal,  they  should 
simultaneously  advance  and  surprise  it.  Allen  performed  his  part  of  the  agree- 
ment, but  some  unknown  reason  prevented  the  co-operation  of  his  confederate. 
On  a  windy  night  he  embarked  in  canoes  with  his  men,  but  for  hour  after 
hour  he  vainly  awaited  the  promised  signal,  and  as  the  day  began  to  advance 
his  own  position  became  precarious  in  the  extreme.  He  would  have  retreated 
at  once,  but  his  boats  would  hold  but  a  third  of  his  force ;  his  Canadian  re- 
cruits ran  off,  and  being  discovered  and  attacked  by  a  force  from  the  town, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  369 

after  a  gallant  defence  of  nearly  two  hours,  he  was  obliged  to  lay  down  his  c ha  p. 

arms.    He  was  conducted  into  the  city,  and  brought  before  General  Prescott, ' — 

who,  on  learning  from  his  own  lips  that  he  was  the  same  man  who  had  surprised 
Ticonderoga  before  any  declaration  of  war,  and  struck  perhaps  with  his 
eccentric  and  unmilitary  appearance,  treated  him  rather  as  the  leader  of  a 
troop  of  banditti  than  an  officer  in  honourable  service,  threatened  to  have  him 
hanged,  loaded  him  with  heavy  irons,  and  thrust  him  into  the  hold  of  the 
Gasp£e  war  schooner,  where  he  languished  during  five  weeks.  He  was  after- 
wards transferred  to  Quebec,  and  thence  sent  over  to  England  to  take 
his  trial  for  treason.  .  On  landing  at  Falmouth,  where  his  grotesque  ap- 
pearance excited  the  surprise  of  the  inhabitants,  he  was  at  first  confined  in 
Pendennis  castle,  thence  transported  to  Halifax,  and  finally  to  New  York, 
then  in  possession  of  the  British,  where,  after  three  years'  captivity,  he  was 
at  length  released  in  exchange  for  an  English  officer.  Cut  short  in  the  very 
outset  of  his  career,  and  blamed  moreover  for  the  rashness  of  his  attempt  on 
Montreal,  he  retired  to  his  beloved  Vermont,  and  thenceforth  vanished  from 
the  scene  of  the  revolutionary  conflict. 

Benedict  Arnold,  who,  as  before  narrated,  had  been  baffled  in  his  en- 
deavour to  obtain  the  command  at  Ticonderoga,  after  remaining  a  short 
time  in  service  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Champlain,  had  returned  to  the  camp 
at  Cambridge,  discontented  with  his  treatment,  and  eager  for  some  enterprise 
that  should  at  once  gratify  his  daring  temper,  and  also  open  to  him  a  path  to 
distinction.  To  him  Washington  now  resolved  to  confide  the  conduct  of  a  most 
romantic  expedition  against  Quebec.  Arnold,  when  a  trader,  had  formerly  ♦ 
visited  that  city,  to  purchase  horses ;  he  knew  it  well,  and  also  had  acquaint- 
ances within  its  walls.  The  journal  of  a  British  officer,  who  fifteen  years  before 
had  traversed  the  intervening  wilderness,  while  it  displayed  the  perils  and 
privations  that  awaited  an  army  which  should  venture  to  penetrate  it,  served 
also  in  some  measure  as  a  guide  to  future  operations.  Eleven  hundred  men, 
among  whom  were  three  companies  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  riflemen, 
were  appointed  him  for  this  hazardous  service,  commanded  by  several  young 
military  aspirants,  who  afterwards  became  celebrated  in  the  history  of  the 
war ;  among  them  were  Morgan,  Greene,  Dearborne,  and  Aaron  Burr,  then  a 
young  cadet  of  twenty. 

At  Newbury  Port  the  expedition  embarked  for  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec 
river,  where  two  hundred  batteaux  had  already  been  provided  for  their  fur- 
ther ascent  of  the  stream.  At  Fort  Western,  opposite  Augusta,  they  reached 
the  utmost  verge  of  civilization.  From  this  point  to  the  next  human  habitation 
extended  a  wide  and  pathless  wilderness,  intersected  with  unknown  moun- 
tains, lakes,  and  rivers.  Into  this  they  now  boldly  plunged.  A  small  recon- 
noitring party  was  sent  on  in  advance  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Megantic,  the  rest 
followed  at  intervals  of  a  day  apart,  Morgan  with  his  riflemen  leading  the  van. 
Arnold,  after  witnessing  the  departure  of  the  whole  force,  hurried  forward  and 
overtook  Morgan  at  the  falls  of  Norridgewock.  Here,  amidst  the  solitude  of 
the  forests,  they  came  upon  the  mouldering  vestiges  of  the  church  of  the  mur- 

3  B 


A.  D. 1775. 


L 


370  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

°  vnP*  dered  missionary  Rasles,  but  the  Indians  who  once  dwelt  there  had  fled  foT 
ever  from  the  blood-stained  spot.  At  this  spot  their  difficulties  commenced. 
It  was  necessary  to  repair  and  drag  their  batteaux,  already  damaged  and 
leaky,  past  the  waterfall,  to  launch  them  anew  upon  the  stream.  Seven  days 
were  consumed  in  this  toilsome  operation,  and  these  labours  had  to  be  re- 
newed with  every  fresh  obstruction  of  the  stream.  Worn  out  or  terrified  with 
these  hardships,  many  had  deserted  or  fallen  sick,  and  when  Arnold  at  length 
reached  the  great  carrying-place  from  the  Kennebec  to  Dead  River,  his  ef- 
fective company  was  already  thinned  to  nine  hundred  and  fifty  men. 

Toilsomely  surmounting  the  fifteen  miles  that  separated  them  from  Dead 
River,  they  launched  their  canoes  upon  its  gentle  stream,  flowing  through  an 
unbroken  forest,  gorgeous  with  the  vivid  hues  of  an  American  autumn.  They 
next  encamped  at  the  foot  of  a  lofty  snow-covered  mountain ;  but  scarcely  had 
they  set  forward,  when  the  river,  suddenly  swollen  by  rain,  came  down  upon 
them  with  irresistible  fury :  the  soldiers  with  much  difficulty  effected  their  re- 
treat, not  before  several  boats  were  overturned  and  the  provisions  in  them  spoilt, 
a  loss  irreparable  amidst  these  boundless  and  desolate  forests.  A  council  of 
war  was  held,  and  orders  sent  to  Enos,  who  commanded  the  rear  division,  to 
send  back  the  sick  and  feeble,  but  that  officer  retreated  with  his  entire  troop. 
Arnold  however  pressed  forward  through  snow,  which  now  lay  two  inches 
deep,  the  men  toilsomely  wading  marshes,  and  working  their  batteaux  with 
infinite  difficulty  along  streams  interrupted  by  numerous  waterfalls,  until  at 
length  they  reached  the  shores  of  Lake  Megantic,  the  source  of  the  Chau- 
driere  river,  which  falls  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence  a  little  above  Quebec. 

At  this  spot  they  found  the  agent  who  had  been  sent  on  to  sound  the  dis- 
position of  the  Canadians,  which  was  reported  by  him  to  be  friendly.  Two 
Indian  runners  who  had  been  sent  with  him  betrayed  their  trust,  and  convey- 
ed intelligence  of  the  invasion  to  the  governor  of  Quebec,  who  was  thus  put 
upon  his  guard  against  surprise.  The  passage  of  the  wilderness  had  taken  the 
Americans  so  much  longer  than  was  expected,  that  their  provisions  were  now 
wholly  exhausted.  A  dog  that  had  followed  them  furnished  a  luxurious 
repast ;  they  were  next  reduced  to  boil  their  moose-skin  moccassins  in  the  vain 
hopes  of  extracting  nourishment,  and  the  pungent  roots  of  the  forest  were  de- 
voured with  all  the  eagerness  of  famine.  For  forty-eight  hours  no  food  had 
passed  their  lips.  Arnold  hurried  forward  with  the  least  exhausted,  to  pro- 
cure relief  for  his  starving  troops.  Embarking  on  the  lake,  he  followed  the 
unexplored  stream  of  the  Chauclriere,  but  before  long  his  barks  were  over- 
turned among  foaming  rapids,  and  his  men  with  difficulty  saved.  At  length 
they  reached  Sertigan,  the  first  settlement  of  the  French  Canadians,  who  re- 
ceived them  kindly  and  furnished  them  with  provisions,  which,  as  soon  as  his 
own  wants  were  supplied,  were  sent  back  by  Arnold  to  his  suffering  followers, 
who  were  thus  enabled  to  advance,  and  at  length  the  whole  army,  the  wilder- 
ness behind  them,  joyfully  assembled  at  Sertigan. 

Arnold  now  distributed  to  the  Canadians  the  printed  manifesto  of  Wash- 
ington, inviting  them  to  join  their  American  brethren,  but  the  contented  "  habi- 


A.D.  1774. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  371 

tans  "  had  no  inducement  to  quit  the  neutrality  which  they  had  hitherto  pru-  chap 
dently  observed.  Eager  to  strike  the  blow  before  Quebec  could  be  placed 
in  a  posture  for  defence,  he  hastened  rapidly  down  the  valley  of  the  Chaudriere, 
and  at  length,  to  the  astonishment  and  alarm  of  the  Canadians,  to  whom  the 
governor  had  not  thought  fit  to  communicate  his  knowledge  of  the  expedition, 
suddenly  emerged  through  showers  of  falling  snow  upon  the  heights  of  Point 
Levi,  exactly  opposite  the  city. 

Foaming  with  impatience,  Arnold  would  have  lost  not  a  moment  in  crossing 
over,  and  had  he  been  able  to  do  so,  might  not  improbably  have  succeeded  in 
storming  Quebec ;  but  the  governor  had  retained  all  the  boats  on  the  opposite 
shore,  and  for  several  days  it  blew  such  a  tempest  of  wind  and  sleet,  that  all 
communication  with  the  opposite  shore  became  impossible.  Having  at  length 
obtained  a  small  supply  of  barks,  Arnold  crossed  over  under  cover  of  the  night, 
eluding  two  ships  of  war  placed  to  intercept  him,  and  hurrying  up  the  same 
ravine  which  Wolfe  had  before  ascended  to  victory,  stood,  as  morning  dawned, 
upon  the  memorable  Plains  of  Abraham ;  but  only,  after  such  infinite  toils, 
to  awake  to  a  conviction  of  the  almost  hopelessness  of  his  enterprise.  He  had 
calculated  on  surprising  the  city,  and  found  it  already  on  its  guard.  The  number 
of  his  men  was  but  seven  hundred  and  fifty,  without  artillery,  and  with  damaged 
muskets;  while  the  enemy  were  receiving  reinforcements.  The  lieutenant- 
governor,  knowing  the  disaffection  of  the  Canadians,  declined  to  march  out  and 
attack,  him.  After  some  empty  demonstrations,  Arnold  resolved  to  put  a  bold 
front  upon  the  matter  by  sending  a  flag  with  a  formal  summons  to  surrender,  to 
the  British  commandant,  who  only  fired  upon  the  bearer.  In  this  ridiculous  piece 
of  bravado,  which  disgusted  his  own  officers,  Arnold,  it  was  said,  had  a  private 
motive  to  gratify.  The  British,  aware  of  his  antecedents,  had  liberally  stig- 
matized him  as  "  the  horse-jockey"  an  affront  he  was  anxious  to  wipe  out  by 
this  display  of  importance.  Finding  all  his  efforts  fruitless,  he  retired  in 
infinite  vexation  to  Point  aux  Trembles,  there  to  await  the  arrival  of  Mont- 
gomery and  his  troops.  He  had  scarcely  reached  this  spot,  when  his  chagrin 
was  increased  at  learning  that  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who,  as  before  said,  had 
escaped  from  Montreal,  had  but  just  left  it  for  Quebec,  and  shortly  afterwards 
was  heard  the  booming  of  the  cannon  which  welcomed  his  return  to  the  city. 

On  the  1st  of  December,  Montgomery  made  his  appearance  from  Montreal 
with  a  forlorn  handful  of  troops,  way-worn  and  sick ;  and  he  now  took  the 
command  of  the  whole  American  force,  which  amounted  only  to  nine  hundred 
men.  After  clothing  the  half-naked  troops  of  Arnold  with  garments  he  had 
brought  with  him,  the  whole  force  set  forward  together  for  Quebec.  On 
their  march  thither,  they  were  now  exposed  to  all  the  severities  of  a  Canadian 
winter;  the  driving  sleet  beat  fiercely  in  their  faces,  the  road  was  cum- 
bered with  huge  drifts  of  snow,  and  in  the  open  and  unsheltered  country  the 
cold  was  almost  beyond  endurance.  Such  was  the  season  when  the  American 
troops  commenced  the  siege  of  Quebec,  furnished  only  with  a  few  feeble  guns, 
which  were  reared  on  batteries  of  snow  and  ice,  and  produced  no  effect 
whatever  upon  the  solid  ramparts  that  confronted  them.     For  three  weeks 

3  b  2 


.. 


A.  D. 1775. 


372  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  they  continued  nevertheless  to  abide  the  bitter  severity  of  the  weather,  until 
the  small-pox  broke  out  in  the  camp,  the  term  of  enlistment  of  many  of  the 
troops  had  nearly  expired,  discontent  and  despondency  began  to  prevail,  and 
Montgomery  perceived  that  nothing  but  engaging  them  in  some  vigorous 
effort  could  keep  his  disorganized  ranks  much  longer  from  falling  to  pieces. 

In  venturing  upon  this  enterprise,  the  Americans  had  fully  calculated  on 
the  co-operation  of  a  strong  body  of  the  discontented  within  the  city,  but  on 
the  arrival  of  Carleton,  all  hope  from  that  quarter  had  vanished.  Scarcely  had 
that  active  and  able  officer  regained  the  city,  than  he  adopted  the  most  vigorous 
measures  of  defence,  overawed  the  disaffected,  organized  the  citizens  into 
regiments,  and  soon  raised  the  feeble  garrison  to  a  much  larger  number  than 
that  of  the  besiegers  themselves.  It  was  in  vain  that  Montgomery,  artfully 
exaggerating  the  number  of  his  troops,  summoned  him  to  surrender  under 
pain  of  an  assault ;  aware  that  the  Americans  could  not  much  longer  maintain 
their  position,  he  stood  calmly  but  firmly  upon  the  defensive. 

Nothing  therefore  remained  to  Montgomery  and  Arnold,  but  to  try  the 
last  desperate  chance  of  an  assault.  To  retire  from  before  the  city  without 
striking  a  blow,  even  if  it  should  prove  unsuccessful,  would  be  alike  ruinous 
to  their  own  reputation,  and  mournfully  discouraging  to  the  American  cause. 
It  was  arranged  therefore,  that  while  one  body  of  the  troops  were  to  make  a 
feigned  attack  upon  the  upper  town  from  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  Mont- 
gomery and  Arnold,  at  the  head  of  their  respective  divisions,  should  endeavour 
to  storm  the  lower  town  at  two  opposite  points,  and,  in  the  event  of  success, 
unite  their  forces  and  proceed  to  invest  the  upper  town  and  citadel. 

It  was  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-five,  in 
the  thick  gloom  of  an  early  morning,  while  the  snow  was  falling  fast,  and  the 
cutting  wind  whirling  it  about  in  heavy  drifts,  that  Montgomery,  at  the  head 
of  his  New  York  troops,  proceeded  along  the  narrow  road  leading  under  the 
foot  of  the  precipices  from  Wolfe's  Cove  into  the  lower  town  of  Quebec. 
At  the  entry  of  the  street,  crouching  beneath  the  lofty  rock  of  Cape  Diamond, 
was  planted  a  block-house,  its  guns  pointed  carefully  so  as  to  sweep  the  ap- 
proach. This  post  was  manned  by  a  Captain  Barnsfare,  with  a  few  British  sea- 
men and  a  body  of  Canadian  militia.  As  Montgomery  approached  in  the  dark- 
ness, along  a  roadway  encumbered  with  heaps  of  ice  and  snow,  he  encountered 
a  line  of  stockades,  part  of  which  he  sawed  through  with  his  own  hands,  and 
having  at  length  opened  a  passage,  exclaiming  to  his  troops,  "  Men  of  New 
York,  you  will  not  fear  to  follow  where  your  general  leads,"  he  rushed  for- 
ward to  storm  the  block-house.  But  the  vigilant  officer  had  faintly  descried 
the  approach  of  the  besiegers,  and  when  they  were  within  a  few  paces,  the 
fatal  match  was  applied,  a  hurricane  of  grape-shot  swept  the  pass,  and  the 
gallant  Montgomery  fell  dead  upon  the  spot.  With  him  were  struck  down 
Captains  Cheesman  and  M'Pherson,  his  aides-de-camp,  and  several  among  the 
foremost  soldiers.  Cheesman  had  repaired  to  the  attack  with  a  full  presenti- 
ment he  should  never  survive  it;  he  arose  for  a  moment,  staggered  wildly 
onwards  a  few  paces,  and  sunk  upon  the  snow  a  corpse.     The  rest  of  the  di- 


m 


TY 


A.  D. 1775. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  313 

vision,  panic  struck  at  witnessing  the  fall  of  their  leaders,  gave  up  all  hopes   chap. 
of  success,  and  retreated  in  confusion  back  to  the  spot  whence  they  had 
started. 

Arnold,  meanwhile,  at  the  head  of  the  other  division,  had  pushed  along 
through  the  snow-drifts  to  the  narrow  street  called  "  Sault  au  Matelot"  de- 
fended by  a  two-gun  battery ;  and  here,  while  impetuously  urging  forward 
his  men,  he  was  completely  disabled  by  a  musket-wound  in  the  knee,  and 
carried  back  to  the  hospital,  where  he  learned  that  Montgomery  had  already 
fallen.  Morgan  now  succeeded  to  the  command,  and  fought  so  bravely  with 
his  riflemen,  that  in  spite  of  the  storm  of  grape-shot  and  musket-balls,  he  car- 
ried the  first  barrier,  and  hurried  on  to  the  assault  of  the  second.  Here  a 
severe  conflict  took  place ;  the  small  body  of  the  Americans,  in  the  heart  of  a 
hostile  city,  for  three  hours  bravely  kept  up  the  attack ;  they  stormed  the  bar- 
rier, and  were  preparing  to  rush  into  the  town,  when  they  were  intercepted 
by  the  bayonets  of  a  powerful  detachment  sent  out  by  Carleton  to  take  them 
in  the  rear  and  cut  off  their  retreat,  and  compelled  to  surrender  themselves 
as  prisoners  of  war. 

Thus  ended  the  famous  assault  of  Quebec,  which,  desperate  as  it  would  well 
seem,  might  nevertheless  have  succeeded,  had  not  Montgomery  perished  at  the 
very  outset,  and  his  column  been  forced  to  retreat.  As  soon  as  the  fight  had 
ended,  search  was  made  for  his  body,  but  the  American  orderly  sergeant,  who 
lingered  for  another  hour,  would  not  acknowledge  that  his  general  was  dead9 
and  it  was  not  until  the  corpse  was  recognised  by  one  of  the  American 
officers,  that  Carleton  received  the  assurance  that  his  gallant  adversary  was  in- 
deed no  more.  He  manifested  evident  symptoms  of  sincere  and  generous 
emotion,  nor  did  he  fail  to  acquire  the  general  respect  of  his  adversaries  by 
the  humanity  which  he  displayed  towards  his  American  prisoners. 

The  death  of  Montgomery  caused  the  most  genuine  sorrow  throughout  the 
colonies.  Not  only  were  his  military  talents  most  promising,  and  his  bravery 
distinguished,  but  his  gentleness  and  humanity  rendered  him  universally  be- 
loved by  his  own  soldiers,  who  almost  worshipped  him,  and  no  less  by  all 
classes  of  persons  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  His  early  fate  might  well 
call  forth  tears  of  commiseration  and  gratitude  from  the  Americans.  Happily 
settled  in  New  York,  devotedly  attached  to  his  family  and  friends,  he  left 
the  bosom  of  domestic  tranquillity  to  sacrifice  his  life  to  the  cause  of  his 
countrymen.  His  last  words  to  his  wife,  when  he  left  to  assume  the  command 
of  this  ill-fated  expedition,  were,  "  You  shall  have  no  cause  to  blush  for  your 
Montgomery !  "  He  nobly  redeemed  his  pledge,  and  though  the  expedition 
was  a  failure,  his  memory  is  justly  revered  by  the  grateful  posterity  of  those 
for  whom  he  gave  his  life.  His  body,  at  first  interred  with  every  honour  at 
Quebec,  was  afterwards  removed  to  New  York,  where  a  monument  erected  to 
him  on  the  wall  of  Trinity  church,  attracts  the  eye  of  the  traveller  as  he  ad- 
vances up  the  principal  street  of  that  great  commercial  emporium,  a  memento 
of  the  sacrifices  at  which  the  independence  of  America  was  achieved.  Nor 
were  the  English  themselves  less  generous  in  appreciating  the  noble  qualities 


374 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A  D.  1775. 


C  vii  P"  °^  an  enemv*  f°r  Chatham,  Burke,  and  Barre  pronounced  a  glowing  eulogium 
upon  Montgomery  in  the  English  parliament. 

After  his  disastrous  repulse,  Arnold,  now  promoted  to  the  rank  of  briga- 
dier-general, retired  with  his  small  remaining  force  to  a  distance  of  about 
three  miles  from  Quebec,  and  endeavoured  to  maintain  during  the  rest  of  the 
winter  a  sort  of  blockade  ;  while  Carleton  remained  quietly  within  the  walls  of 
the  city,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  troops  from  England.  Congress  continued  to 
send  reinforcements,  until  the  army  was  at  length  swelled  to  three  thousand  men, 
and  General  Wooster  arrived  to  take  the  chief  command,  when  Arnold,  unwilling 
to  serve  under  this  officer,  obtained  permission  to  retire  to  Montreal.  The  rest  of 
the  campaign  was  but  a  constant  succession  of  disasters.  General  Thomas,  who 
succeeded  to  Montgomery,  arrived  early  in  May,  and  after  calling  a  council  of 
war,  was  in  the  act  of  removing  his  forces  to  a  greater  distance  from  the  city, 
when  one  morning  several  ships  were  seen  to  enter  the  harbour  and  throw  fresh 
troops  into  the  town ;  and  at  one  o'clock  Carleton  made  a  sortie  at  the  head  of  a 
thousand  men,  capturing  all  the  stores  and  sick,  whom  he  treated,  as  he  had 
done  his  other  prisoners,  with  the  utmost  humanity.  General  Thomas  retired 
to  the  Sorel,  where  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  small-pox,  then  raging  violently  in 
the  American  camp.  Sullivan,  who  succeeded  Thomas,  made  an  ineffectual 
attack  upon  a  British  corps,  while  another  American  post,  at  the  Cedars,  shortly 
afterwards  surrendered.  Burgoyne,  pressing  forward  with  a  vastly  superior 
body  of  troops,  finally  drove  the  American  army  before  him  out  of  Canada,  to 
use  the  words  of  John  Adams,  "  disgraced,  defeated,  discontented,  dispirited, 
diseased,  undisciplined,  eaten  up  with  vermin,  no  clothes,  beds,  blankets, 
nor  medicines,  and  no  victuals  but  salt  pork  and  flour."  Montreal,  with 
Forts  Chambly  and  St.  John's,  were  recovered  by  the  English ;  while  the 
American  army  retreated  down  Lake  Champlain  to  Crown  Point,  where  its  dis- 
organized battalions  were  placed  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Gates. 
Thus  terminated  this  romantic  but  unfortunate  campaign,  in  which  the  young 
and  ardent  spirits  of  the  revolution  had  displayed  a  bravery  and  endurance 
equal  to  any  recorded  in  history.  Its  failure  was  regarded  at  the  time  as  a 
great  misfortune,  while  in  reality  it  was  perhaps  rather  an  advantage  to  the 
Americans,  who  could  ill  have  afforded  to  spare  the  forces  necessary  to  have 
maintained  so  extensive  a  line  of  operations.  The  failure  of  the  Canadian 
expedition  led  in  fact  to  the  capture  of  Burgoyne. 

Meanwhile  Washington  remained  at  Cambridge,  occupied  with  the  reorgan- 
ization of  the  American  army.  The  time  was  drawing  near  when  the  troops, 
by  agreement,  were  free  to  depart  to  their  homes,  and  a  large  proportion  were 
inclined  to  do  so.  The  first  impulse  of  patriotic  fervour  had  abated,  the  rigour 
of  military  discipline  was  irksome,  and  the  tedium  of  inaction  intolerable.  To 
this  subject  Washington  had  earnestly  drawn  the  attention  of  congress,  and  a 
convention,  of  which  Franklin  was  a  member,  was  appointed  to  confer  with 
him  upon  it,  who  readily  adopted  his  proposal,  which  had  been  already  well 
considered  in  concert  with  his  officers.  The  principle  of  the  arrangement 
was,  that  the  American  army  ought  to  be  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  enemy  in 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  375 

Boston,  and  to  consist  of  twenty-six  regiments,  besides  corps  of  riflemen  and  ar-   c  ha  p. 
tillery,  amounting  in  all  to  about  twenty-two  thousand  men.  Of  these  regiments  ' 

Massachusetts  was  to  furnish  sixteen,  Connecticut,  five,  New  Hampshire  three,    '  me. 
and  Rhode  Island  two.     The  officers  were  to  be  selected  by  Washington,  as 
far  as  possible,  out  of  those  already  in  service.     This  proved  to  be  a  task 
both  delicate  and  difficult.     In  the  ill-compacted  state  of  the  army,  which 
threatened  to  dissolve  itself  like  a  rope  of  sand,  it  was  indispensable  to  con- 
ciliate the  soldiers,  who  refused  to  renew  their  engagements  unless  permitted 
to  serve  under  officers  to  whom  they  had  become  attached,  but  who  neverthe- 
less might  not  be  the  most  fitted  for  their  respective  po,sts.    It  was  also  neces- 
sary to  adjust  the  number  of  officers  to  that  of  the  troops  furnished  by  the  re- 
spective colonies,  jealous  as  they  were  of  each  other's  precedency  and  influence. 
By  a  mind  less  deeply  imbued  with  patriotism,  or  a  temper  less  firm  and  yet 
conciliating,  than  that  of  Washington,  such  a  task  might  have  been  well  thrown 
up  in  disgust.     As  it  was,  he  could  not  fail  sometimes  to  complain  of  an  egre- 
gious want  of  public  spirit,  and  of  "  fertility  in  all  the  low  arts  of  obtaining 
advantage,"  which  the  settlement  of  these  intricate  and  conflicting  claims  had 
so  unhappily  called  forth.     The  task  of  managing  his  new  recruits  is  also 
feelingly  alluded  to  by  him.     "  There  is  great  difficulty,"  he  observes,  "  to 
support  liberty,  to  exercise  government,  and  maintain  subordination,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  prevent  the  operation  of  licentious  and  levelling  principles, 
which  many  very  easily  imbibe.    The  pulse  of  a  New  England  man  beats  high 
for  liberty,  his  engagement  in  the  service  he  thinks  purely  voluntary,  therefore 
when  the  time  of  enlistment  is  out,  he  thinks  himself  not  holden  without 
further  engagement.     This  was  the  case  in  the  last  war.     I  greatly  fear  its 
operation  amongst  the  soldiers  of  the  other  colonies,  as  I  am  sensible  this  is 
the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  people."     These  discouraging  anticipations  were 
fully  justified.     With  all  his  efforts  and  concessions,  enlistments  could  only  be 
procured  for  a  single  year,  the  Connecticut  regiments  marched  off  even  before 
their  time  was  up,  and  it  became  necessary  to  supply  the  gap  by  calling  in 
the   local   militia.     This    step,   though   absolutely  necessary,  occasioned  no 
little  uneasiness  and  jealousy.     The  same   dread  of  military  domination  to 
which  we  have  already  alluded,  haunted  the  minds  of  the  patriots,  and  to 
allay  suspicion  it  became  necessary  to  arrange  that  the  commander-in-chief 
should  obtain  the  consent  of  the  executive  of  each  colony  before  he  called  out 
its  militia.     Every  way  he  was  hedged  in  and  crippled.    Add  to  this,  that  the 
supply  of  ammunition   still  remained  very  defective,  that  the  artillery  de- 
partment was  miserably  organized,  and  it  will  be  evident  that  nothing  but 
extreme  fortitude  and  perseverance  could  have  enabled  Washington  to  sur- 
mount such  accumulated  and  discouraging  obstacles. 

To  render  his  situation  more  distressing,  he  very  well  knew  that  the  public, 
ignorant  of  his  real  situation,  were  growing  impatient  at  the  inaction  of 
the  army,  and  anxious  to  see  the  enemy  driven  from  Boston  by  some  brilliant 
and  striking  exploit.  Aware  of  the  general  state  of  feeling,  congress  had 
already  pointedly  suggested,  that,  "  if  he  thought  it  practicable  to  defeat  the 


376  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c iJA p-  enemy  and  gain  possession  of  the  town,  it  would  be  advisable  to  make  the 
D  l775  attack  upon  the  first  favourable  occasion,  and  before  the  arrival  of  reinforce- 
1776.  '  ments."  Yet  with  the  slow  progress  of  the  recruiting,  and  above  all,  with  a 
deficiency  of  arms  and  ammunition  so  serious  that  it  became  necessary  to 
conceal  it  even  from  the  army  itself,  such  a  step  would  have  been  little  short 
of  madness.  Washington  has  been  generally  called  the  American  Fabius,  and 
it  has  been  supposed  that  his  temperament  and  policy  rendered  him  averse  to 
active  measures.  So  far  from  this,  the  very  reverse  was  the  case,  and  had  he 
suffered  his  inclination  to  outweigh  the  dictates  of  prudence,  there  is  little 
doubt  but  that  he  would  have  seized  the  earliest  opportunity  of  attacking  the 
enemy.  But  upon  calling  a  council  of  war,  the  most  experienced  officers 
opposed  themselves  to  this  plan.  Conscious  that  by  these  delays  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  country  was  likely  to  grow  cold,  and  his  own  reputation  to  be 
imperiled,  his  feelings  broke  forth  with  bitterness  in  his  correspondence. 
"  Could  I  have  foreseen  the  difficulties,"  said  he,  "  which  have  come  upon  us, 
could  I  have  known  that  such  backwardness  would  have  been  discovered  by 
old  soldiers  to  the  service,  all  the  generals  upon  earth  should  not  have  con- 
vinced me  of  the  propriety  of  delaying  an  attack  upon  Boston  until  this  time." 
"  I  know,"  he  says  in  another  letter  to  a  friend,  "the  unhappy  predicament  in 
which  I  stand,  I  know  that  much  is  expected  from  me.  I  know  that,  with- 
out men,  without  arms,  without  ammunition,  without  any  thing  fit  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  a  soldier,  little  is  to  be  done ;  and  what  is  mortifying,  I  know 
that  I  cannot  stand  justified  to  the  world  without  exposing  my  own  weakness, 
and  injuring  the  cause  by  declaring  my  wants,  which  I  am  determined  not  to 
do,  further  than  unavoidable  necessity  brings  every  man  acquainted  with 
them.  My  situation  is  so  irksome  to  me  at  times,  that  if  I  did  not  consult  the 
public  good  more  than  my  own  tranquillity,  I  should  long  ere  this  have  put 
every  thing  on  the  cast  of  a  die.  So  far  from  my  having  an  army  of  twenty 
thousand  men  well  armed,  I  have  been  here  with  less  than  half  that  number, 
including  sick,  furloughed,  and  on  command,  and  those  neither  armed  nor 
clothed  as  they  should  be.  In  short,  my  situation  has  been  such,  that  I  have 
been  obliged  to  use  every  art  to  conceal  it  from  my  own  officers." 

Besides  the  superintendence  of  the  army,  there  devolved  on  Washington, 
in  the  present  unsettled  state  of  affairs,  the  necessity  of  arming  vessels  to 
obstruct  the  supplies  received  by  the  enemy,  and  to  procure  those  required 
by  the  continental  army.  Already  had  the  British  cruisers  commenced  that 
career  of  vindictive  destruction,  which  envenomed  the  feelings  of  the 
colonists  beyond  the  power  of  healing,  and  sowed  the  seeds  of  an  animosity 
which  has  not  wholly  died  out,  even  at  the  present  day.  The  loading  of  a  royal 
mast  ship  having  been  obstructed  at  Falmouth  in  Massachusetts,  Captain 
Mowatt  was  detached  by  Admiral  Graves,  with  several  armed  vessels,  in  order 
to  demand  redress.  The  inhabitants  were  required  to  deliver  up  their  arms 
and  ammunition,  to  send  on  board  a  supply  of  provisions,  four  carriage  guns, 
and  several  of  the  principal  inhabitants  as  hostages  that  they  would  not  engage 
in  active  opposition  to  the  English.     These  conditions  were  refused  by  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  377 

towns-people,  who  occupied  the  night  in  the  removal  of  their  families  and  effects,   chap. 
The  next  morning  the  place  was  bombarded,  and  the  inhabitants,  standing " — 

O  Jr  '  *  o   A.D.I 775 

upon  the  neighbouring  heights,  were  doomed  to  witness  the  remorseless  con-  '  1756. 
flagration  of  their  homes.  Mowatt  attempted  to  land,  but  the  inhabitants 
stood  to  their  arms,  and  gallantly  repulsed  him.  Other  towns  on  the  coast 
were  compelled  to  furnish  a  supply  of  provisions  to  escape  a  similar  fate. 
These  hostilities  speedily  led  to  the  equipping  of  vessels  to  harass  and  inter- 
cept the  English  store-ships,  and  also  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  obtaining 
supplies  along  the  coast.  Massachusetts,  as  usual,  took  the  initiative,  by  passing 
a  law  to  encourage  the  -fitting  out  of  privateers,  and  a  court  for  the  trial  and 
condemnation  of  pirates.  Several  vessels  were  sent  out  by  Washington,  but 
manned  by  officers  and  men  from  the  army,  and  commissioned,  as  "  a  detach- 
ment of  the  army,"  to  cruise  against  the  enemy's  ships.  It  was  but  natural 
that  many  of  these  officers  should  have  proved  incompetent,  but  there  were 
some  remarkable  exceptions.  Captain  Manly  of  Marblehead,  in  the  schooner 
Lee,  captured  an  ordonnance  brig  from  Woolwich  laden  with  cannon  and  am- 
munition, which  proved  highly  serviceable  to  Washington's  army.  The  as- 
sembly of  Rhode  Island,  whose  coasts  were  peculiarly  exposed,  now  called 
the  attention  of  the  colonial  congress  to  the  subject  of  a  naval  force.  A  Ma- 
rine Committee  was  appointed,  regulations  drawn  up,  and  several  frigates 
ordered  to  be  built, — the  nucleus  of  that  American  navy,  which  has  since  ob- 
tained so  brilliant  and  world-wide  a  reputation. 

Meanwhile  the  position  of  the  English  in  Boston  became  every  day  more 
critical.  The  post  of  Lord  Howe  was  far  from  being  enviable.  He  was  un- 
able to  adopt  offensive  measures,  and  could  not  hope  much  longer  to  maintain 
himself  in  the  city.  During  the  winter  the  troops  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  .want  of  fuel  and  fresh  provisions.  Large  supplies  had  been  sent 
from  England  for  their  relief,  but  many  of  the  vessels  bearing  them  had  been 
intercepted  by  the  American  privateers,  and  it  was  found  to  be  almost  im- 
possible to  levy  contributions  on  the  coasts.  Provisions  became  excessively 
scarce  and  dear,  and  before  the  winter  was  over  horseflesh  was  not  refused  by 
such  as  were  able  to  obtain  it.  The  soldiers  who  remained  all  the  season  on 
the  bleak  slope  of  Bunker's  Hill,  in  canvass  tents,  suffered  intensely.  It  became 
necessary  to  strip  the  churches  of  their  benches  and  wood-work,  and  even  to 
pull  down  uninhabited  houses,  in  order  to  procure  fuel.  Several  hundred  of 
useless  mouths  were  sent  out  of  the  city.  The  old  south  church,  the  scene 
of  so  many  popular  meetings,  was  emptied  and  turned  into  a  riding  school, 
and  the  British  officers  amused  themselves  with  getting  up  balls  and  theatri- 
cals. Cooped  up  and  starved  in  this  city,  which  was  besides  too  far  north  to 
form  a  good  centre  of  military  operations,  General  Howe  would  have  eva- 
cuated it  before  the  winter  set  in,  but  for  the  want  of  vessels.  To  expel  him 
by  force  was  now  earnestly  desired  by  congress,  and  they  warmly  urged 
Washington  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  for  this  important  object.  But  Wash- 
ington needed  no  urging  on  their  part.  By  dint  of  constant  exertion,  he  had 
by  this  time  brought  the  army  into  a  better  condition ;  and  so  soon  as  the  ice 

3  c 


CHAP. 
VII. 


A.  D.  1776. 


378  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

had  formed,  which  occurred  about  the  middle  of  February,  he  called  a  coun- 
cil of  his  officers,  and  proposed  to  cross  over  and  make  an  immediate  attack 
upon  the  city.  This  project  however  was  considered  imprudent  by  the  council, 
the  fortifications  having  been  greatly  strengthened  by  the  British.  At  this 
disappointment  Washington  was  deeply  chagrined.  "  Though  we  had  been 
waiting  all  the  year  for  this  favourable  event,"  said  he,  "  the  enterprise  was 
thought  too  dangerous.  Perhaps  it  was;  perhaps  the  irksomeness  of  my 
situation  led  me  to  undertake  more  than  could  be  warranted  by  prudence.  I 
did  not  think  so,  and  I  am  sure  yet,  that  the  enterprise,  if  it  had  been  under- 
taken with  resolution,  must  have  succeeded ;  without  it,  any  would  fail."  A 
less  hazardous  but  no  less  effectual  method  of  expelling  the  British  was  sug- 
gested by  Ward  and  Gates.  Dorchester  heights,  as  we  have  already  observed, 
situated  to  the  southward  of  Boston,  completely  commanded  the  town  and 
harbour.  To  raise  batteries  upon  that  point  must  therefore  inevitably  compel 
Lord  Howe  either  to  evacuate  the  city,  or  come  forth  to  attack  the  intrench- 
ments ;  and  in  this  event  Washington  determined  to  profit  by  the  abstraction 
of  the  English  forces,  and  to  make  an  attempt  upon  Boston. 

This  plan  was  carried  out  with  extraordinary  activity,  and  crowned  with 
complete  success.  A  vast  quantity  of  fascines  and  gabions  had  been  prepared, 
and  to  cover  their  design,  and  distract  the  British,  some  powerful  batteries 
established  at  Cop's  Hill  and 'other  places,  were  opened  on  the  2nd  of  March, 
and  began  to  bombard  the  city,  which  was  soon  in  flames  in  various  places, 
though  the  fire  was  extinguished  by  the  activity  of  the  soldiers.  This  cannonad- 
ing was  kept  up  the  next  two  nights,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  4th  of 
March,  amid  the  prevailing  confusion,  while  the  thunder  and  smoke  of 
the  artillery  prevented  their  movements  from  being  heard  or  seen,  a  consider- 
able detachment  under  General  Ward,  furnished  with  abundant  munitions, 
prepared  to  set  out  on  this  important  adventure. 

It  was  a  mild  night  for  the  season,  but  the  ground  was  frozen  impenetrably 
hard,  as  the  troops  passed  stealthily  across  the  low  peninsula,  leading  from  the 
mainland  to  the  heights, — exposed,  should  they  be  discovered,  to  a  sweeping 
cannonade  from  the  British  men-of-war  in  the  harbour.  Not  a  soul  however 
perceived  them ;  they  rapidly  ascended  the  heights,  and  set  to  work  with  such 
extraordinary  activity,  that  before  ten  at  night  they  had  already  constructed 
two  redoubts  sufficient  to  protect  them  from  musketry.  They  laboured  on 
strenuously  until  morning,  and  as  the  mists  gradually  rolled  off,  the  new  in- 
trenchments,  constructed  in  a  single  night,  loomed  upon  the  astonished  eyes 
of  the  British  officers,  as  they  afterwards  declared,  like  the  work  of  an  oriental 
necromancer.  It  was  no  dream  however,  but  a  substantial  reality,  and  soon 
as  the  admiral  had  reconnoitred  the  works,  he  declared  that  unless  the  enemy 
were  promptly  dislodged  from  them,  it  would  be  impossible  for  his  vessels  to 
remain  in  the  bay  without  running  the  most  imminent  risk  of  destruction.  The 
city  and  isthmus  were  no  less  exposed  to  the  provincial  artillery,  and  Lord 
Howe  had  therefore  no  alternative  but  to  despatch  a  body  of  three  thousand 
troops  under  Lord  Percy  to  expel  the  Americans  from  the  heights. 


A.  D.  1776. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  379 

In  anticipation  of  this  result,  the  intrenchments  were  completed  with  care,  chap. 
the  militia  of  the  neighbourhood  assembled,  and  signals  arranged  on  the  chain 
of  heights  round  the  city  for  the  more  rapid  transmission  of  orders.  Wash- 
ington exhorted  his  soldiers  to  remember  Bunker's  Hill.  In  case  the  enemy- 
should  fail  in  their  attack,  he  had  appointed  four  thousand  chosen  men  under 
the  command  of  Sullivan  and  Greene,  who  should  profit  by  the  tumult  and 
confusion,  to  cross  over  and  assault  the  city.  Lord  Percy  and  his  detachment 
prepared  to  cross  over  to  Dorchester  heights,  where  the  Americans  awaited 
them  with  enthusiastic  determination,  but  the  sinking  of  the  tide  and  a  violent 
wind  rendered  the  embarkation  impossible.  The  night  was  extremely  tem- 
pestuous, and  in  the  morning  the  agitated  sea  and  heavy  rain  occasioned 
another  unavoidable,  delay ;  and  the  Americans  profited  by  this  interval  to 
increase  the  strength  of  their  intrenchments,  until  they  had  become  exceed- 
ingly formidable.  The  British  general  perceived  that  the  attempt  to  storm 
them  would  be  attended  with  considerable  risk,  and  that,  should  his  efforts  be 
crowned  with  success,  it  would  be  a  dear-bought  and  almost  useless  victory, 
inasmuch  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  maintain  himself  much  longer  in  the 
city.  He  therefore  called  a  council  of  war,  at  which  it  was  resolved  to 
evacuate  Boston,  if  suffered  to  retire  without  further  molestation.  This  done, 
he  summoned  the  principal  inhabitants  and  informed  them  of  the  resolution 
he  had  adopted,  threatening  at  the  same  time  that  he  would  destroy  the  town, 
if  disturbed  during  the  embarkation  of  his  soldiers.  With  this  informal  mes- 
sage he  counselled  them  to  repair  to  Washington,  and  a  tacit  understanding 
took  place  that  the  British  should  be  allowed  to  retire  peaceably.  This  being 
arranged,  the  embarkation  was  commenced  at  once,  and  occupied  eleven  days. 
The  soldiers,  five  thousand  in  number,  were  doubtless  glad  to  escape  from 
what  they  had  long  felt  to  be  a  dishonourable  prison,  in  which  they  were  suffer- 
ing severe  privations;  but  it  was  far  otherwise  with  the  unhappy  band  of  loy- 
alists, a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  in  number,  members  of  the  council, 
commissioners,  custom-house  officers,  clergymen,  merchants,  and  mechanics, 
who  were  compelled  to  abandon  for  ever  the  homes  of  their  fathers, 
leaving  their  property  to  be  confiscated  by  the  victors,  and  with  no  other 
means  of  subsistence  than  the  scanty  rations  allowed  to  the  soldiers.  During 
these  gloomy  days  the  disorder  in  the  city  was  frightful.  Fathers  laden 
with  baggage,  mothers  bearing  their  children,  ran  weeping  towards  the  ships, 
the  sick  and  the  wounded,  old  men  and  children,  hurrying  together  to  the 
shore,  with  the  licence  of  an  infuriated  soldiery,  who  plundered  the  houses, 
and  wantonly  destroyed  what  they  could  not  carry  away,  presented  one  of  the 
most  fearful  episodes  of  the  miseries  of  civil  war.  During  this  scene  of  misery 
the  Americans  had  constructed  a  redoubt  on  Nook's  Hill,  which  commanded 
the  peninsula  at  Dorchester.  The  situation  of  the  army  became  critical  in 
the  extreme,  the  embarkation  was  hurriedly  brought  to  a  close,  and  at  ten 
in  the  morning  of  the  17th  of  March,  the  fleet  departed  from  Boston. 
Scarcely  had  the  rearguard  embarked,  when  Washington  entered  the  city  in 
triumph,  and  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  patriotic  inhabitants,  who, 

3  c  2 


380  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

°  vn P'  cut  °^  ^or  sateen  months  from  all  communication  with  their  brethren,  had 
A  p  l7JQ  been  exposed  to  the  severest  privations,  and  to  the  insults  and  outrages  of  the 
soldiery.  Many  of  those  who  had  been  compelled  to  leave  the  city,  dependent 
on  charity  for  their  support,  now  joyfully  returned  to  their  homes.  Such 
loyalists  as  had  ventured  to  remain  behind  were  declared  traitors  to  their 
country,  and  their  property,  with  that  of  their  departed  brethren,  was  confis- 
cated and  put  up  to  sale  for  public  benefit.  A  considerable  quantity  of  can- 
non and  stores  had  been  reluctantly  left  behind  by  the  British,  who  had 
spiked  several  guns  and  thrown  others  into  the  sea. 

While  in  the  northern  States  the  dispute  had  proceeded  even  to  bloodshed, 
in  the  southern  also  matters  had  been  carried  to  a  point  of  incurable  hostility. 
The  prominent  part  taken  by  the  Virginians,  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the 
dissensions,  has  been  already  traced,  and  will  have  sufficiently  shown  the  at- 
titude of  mutual  defiance  in  which  the  governors  and  people  then  stood. 
Lord  Dunmore,  who  had  greatly  distinguished  himself  by  his  defence  of  the 
frontier  against  the  Indians,  was  a  man  of  great  energy  and  activity  of  character, 
but  who,  far  from  being  endued  with  that  tact  and  suppleness  necessary  to 
allay  the  popular  irritation,  by  his  rash,  inconsiderate,  and  vindictive  conduct, 
hurried  it  forward  to  the  highest  possible  pitch.  The  provincial  congress  of 
Virginia  having  ordered  a  levy  of  volunteers,  Dunmore  secretly  removed  the 
public  powder  by  night,  and  when  its  restoration  was  energetically  demanded 
by  the  people,  he  refused  it  upon  the  ground  that  they  were  in  a  state  of 
virtual  rebellion.  He  incautiously  let  fall  the  most  violent  threats,  talked  of 
liberating  the  negro  slaves,  and  rallying  them  around  the  standard  of  the  king. 
In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  thus  produced,  arrived  the  news  of  the  rout 
of  the  English  troops  at  Lexington.  On  learning  the  removal  of  the  powder, 
a  body  of  volunteers,  headed  by  Patrick  Henry,  marched  upon  Williamsburg, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  its  recovery  by  force,  and  did  not  retire  until 
they  had  obtained  bills  to  the  amount  of  the  stores  carried  away.  The 
governor  retorted  by  issuing  a  proclamation  declaring  Henry  and  his  com- 
panions to  be  rebels,  a  proceeding  which,  while  it  intimidated  nobody,  on  the 
contrary  tended  still  further  to  exasperate  the  great  body  of  the  people. 

Matters  remained  in  this  uneasy  state  until  the  arrival  of  Lord  North's 
conciliatory  measure,  which  Dunmore  laid  before  the  assembly  with  the 
lingering  hope  that  it  might  allay  the  general  agitation.  But  here,  as  in 
the  other  colonies,  this  insidious  measure  was  contemptuously  rejected,  and 
the  people,  their  minds  being  fully  made  up,  determined  to  take  the  redress 
of  grievances  into  their  own  hands,  and  they  proceeded  to  attack  the  arsenal, 
to  obtain  the  recovery  of  the  public  stores.  The  governor,  alarmed  for  his 
personal  safety,  retired  on  board  a  ship  of  war  with  his  family,  whence  the 
assembly  invited  him  to  return  to  Williamsburg  and  resume  his  functions. 
This  he  however  refused  to  do,  and  this  refusal  being  regarded  by  the  as- 
sembly as  a  virtual  abdication  of  his  office,  from  that  moment  the  royal 
government  in  Virginia  may  be  said  to  have  come  to  an  end,  being  immedi- 
ately succeeded  by  a  popular  convention,  with  an  executive  committee  of  safety. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  381 

Highly  exasperated  by  this  expulsion  from  his  government,  and  fully  chap 
counting  upon  the  co-operation  of  a  large  body  of  loyalists,  Lord  Dunmore  T-rr— * 
now  commenced  an  ignoble  system  of  hostilities,  resembling  rather  the  preda- 
tory attacks  of  a  horde  of  corsairs  than  the  proceedings  of  civilized  warfare. 
Having  collected  a  considerable  naval  force,  he  proclaimed  martial  law,  de- 
clared that  all  slaves  belonging  to  the  rebels  were  henceforth  free,  and  invited 
them  to  join  the  royal  standard ;  thus  endeavouring  to  add  the  horrors  of  a 
war  of  races  to  that  already  subsisting  between  men  of  the  same  blood  and 
language.  In  consequence  of  this  proclamation,  a  considerable  number  of 
fugitive  slaves  soon  joined  his  standard,  with  a  large  body  of  loyalists,  which 
it  required  the  utmost  efforts  of  the  Virginia  convention  to  keep  in  check. 
Having  collected  a  considerable  force,  the  ex-governor  then  proceeded  across 
the  Great  Bridge,  a  long  and  narrow  pass,  which  formed  the  only  access  to 
the  town  of  Norfolk,  then  become  the  most  flourishing  sea-port  of  Virginia. 
Here  he  endeavoured  to  establish  himself  with  his  adherents,  and  fortified  the 
bridge  end  for  this  purpose.  A  vigorous  and  successful  assault  was  made 
upon  it  by  the  Virginia  militia,  and  Dunmore,  finding  the  position  untenable, 
was  compelled  to  retire  again  on  board  his  ships. 

The  most  bitter  animosity  now  raged  between  the  patriot  and  the  loyalist 
parties.  On  the  evacuation  of  Norfolk  a  large  body  of  the  latter  took  refuge 
on  board  the  fleet,  while  those  who  remained  behind  were  exposed  to  all  the 
rancour  of  their  victorious  enemies.  Their  bitter  complaints  reached  Lord 
Dunmore,  who,  being  joined  by  a  frigate,  threatened,  unless  they  ceased 
to  fire  upon  his  ships,  and  sent  to  him  a  supply  of  provisions,  to  lay  the  town 
in  ashes  upon  the  following  morning.  Meeting  only  with  a  refusal,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  bombard  Norfolk,  and  thus  one  of  the  most  flourishing  sea-ports  in 
America  fell  a  prey  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 

Meanwhile  Dunmore  had  left  no  means  untried  of  raising  a  party  for  the 
royal  cause.  He  had  commissioned  one  Conolly  as  lieutenant-colonel,  and 
sent  him  into  the  back  provinces  of  Virginia  to  raise  a  regiment  from  among 
the  settlers,  and  even,  it  was  said,  to  induce  the  Indians  to  take  part  in  the 
dispute.  Conolly  however  was  intercepted,  and  sent  prisoner  to  Phila- 
delphia. 

Unable  as  he  was  to  reduce  the  province  to  obedience,  Dunmore  continued 
during  the  whole  summer  to  carry  on  a  system  of  vengeful  depredations 
upon  the  estates  of  such  of  the  patriots  as,  from  their  situation  on  the  banks  of 
the  numerous  rivers  with  which  Virginia  is  intersected,  lay  helpless  and  open 
to  attack.  He  burned  the  houses  of  the  planters,  ravaged  their  estates,  and 
carried  off  their  slaves,  and  after  inflicting  an  immense  amount  of  wanton  in- 
jury, pursued  from  place  to  place,  was  at  last  compelled  to  retire  from  the 
province,  accompanied  by  the  general  detestation  of  the  people  over  whom 
he  had  once  presided  with  honour,  having,  as  the  sole  result,  eradicated  from 
the  breasts  of  the  patriotic  party  in  Virginia  the  last  lingering  vestiges 
of  loyalty,  and  greatly  precipitated  the  growing  feeling  in  favour  of  inde- 
pendence. 


VII 


A.  D. 1776 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  The  disasters  of  the  Americans  in  Canada  were  counterbalanced  by  their 
successes  in  the  southern  provinces.  After  the  departure  of  the  English  troops 
from  Boston,  General  Clinton  had  been  despatched  from  Halifax  with  a  body 
of  troops  destined  for  the  coast  of  Carolina.  In  the  province  of  North  Caro- 
lina a  considerable  body  of  Scotch  highlanders  had  settled,  animated  by  a 
strong  feeling  of  loyalty,  as  were  also  the  "  Regulators,"  already  spoken  of. 
With  the  aid  of  these  men,  together  with  a  large  body  of  troops  which  were 
shortly  expected  from  Ireland,  and  the  detachment  of  Clinton,  Governor 
Martin  had  confidently  expected  to  reduce  the  colony  to  obedience.  Two 
highland  officers,  named  M/Donald  and  M'Leod,  succeeded  in  raising  a 
body  of  loyalists,  with  which  they  attempted  to  march  down  to  the  coast  and 
await  the  expected  succours.  In  order  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  to  pass  over 
Moore's  Creek  bridge,  near  Wilmington,  which  had  been  strongly  occupied 
by  a  party  of  the  continental  militia.  Advancing  bravely  at  the  head  of  his 
men  to  carry  this  bridge,  M'Leod  fell  mortally  wounded,  and  the  whole  of  his 
column  were  either  killed  or  taken  prisoners. 

Clinton,  in  the  mean  while,  after  touching  at  New  York,  where  his  arrival 
occasioned  considerable  alarm,  repaired  to  the  rendezvous  at  Cape  Fear,  but 
on  learning  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  loyalist  rising,  determined  to  await  the 
arrival  of  the  reinforcements,  which,  after  a  wearisome  delay,  at  length  made 
their  appearance.  They  consisted  of  ten  ships  of  war  under  Admiral  Sir  Peter 
Parker,  having  on  board  seven  regiments,  commanded  by  Lord  Cornwallis 
and  other  distinguished  officers.  Clinton  now  assumed  the  command,  and  as 
there  was  now  no  hope  of  acting  advantageously  in  North  Carolina,  it  was 
resolved  to  strike  a  still  more  decisive  blow  by  the  capture  of  Charleston,  an 
operation  considered  to  be  by  no  means  difficult  in  itself,  and  which  would 
have  the  effect  of  rendering  the  English  entire  masters  of  South  Carolina. 

Had  the  meditated  attack  been  suddenly  made  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  it  must  have  proved  successful.  But  on  the  contrary  there  occurred 
a  considerable  delay,  and  having  been  informed  of  the  project  through  some 
intercepted  letters  to  Govei'nor  Eden,  congress  had  time  to  despatch  General 
Lee  to  Charleston  to  put  the  place  into  a  state  of  defence.  At  the  first  alarm, 
various  regiments  had  marched  down  to  the  city,  increasing  its  garrison  to 
about  six  thousand  men.  Assisted  by  the  inhabitants  and  their  negro  slaves, 
they  laboured  most  indefatigably  to  complete  the  fortifications.  All  the 
roads  running  down  to  the  sea  were  blockaded,  the  streets  barricaded, 
the  magazines  destroyed,  intrenchments  raised,  and  every  possible  means 
adopted  to  obstruct  the  advance  of  the  English.  With  all  this,  however, 
General  Lee  could  entertain  no  very  sanguine  hopes  of  defending  the  city 
against  the  imposing  force  with  which  it  was  threatened. 

On  June  4th,  the  English  fleet  made  its  appearance  off*  Charleston  Bay,  and 
having  passed  the  bar,  anchored  about  three  miles  from  Sullivan's  Island. 
General  Clinton  despatched  a  summons  to  the  inhabitants,  threatening  them 
with  the  utmost  vengeance  of  an  irritated  government,  unless  they  submit- 
ted, offering  at  the  same  time  a  complete  amnesty  to  such  as  should  lay 


A.D.  1776. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

down  their  arms ;  but  this  proceeding  being  entirely  ineffectual,  he  prepared  chap. 
for  an  immediate  attack  upon  the  city. 

There  was  a  fort  upon  Sullivan's  Island,  which,  as  it  entirely  commanded 
the  difficult  channel  leading  up  to  .the  city,  had  been  strengthened  with  pecu- 
liar care,  and  armed  with  thirty-six  heavy  guns,  as  well  as  twenty-six  others  of 
inferior  calibre.  The  building  was  constructed  of  a  soft  and  spongy  wood,  which 
deadened  the  effect  of  a  cannon-ball,  and  was  commanded  by  Colonel  Moultrie, 
at  the  head  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  troops,  and  some  militia.  To 
silence  this  fort  was  of  course  the  first  object  of  the  British  commander,  and 
for  this  purpose  he  landed  a  large  body  of  troops  on  Long  Island,  adjacent  to 
Sullivan's  .Island,  and  only  separated  from  it  by  a  narrow  channel,  often 
fordable,  with  orders  to  cross  over  and  attack  it  while  the  fleet  cannonaded  it 
in  front.  Great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  the  outset  in  getting  the  heavy 
ships  of  war  over  the  bar,  which  could  be  effected  only  by  taking  out  their 
guns.  At  length,  on  the  28th  of  June,  the  whole  fleet  placed  themselves  in 
line  and  began  a  furious  cannonade  on  the  devoted  fort.  Three  of  these  ships, 
the  Sphyx,  Acteon,  and  Syren,  were  ordered  to  take  up  a  position  to  the  west- 
ward, where  they  could  enfilade  the  weakest  part  of  the  works,  and  at  the 
same  time  intercept  any  succours  that  might  be  sent  from  the  city.  Had 
this  manoeuvre  been  successful,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  fort 
to  have  held  out;  but  fortunately  for  the  Americans,  the  three  vessels 
grounded  on  a  shoal  called  the  Middle  Ground,  two  being  with  great  diffi- 
culty got  off,  and  one  burned  on  the  following  day.  This  fortunate  accident 
encouraged  the  spirit  of  the  besiegers  to  the  highest  pitch,  although  but  recent 
recruits,  and  exposed  for  several  hours  to  a  most  tremendous  cannonade. 
Amidst  a  perfect  hail-storm  of  bombs  and  balls,  they  coolly  and  resolutely 
stood  to  their  guns,  and  returned  the  fire  of  their  assailants,  until  their  am- 
munition failed.  As  an  instance  of  their  daring  intrepidity,  the  flag-staff 
being  shot  away,  a  sergeant,  named  Jasper,  leaped  down  upon  the  beach, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  hottest  broadside  deliberately  replaced  it  upon  its 
post.  General  Lee  visited  the  garrison  in  the  midst  of  the  action,  and  was 
received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  The  soldiers,  shot  down  at  their  posts, 
exhorted  their  surviving  comrades  to  stand  firm.  "  I  die,"  said  Serjeant 
M'Donald,  "  for  a  glorious  cause,  but  I  hope  it  will  not  expire  with  me."  So 
steady  and  well-directed  was  the  American  fire,  that  the  English  men-of-war 
were  most  severely  handled.  The  Bristol,  fifty-gun  ship,  was  twice  in  flames, 
her  captain  was  killed.  Lord  Campbell,  the  ex-governor,  who  served  as  a 
volunteer,  was  mortally  wounded,  and  at  one  time  Sir  Peter  Parker  was  the 
only  one  unhurt  on  deck. 

The  troops  intended  to  ford  the  channel  and  attack  the  fort  in  flank,  were 
unable  to  pass  over  on  account  of  the  unusual  depth  of  water,  occasioned  by  a 
long  prevalence  of  easterly  winds.  The  flank  attack  by  the  vessels  had  also 
failed,  and  thus  the  Americans  were  enabled  to  pass  over  fresh  ammunition 
and  succours  from  the  city  into  the  fort.  The  engagement  had  lasted  from 
eleven  in  the  morning  till  nine  in  the  evening,  when  the  British,  owing  to  the 


384  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  accidental  failure  of  two  parts  of  their  plan,  and  the  intrepid  resistance  of  the 
A  D  1775  Americans,  were  forced  to  retire  from  the  scene  of  action,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  set  sail,  discomfited,  for  New  York. 

Meanwhile,  as  the  dispute  with  the  parent  country  grew  more  envenomed, 
and  all  prospect  of  accommodation  more  hopeless,  the  breach  between  the 
two  parties  in  the  colonies  became  proportionally  wider,  and  their  animosity 
more  inveterate  and  feariul.  Many  of  the  loyalists  had  at  first  sincerely 
disapproved  of  the  proceedings  of  government  and  sympathized  with  the 
discontented;  but  as  the  latter  overstepped  what  seemed  the  limits  of  le- 
gitimate resistance,  as  the  designs  of  the  democratic  leaders  became  more 
evident — they  hastened  to  retrace  their  steps,  and  range  themselves  on  what 
they  believed  to  be  the  side  of  lawful  and  time-hallowed  authority.  It  is 
well  observed  by  Guizot,  that  "  sincere  and  honourable  sentiments,  fidelity, 
atfection,  gratitude,  respect  for  traditions,  and  the  love  of  order,  were  specially 
the  origin  of  the  loyalist  party,  and  composed  its  strength."  This  party 
every  where  comprised  a  large  proportion  of  the  wealthy' and  respectable  pro- 
prietors and  merchants,  the  Episcopal  clergy,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  Scotch  Highlanders  of  New  York,  Carolina,  and  Georgia.  Its  great- 
est strength  was  however  in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  especially  in  Tryon 
county,  so  called  after  Governor  Tryon,  and  where  Guy  Johnson,  son  of  Sir 
William  Johnson,  possessed  a  preponderating  influence.  Of  this  numerous 
class,  the  members  more  active  in  taking  the  side  of  government  soon  be- 
came the  special  objects  of  odium,  and  were  exposed  to  the  outrages  of  the 
populace,  with  whom  it  was  a  favourite  amusement  to  tar  and  feather 
them,  and  expose  them  to  the  general  derision.  These  proceedings  ge- 
nerated a  spirit  of  mutual  hatred  and  revenge,  which  by  degress  inflamed 
the  breasts  even  of  such  of  the  Tories  as  desired  at  first  to  embrace  a  peaceful 
neutrality.  After  the  assumption  of  political  power  by  congress,  the  breach 
became  incurable,  neutrality  no  longer  possible,  the  direful  necessity  that 
revolution  brings  with  it,  compelled  ev§ry  citizen  to  declare  himself  either  the 
friend  or  foe  of  the  popular  side.  At  first  congress  observed  an  extreme  mo- 
deration towards  the  Tories,  but  as  the  quarrel  proceeded,  and  every  one's 
hand  was  against  his  fellow,  as  families  were  divided,  and  a  man's  worst  foes 
were  those  of  his  own  household,  it  became  unavoidable  to  observe  a  greater 
degree  of  rigour.  Committees  of  safety — agents  appointed  to  watch  over 
the  malignants — confiscations  and  imprisonments,  became  common.  Private 
malevolence  was  often  indulged  under  the  guise  of  zeal  for  the  public  good. 
The  peaceful  and  unoffending  were  dragged  into  the  quarrel.  The  whole 
frame  of  society  was  rent  asunder,  till  brothers  were  ready  to  imbrue  their 
hands  in  each  other's  blood. 

The  Tories  were  forced  to  make  up  by  intrigue  what  they  wanted  in 
strength.  The  centre  of  their  machinations  was  New  York,  where  the  provincial 
assembly  had  at  first  refused  to  send  delegates  to  the  continental  congress,  but 
were  outvoted  by  the  popular  party.  Governor  Tryon,  who  was  much  re- 
spected in  the  province,  had  recently  returned  from  England,  and  it  is  a  sin- 


A.  D. 1775. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  385 

gular  instance  of  the  divided  state  of  the  city,  that  about  the  time  that  "Wash-  ch  a  p. 
ington  passed  through  New  York  on  his  way  to  Boston,  to  assume  the  command 
of  the  army,  the  same  escort  of  honour  was  appointed  both  for  the  royal 
governor  and  for  the  American  general.  Tryon  however  had  at  length  seen 
fit  to  retire  on  board  the  Asia  man-of-war,  which  lay  opposite  to  the  city, 
ready  to  open  upon  it  on  the  occasion  of  any  emergency.  So  lukewarm  were 
the  committee  of  safety,  that  it  was  thought  prudent  to  detach  some  troops  of 
Connecticut,  under  the  command  of  General  Lee,  to  insure  the  possession 
of  this  important  post.  The  captain  of  the  Asia,  hearing  of  the  approach  of 
Lee's  troops,  threatened  to  fire  upon  the  city,  if  they  were  suffered  to  take  up 
their  quarters.  Lee  retorted  with  a  threat  that  displays  the  excited  feelings 
of  the  time,  "  that  if  he  set  fire  to  a  single  house  in  consequence  of  his  coming, 
he  would  chain  a  hundred  Tories  together  by  the  neck,  and  make  that  house 
their  funeral  pile." 

On  the  following  session  of  parliament,  which  opened  in  October,  1775, 
the  measures  of  the  ministry  were  severely  canvassed  by  their  opponents. 
The  increasing  gravity  of  the  dispute  envenomed  party  animosity  to  the 
highest  pitch.  Even  some  of  the  adherents  of  the  ministry  resigned  their 
places  rather  than  take  part  in  their  arbitrary  measures.  Petitions  against  the 
war  flowed  in  from  the  mercantile  interest.  The  citizens  of  London,  who 
from  the  outset  of  the  dispute  had  showed  themselves  the  warm  advocates  of  the 
rights  of  the  colonists,  and  had  raised  subscriptions  to  relieve  the  sufferers  by 
the  Boston  Port  Bill,  were  loud  and  vehement  in  their  complaints.  Not- 
withstanding this  storm  of  opposition  the  ministry,  having  a  great  majority, 
and  supported  or  rather  urged  on  by  the  king,  were  inflexible  in  their  deter- 
mination to  reduce  the  rebellious  colonists  by  force.  The  Earl  of  Effingham, 
and  the  eldest  son  of  Lord  Chatham,  had  resigned  their  commissions  in  dis- 
gust, and  as  the  recruiting  of  fresh  forces  went  on  but  slowly,  a  body  of  Ger- 
man troops  from  Brunswick  and  Hesse  were  hired  to  make  up  the  deficiency. 
No  step  during  the  whole  of  the  dispute  with  America  occasioned  greater 
animadversion  from  the  opposition,  or  sunk  so  deeply  into  the  minds  of  the 
colonists  themselves.  The  final  petition  of  congress  had  been  intrusted  to  the 
hands  of  Governor  Penn,  and  presented  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  who  informed  him 
that  no  answer  would  be  returned  to  it.  When  examined  before  the  House, 
Penn  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  no  designs  of  independency  had  hitherto 
been  formed  by  congress,  as  none  had  indeed  at  that  time  been  openly 
avowed ;  but  the  ministry  were  in  possession  of  letters  by  John  Adams,  which 
plainly  indicated  the  designs  entertained  by  the  popular  party.  The  Duke 
of  Richmond  moved  that  the  petition  of  congress  might  be  made  the  basis  of 
a  further  reconciliation,  and  Burke  introduced  and  powerfully  supported  a 
bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  obnoxious  Acts,  granting  an  amnesty  for  the  past, 
but  his  present  efforts  were  as  unsuccessful  as  the  former. 

Besides  the  military  invasion  of  the  colonies,  the  ministry  proceeded  to 
prohibit  all  trade  with  them,  and  to  declare  their  ships  and  goods,  and  also 
those  of  any  trading  with  them,  lawful  prizes.     The  crews  of  such  vessels 

3  D 


A.  D.  1775 


386  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

C  viiP'  were  to  be  seized  and  treated  as  slaves, — they  were  to  be  made  to  serve  on 
•  board  British  ships  of  war ;  a  measure  justly  characterized  by  an  indignant  op- 
position as  a  "  refinement  in  cruelty,  "  "  a  sentence  worse  than  death,"  obliging 
the  unhappy  men  who  should  be  made  captives  in  that  predatory  war  to 
bear  arms  against  their  families,  kindred,  friends,  and  country,  and  after  being 
plundered  themselves  to  become  accomplices  in  plundering  their  brethren. 
The  ministry  proceeded  in  their  cause,  sustained  as  they  were  not  only  by  the 
royal  influence,  and  a  preponderating  majority  in  the  House,  but  also,  it  must 
be  confessed,  by  the  general  voice  of  the  country ,  and  .to  this  infatuation,  which 
closed  the  last  avenue  to  hope,  must  be  attributed  the  decisive  measures 
shortly  afterwards  adopted  by  congress,  and  scission  of  the  colonies  from  the 
empire  of  England. 

The  contemptuous  rejection  of  the  petition  of  congress  showed  but  too 
plainly  that  all  hopes  of  accommodation  were  vain,  and  that  nothing  but  the 
absolute  submission  of  the  colonists  would  satisfy  the  king  and  his  ministers. 
The  voting  of  a  band  of  foreign  mercenaries  to  carry  fire  and  sword  into 
America,  formed  the  climax  of  a  long  list  of  grievances  and  injuries,  which  had 
gradually  eaten  away  the  last  lingering  vestiges  of  loyalty.  The  king  of 
England  was  formerly  regarded  as  the  father  of  his  children  in  America ;  he 
had  now  become  their  sanguinary  and  implacable  foe,  and  had  pledged  his 
royal  word  to  overcome  their  obstinacy,  and  to  reduce  them  to  obedience. 
Blood  had  been  shed,  angry  and  vindictive  feelings  every  where  called  into 
action,  and  a  cordial  reconciliation  had  become  impossible.  And  even  should 
the  present  difficulties  be  accommodated,  what  security  would  there  be  for 
the  future  ?  Hitherto,  in  the  hope  of  ultimate  reconciliation,  a  large  body 
among  the  Americans  had  deprecated  any  intention  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the 
parent  country,  but  by  the  measures  of  government  their  minds  had  become 
gradually  prepared  for  a  change,  and  now  that  the  last  hope  of  accommodation 
had  vanished,  it  was  felt  to  be  high  time  to  quit  their  present  false  position, 
and  assume  that  which  the  altered  aspect  of  the  quarrel  imperatively  required. 

Nothing  could  in  truth,  as  it  has  been  well  observed,  be  more  incongruous 
than  the  position  of  the  colonies  at  that  time  towards  Great  Britain.  "  The  war 
which  they  had  vigorously  waged  for  an  entire  year  was  directed  against  a  king 
to  whom  protestations  of  loyalty  were  incessantly  renewed,  and  the  very  men 
who  were  engaged  in  acts  of  rebellion  shrunk  from  the  name  of  rebels.  In 
the  tribunals  justice  was  still  administered  in  the  name  of  the  king,  and 
prayers  were  every  day  offered  up  for  the  preservation  and  welfare  of  a  prince 
whose  authority  was  not  only  ignored,  but  against  whom  a  determined  and 
obstinate  contest  was  maintained.  The  colonists  pretended  that  they  only 
desired  to  resume  their  ancient  relations,  and  re-establish  the  royal  government 
in  its  original  shape,  when  in  fact  the  republican  system  had  long  been 
introduced.  They  declared  it  to  be  their  wish  to  arrive  at  a  certain  end, 
while  they  recurred  to  every  means  which  tended  to  conduct  them  to  the 
contrary  one.  Never,  in  a  word,  had  there  been  sCten  before  such  inconsistency 
between  words  and  actions."     Doubtless,  as  will  have  already  appeared,  there 


A.D.  l?/5. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  387 

was  from  the  first  a  party  more  far-sighted  and  determined,  who  not  only  chap. 
secretly  desired  but  incessantly  laboured  to  bring  about  a  result  in  itself  so 
desirable,  and.  necessary  to  the  development  of  their  country,  as  independence. 
This  however  was  far  from  being  generally  the  case.  However  inconsistent 
with  their  actions,  the  wishes  of  the  majority  had  hitherto  been  undoubtedly 
for  a  reconciliation.  They  looked  to  the  old  country  with  affection,  they  were 
proud  of  their  connexion  with  her,  and  they  felt  it  to  be  painful,  perhaps 
criminal,  to  break  so  ancient  a  bond. 

It  was  at  this  critical  period,  while  this  feeling,  though  inoperative,  yet  lin- 
gered in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  when,  although  the  thing  itself  had 
become  familiarized  to  most  minds  as  equally  necessary  and  desirable,  every 
one  held  back  from  boldly  pronouncing  the  word  independence,  that  there 
appeared  a  pamphlet  called  "  Common  Sense,"  written  by  Thomas  Paine,  the 
celebrated  author  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  who  had  recently  emigrated  from 
England,  and  ardently  embraced  the  American  cause.  Perceiving  this  hesi- 
tation in  the  public  mind,  he  set  himself  to  the  work  of  dissipating  it  by  a  clear 
and  convincing  statement  of  the  actual  position  of  affairs.  He  plainly  exposed 
the  impossibility  of  a  lasting  reconciliation  with  England,  and  showed  that  in- 
dependence had  not  only  become  the  only  safe  or  honourable  course,  but  that  it 
was  as  practicable  as  it  was  desirable.  Reviewing  the  British  constitution,  he 
attributed  to  the  element  of  royalty  alone  the  numerous  evils  which  attended 
its  working,  evils  by  which  the  Americans  themselves  had  already  suffered  so 
deeply,  and  of  which  they  had  it  now  in  their  power  to  get  rid.  This  pamphlet, 
written  in  a  popular  and  convincing  style,  and  expressly  adapted  to  the  state 
of  public  feeling,  produced  an  indescribable  sensation.  The  ice  was  now 
broken  ;  those  who,  although  convinced,  had  hitherto  held  back,  came  boldly 
forward,  while  many  who  had  halted  between  two  opinions  now  yielded  to  the 
force  of  necessity  and  embraced  the  popular  side. 

When  once  the  idea  of  independence  began  to  be  generally  entertained,  its 
fitness  to  the  circumstances  of  the  country  must  have  rendered  it  irresistible. 
It  opened  to  the  people  magnificent  visions  of  the  future  greatness  of  America, 
when  untrammeled  by  foreign  control.  She  had  grown  up  to  full  maturity, 
her  resources  were  boundless  as  her  territory,  the  different  colonies  had  to  a  con- 
siderable degree  merged  their  local  jealousies  in  the  common  cause,  they  had 
become  acquainted  with  their  own  strength  and  resources;  and  could  no  longer 
brook  their  degrading  dependence  upon  a  distant  and  arbitrary  power.  The 
time  was  ripe,  circumstances  propitious,  the  hand  of  Providence  plainly  visible. 
The  cause  of  America  was  regarded  abroad  with  a  sympathy  inflamed  by 
jealousy  of  the  colossal  and  overgrown  power  of  England.  France,  her  ancient 
and  implacable  foe,  burned  to  avenge  her  Canadian  disgraces,  and  to  humble 
the  glory  and  weaken  the  resources  of  her  victorious  rival.  Her  assistance 
might  certainly  be  counted  on.  Every  motive  then — the  sense  of  cruel  oppres- 
sion, the  conviction  of  the  hopelessness  of  reconciliation,  the  flattering  desire 
of  independence,  and  the  confident  assurance  of  foreign  support — seemed  to 
show  conclusively  that  the  decisive  hour  was  come. 


388  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       For  a  long  time  past  circumstances  had  irresistibly  tended  to  this  result. 

■ —  As  the  royal  authority  was  virtually  abrogated  in  all  the  colonies,  it  became 

"  absolutely  necessary  to  substitute  some  other  system  of  government,  and  on 
this  point  the  citizens  of  New  Hampshire  applied  tc  congress  for  their 
advice.  This  furnished  that  body  with  a  welcome  opportunity  of  suggest- 
ing, on  the  motion  of  John  Adams,  to  the  different  assemblies  and  conven- 
tions, to  establish  such  form  of  governments  as  seemed  suitable  to  their  altered 
circumstances,  all  authority  exercised  under  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  being 
abrogated  as  unlawful,  and  the  powers  of  government  vested  under  authority 
from  the  people.  As  this  was  virtually,  though  not  nominally,  a  declaration  of 
independence,  some  of  the  colonies  yet  demurred  at  carrying  it  out.  The  con- 
vention of  Virginia  had,  however,  already  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up 
a  Frame  of  Government ;  while  their  delegates  in  congress  were  instructed  to 
propose  a  formal  Declaration  of  Independence, — an  example  shortly  afterwards 
imitated  by  the  representatives  of  Massachusetts  and  the  New  England 
States.  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Maryland,  in  which  the  royalists  were 
very  numerous,  instructed  their  delegates  to  oppose  it.  And  such,  after  all, 
was  the  reluctance  in  the  minds  of  many  to  take  a  step  so  irrevocable,  for 
once  taken,  the  honour  and  dignity  of  the  country  required  that  it  should  be 
maintained  at  all  events,  such  the  lingering  scruples  of  loyalty  and  the  fear  of 
closing  all  avenue  to  an  accommodation,  such,  in  short,  the  apprehension  of 
a  new  and  untried  state  of  things,  of  the  predominance  of  democratic  influence, 
— that  not  without  a  considerable  struggle  was  this  momentous  measure 
finally  carried. 

It  was  Richard  Henry  Lee,  who,  on  the  seventh  of  June,  in  pursuance  of 
the  instructions  of  his  constituency,  first  brought  forward  the  motion,  "  that 
the  United  Colonies  are,  and  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent  States,  and 
that  their  political  connexion  with  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  dis- 
solved." Next  day  the  motion  was  debated  with  closed  doors,  by  the  whole 
house,  being  earnestly  seconded  by  "Wythe,  and  also  by  John  Adams,  who,  after 
his  many  hesitations,  now  decisively  made  up  his  mind.  Dickinson,  Livingston, 
and  Rutledge,  with  many  other  members,  opposed  it,  either  in  the  anxious 
hope  of  a  settlement,  or  because  they  thought  the  time  was  not  come  to  ven- 
ture upon  so  bold  a  step.  So  strong  indeed  was  the  opposition,  that  the  motion 
passed  but  by  a  majority  of  seven  States  to  six. 

The  final  consideration  of  the  subject  was  now,  for  a  short  time,  postponed, 
in  order  to  give  time  for  public  opinion  to  pronounce  itself  more  decidedly. 
The  Pennsylvania  assembly  was  obliged  to  give  way  to  the  popular  feeling, 
and  instruct  its  delegates  to  support  the  measure.  New  Jersey  and  Mary- 
land also  sent  in  their  adhesion.  A  committee  of  five,  consisting  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  a  young  Virginia  lawyer  of  remarkable  abilities,  now  rapidly 
rising  into  notice,  together  with  John  Adams,  Franklin,  Livingston,  and 
Sherman,  was  appointed  to  draw  up  the  "  Declaration,"  itself  the  produc- 
tion of  Jefferson,  but  with  considerable  modification  in  committee.  Some 
of  the  most  violent  paragraphs  attacking  the  king  and  ministry  were  ju- 


VII. 
A.D.  1776. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  389 

diciously  omitted;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that,  on  this  head,  the  document  CIJTATP- 
still  remains  tolerably  severe.  Another  circumstance,  noted  by  Hildreth,  is 
especially  worthy  of  remark.  The  profession,  that  "  all  men  are  alike  free 
and  independent  " — the  basis  of  the  new  political  creed — was  then,  at  least, 
ingenuously  felt  to  be  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  existence  of  slavery  among 
those  who  adopted  it.  An  emphatic  denunciation  of  that  system,  and  a  charge 
against  the  king  for  having  prostituted  his  negative  for  the  defeat  of  all  legis- 
lative attempt  to  prohibit  or  restrain  "  that  execrable  traffic,"  was  therefore 
originally  included  in  the  resolutions,  but  afterwards  struck  out  in  compliance 
with  the  interests  of  some  of  the  southern  States.  With  these  omissions,  this 
celebrated  paper,  which  we  here  give  in  full,  was  adopted  by  a  large  ma- 
jority. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

A  Declaration  by  the  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
Congress  assembled. 

"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  people 
to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them  with  another,  and 
to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  separate  and  equal  station 
to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect 
to  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  declare  the  causes  which 
impel  them  to  the  separation. 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  created  equal ; 
that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights  ;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That,  to  secure 
these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed ;  that  whenever  any  form  of  government 
becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to 
abolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such 
principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness.  Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate, 
that  governments  long  established  should  not  be  changed  for  light  and  tran- 
sient causes ;  and  accordingly  all  experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are 
more  disposed  to  suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves, 
by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long 
train  of  abuses  and  usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  object,  evinces 
a  design  to  reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their 
duty,  to  throw  off  such  government,  and  to  provide  new  guards  for  their  future 
security.  Such  has  been  the  patient  sufferance  of  these  colonies,  and  such  is 
now  the  necessity  which  constrains  them  to  alter  their  former  systems  of  go- 
vernment. The  history  of  the  present  king  of  Great  Britain  is  a  history  of 
repeated  injuries  and  usurpations,  all  having  in  direct  object  the  establish- 
ment of  an  absolute  tyranny  over  these  States.  To  prove  this,  let  facts  be 
submitted  to  a  candid  world. 


390  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D.  17 70. 


chap.        "  He  has  refused  his  assent  to  laws  the  most  wholesome  and  necessary  for 
the  public  good. 

f  He  has  forbidden  his  governors  to  pass  laws  of  immediate  and  pressing 
importance,  unless  suspended  in  their  operation  till  his  assent  should  be 
obtained;  and  when  so  suspended,  he  has  utterly  neglected  to  attend  to 
them. 

"  He  has  refused  to  pass  other  laws  for  the  accommodation  of  large  districts 
of  people,  unless  those  people  would  relinquish  the  right  of  representation  in 
the  legislature ;  a  right  inestimable  to  them,  and  formidable  to  tyrants  only. 
.  "  He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies  at  places  unusual,  uncomfortable, 
and  distant  from  the  depository  of  their  public  records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
fatiguing  them  into  compliance  with  his  measures. 

"  He  has  dissolved  representative  houses  repeatedly,  for  opposing,  with 
manly  firmness,  his  invasions  on  the  rights  of  the  people. 

"  He  has  refused,  for  a  long  time  after  such  dissolutions,  to  cause  others  to 
be  elected ;  whereby  the  legislative  powers,  incapable  of  annihilation,  have 
returned  to  the  people  at  large  for  their  exercise ;  the  State  remaining,  in  the 
mean  time,  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of  invasion  from  without  and  convul- 
sions within. 

"  He  has  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  population  of  these  States ;  for  that 
purpose  obstructing  the  laws  for  naturalization  of  foreigners,  refusing  to  pass 
others  to  encourage  their  migrations  hither,  and  raising  the  conditions  of  new 
appropriations  of  lands. 

"  He  has  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice,  by  refusing  his  assent  to 
laws  for  establishing  judiciary  powers. 

"  He  has  made  judges  dependent  on  his  will  alone,  for  the  tenure  of  their 
offices,  and  the  amount  and  payment  of  their  salaries. 

"He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and  sent  hither  swarms  of 
officers  to  harass  our  people,  and  to  eat  out  their  substance. 

"  He  has  kept  among  us,  in  times  of  peace,  standing  armies,  without  the 
consent  of  our  legislatures. 

"  He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of,  and  superior  to, 
the  civil  power. 

"  He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  jurisdiction  foreign  to 
our  constitutions,  and  unacknowledged  by  our  laws ;  giving  his  assent  to  their 
acts  of  pretended  legislation : — 

"  For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops  among  us : 

"  For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock  trial,  from  punishment  for  any  murders 
which  they  should  commit  on  the  inhabitants  of  these  States : 

"  For  cutting  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world : 

"  For  imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  consent : 

"  For  depriving  us,  in  many  cases,  of  the  benefits  of  trial  by  jury : 

"  For  transporting  us  beyond  seas,  to  be  tried  for  pretended  offences : 

c:  For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  English  laws  in  a  neighbouring  pro- 
vince, establishing  therein  an  arbitrary  government,  and  enlarging  its  bound- 


A.  D. 1776. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  391 

aries,  so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instrument  for  introducing   chap. 
the  same  absolute  rule  into  these  colonies: 

"  For  taking  away  our  charters,  abolishing  our  most  valuable  laws,  and 
altering,  fundamentally,  the  forms  of  our  governments  : 

g  For  suspending  our  own  legislatures,  and  declaring  themselves  invested 
with  power  to  legislate  for  us  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

"  He  has  abdicated  government  here,  by  declaring  us  out  of  his  protection, 
and  waging  war  against  us. 

"  He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  our  coasts,  burnt  our  towns,  and 
destroyed  the  lives  of  our  people. 

"  He  isj  at  this  time,  transporting  large  armies  of  foreign  mercenaries,  to 
complete  the  works  of  death,  desolation,  and  tyranny,  already  begun  with 
circumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy,  scarcely  paralleled  in  the  most  barbar- 
ous ages,  and  totally  unworthy  the  head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

"  He  has  constrained  our  fellow-citizens,  taken  captive  on  the  high  seas,  to 
bear  arms  against  their  country,  to  become  the  executioners  of  their  friends 
and  brethren,  or  to  fall  themselves  by  their  hands. 

"  He  has  excited  domestic  insurrections  amongst  us,  and  has  endeavoured 
to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers  the  merciless  Indian  savages, 
whose  known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  undistinguished  destruction  of  all  ages, 
sexes,  and  conditions. 

"  In  every  state  of  these  oppressions,  we  have  petitioned  for  redress  in  the 
most  humble  terms :  our  repeated  petitions  have  been  answered  only  by  re- 
peated injury.  A  prince,  whose  character  is  thus  marked  by  every  act  which 
may  define  a  tyrant,  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people. 

"  Nor  have  we  been  wanting  in  attentions  to  our  British  brethren.  "We 
have  warned  them,  from  time  to  time,  of  attempts  by  their  legislature  to  extend 
an  unwarrantable  jurisdiction  over  us.  We  have  reminded  them  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  our  emigration  and  settlement  here.  We  have  appealed  to 
their  native  justice  and  magnanimity,  and  we  have  conjured  them  by  the  ties 
of  our  common  kindred,  to  disavow  these  usurpations,  which  would  inevitably 
interrupt  our  connexions  and  correspondence.  They  too  have  been  deaf  to 
the  voice  of  justice  and  of  consanguinity.  We  must,  therefore,  acquiesce  in 
the  necessity  which  denounces  our  separation,  and  hold  them,  as  we  hold  the 
rest  of  mankind,  enemies  in  war,  in  peace  friends. 

"We,  therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
general  Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world 
for  the  rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do,  in  the  name  and  by  authority  of  the 
good  people  of  these  colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare,  that  these  United 
Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  Free  and  Independent  States  ; 
that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  and  that  all 
political  connexion  between  them  and  the  state  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought 
to  be,  totally  dissolved ;  and  that,  as  free  and  independent  states,  they  have 
power  to  levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,  establish  commerce, 
and  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which  independent  states  may  of  right  do. 


C  H  A  P. 
VII. 


A.  D.  1776. 


S92  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

And  for  the  support  of  this  declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  protection 
of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge  to  each  other  our  lives,  our  for- 
tunes, and  our  sacred  honour." 

Thus,  not  by  any  deep-laid  design  of  their  own,  but  by  the  working  of  that 
providential  law  which  overrules  the  errors  and  passions  of  men  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  its  secret  designs,  had  the  Americans  been  led  on  to  an  issue, 
which,  though  absolutely  necessary  for  the  future  development  of  their  coun- 
try, and  to  which  the  under-current  of  public  opinion  'had  long  irresistibly 
tended,  they  would  but  a  short  period  before  have  shrunk  from  contem- 
plating. We  must  admire  the  heroism  with  which  Congress  prepared  to  com- 
mence a  struggle  that  promised  to  be  long  and  arduous,  no  less  than  the  skill 
with  which  they  grappled  the  difficulties  that  beset  them.  It  was  not  only 
the  native  energy  of  the  men,  drawn  forth  into  sublime,  relief  by  their  tiying 
and  perilous  circumstances,  but  also  the  habit  of  self-government,  to  which  they 
had  so  long  been  accustomed,  that  could  enable  them,  with  all  their  differ- 
ences of  opinion,  to  pull  together,  and  to  organize  the  new  institutions  required 
by  their  altered  position.  Without  loss  of  time,  they  set  their  hand  to  the 
work.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  the  terms  of  confederation,  and 
to  define  the  powers  of  Congress ;  which  proved  to  be  a  work  of  time  and  dif- 
ficulty, for  the  separate  States  were  jealous  of  each  other's  preponderance,  and 
all  were  unwilling  to  surrender  to  Congress  more  power  than  was  absolutely 
indispensable.  A  board  of  war  was  established,  of  which  John  Adams  was 
appointed  chairman.  A  secret  committee  for  foreign  correspondence  had 
been  for  some  time  in  operation.  Issues  of  paper  money  were  made  to  meet 
the  growing  demands.  Nor  was  Congress  alone  active,  the  different  States 
had  to  remodel  their  respective  governments,  and  to  make  the  necessary 
preparations  of  men  and  money,  respectively  required  at  their  hands.  They 
had  to  watch  over  and  keep  in  check  the  intrigues  of  their  domestic  enemies. 
An  immense  and  complicated  machinery  had  to  be  created  and  kept  in 
motion,  and  the  centre  of  that  machinery  was  Washington. 

The  news  of  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence  "  was  received  throughout 
the  Union  of  the  Thirteen  United  States  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm 
by  far  the  greatest  body  of  the  people.  "  The  day  is  past,"  writes  Adams  to 
his  wife — "  the  4th  day  of  July  will  be  a  memorable  epocha  in  the  history  of 
America.  I  am  apt  to  believe  it  will  be  celebrated  by  succeeding  generations 
as  the  great  anniversary  festival.  It  ought  to  be  commemorated,  as  the  day 
of  deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty.  It  ought  to  be 
solemnized  with  pomp,  shows,  games,  sports,  guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illu- 
minations, from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other,  from  this  time  forward 
for  ever.  You  will  think  me  transported  with  enthusiasm,  but  I  am  not.  I 
am  well  aware  of  the  toil,  and  blood,  and  treasure  that  it  will  cost  us  to  main- 
tain this  Declaration,  and  support  and  defend  these  States.  Yet,  through 
all  this  gloom,  I  can  see  the  rays  of  light  and  glory — I  can  see  that  the  end  is 
more  than  worth  all  the  means,  and  that  our  posterity  will  triumph. 


o/ 


BOOK  III. 


FROM    THE    DECLARATION  OF   INDEPENDENCE    TO    THE    CLOSE  OF    THE 
REVOLUTIONARY  WAR. 


I. — Campaign  of  1776. —Battle  of  Gowanus.  —Retreat  of  Washington  through  New 
Jersey. — Engagement  on  Lake  Ticonderoga. — Success  at  Trenton. — Battle  of  Prince- 
ton, etc. 

II. — Proceedings  of  Congress.— Campaign  of  1777 — Battle  of  the  Brandywine.— Occu- 
pation of  Philadelphia. —  Expedition  and  Surrender  of  Burgoyne. — Battle  of  Ger- 
mantown.—  Conway  Cabal.— Winter  Encampment  at  Valley  Forge. 

III. — Alliance  with  France.  —  Lord  North's  Measures  of  Conciliation.  —  Battle  op 
Monmouth.  —  Affair  of  Newport.  —  Destruction  of  Wyoming.  —  End  of  the  Campaign 
of  1778. 

IV.— Campaign  of  1779.  —  Reduction  of  Georgia.  —  State  of  the  South.  —  Storming  of 
Stony  Point.  —  Repulse  of  D'Estaing  at  Savannah.  —  Affairs  in  Congress.  —  Paul 
Jones. — Encampment  in  the  Highlands. 

V. — Campaign  of  1780. —  Capture  of  Charleston. —  State  of  the  Southern  Provinces. — 
Battle  of  Camden.— Arrival  of  the  French  under  Rochambeau.— Treason  of  Arnold 
and  Execution  of  Andre. — Franklin  at  Paris. — Armed  Neutrality. 

VI.— Campaign  of  1781.— Mutiny  of  the  Troops.— Greene  and  Cornwallis  in  the  South. 
—  Investment  and  Capture  of  Yorktown.  —  Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs.  —  Treaty  of 
Peace. — Massacre  of  Gnadenhutten. — Retirement  of  Washington. 


3  B 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  395 


CHAPTER  I. 


CAMPAIGN  OP   1776. — BATTLE   OP  GOWANUS. — RETREAT  OP  WASHINGTON  THROUGH  NEW  JERSEY. — 
ENGAGEMENT   ON  LAKE  TICONDEROGA. — SUCCESS  AT  TRENTON.— RATTLE   OF  PRINCETON,   ETC. 


A.  D. 1776. 


After  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  Lord  Howe  had  retired  to  Halifax,  with  the  c  ha  p. 
view,  as  was  justly  apprehended  by  Washington,  of  directing  his  next  attack 
against  New  York.  That  city  had  always  been  the  chief  seat  of  Tory  influ- 
ence, and  though  ex-governor  Tryon  had  been  obliged  to  fly,  he  still  remained 
on  board  a  vessel  at  Sandy  Hook,  and  was  in  constant  communication  with 
the  royalists.  It  was  suspected,  and  not  without  reason,  that  the  most  danger- 
ous plots  were  being  hatched  in  secret,  while  the  provisional  congress  seemed 
to  remain  either  unconscious  or  paralysed. 

No  sooner  had  Washington  arrived  at  New  York  to  assume  the  command 
of  the  forces,  than  his  attention  was  directed  to  this  alarming  state  of  things ; 
and  through  his  earnest  expostulation,  a  secret  committee  was  appointed  with 
power  to  apprehend  suspected  persons.  This  providential  foresight  led  to  the 
discovery  of  an  insidious  scheme,  which,  had  it  succeeded,  might  have  given 
a  totally  different  issue  to  the  impending  struggle.  Tryon's  agents  were 
found  to  be  actively  engaged  in  corrupting  the  American  soldiers  with  British 
gold,  the  mercenary  infection  had  even  seized  upon  Washington's  own  guard, 
and  a  plan  had  been  formed  for  seizing  and  carrying  him  on  board  an  English 
ship.  One  of  the  soldiers  was  found  guilty  by  a  court-martial,  and  executed ; 
some  of  the  guilty  suspected  were  thrown  into  prison,  among  whom  was  the 
mayor  himself.  The  head  of  the  confederacy  was  broken ;  but  there  yet  re- 
mained enough  of  the  Tory  leaven  to  occasion  disquietude  and  justify  a 
vigilant  severity. 

Meanwhile  every  thing  had  been  done,  consistent  with  the  limited  means 
at  Washington's  command,  to  protect  New  York  against  Howe's  anticipated 
attack.  Putnam  had  sunk  obstructions  in  the  North  and  East  rivers  ;  batteries 
had  been  established  in  the  islands  and  passages;  and  two  forts  had  been 
hastily  erected,  to  command  the  comparatively  narrow  passage  of  the  Hudson, 
a  few  miles  above  the  city,  and  before  it  expands  into  the  broad  lake-like  basin 
of  the  Tappan  sea.  These  were  Fort  Washington,  at  the  northern  end  of 
Now  York  island,  and  Fort  Lee,  on  the  opposite  shore  of  New  Jersey.  The 
troops  already  at  New  York,  Congress  had  determined  to  reinforce  by  thir- 
teen thousand  eight  hundred  militia  from  New  England,  New  York,  and 
New  Jersey ;  while  ten  thousand  more  from  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and 
Maryland  were  to  form  "  a  flying  camp,"  to  cover  and  protect  the  neigh- 
bouring State  of  New  Jersey.     With  these  imperfect  defences,  and  this  body 

3  e  2 


CHAP. 
1. 


396  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

of  ill-organized,  and,  as  he  must  "have  known  them  to  be,  inefficient  levies, 
Washington  anxiously,  but  firmly,  awaited  the  approach  of  his  more  power- 
a  d.  1776.  fui  adversary. 

At  length,  on  the  28th  of  June,  the  British  ships  appeared  off  New  York, 
and  a  few  days  after  General  Howe  landed  on  Staten  Island,  where  he  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  the  Tories,  and  received  the  promise  of  co-operation 
from  the  loyalists  of  Long  Island  and  New  Jersey.  A  few  days  after  his 
arrival,  and  whilst  an  attack  upon  New  York  might  be  daily  expected,  Wash- 
ington received  the  news  of  the  passing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
which  raised  the  spirits  of  the  army  to  the  highest  pitch.  The  regiments  were 
paraded  and  the  Declaration  read,  amidst  the  most  enthusiastic  plaudits. 
The  picture  of  the  king,  which  had  hitherto  stood  like  a  tutelary  genius  in  the 
Town  Hall,  was  torn  down  and  destroyed,  the  royal  effigy  converted  into 
revolutionary  bullets. 

The  expected  attack  was  however  for  some  time  deferred.  The  English 
ministry  had  despatched  Admiral  Lord  Howe  from  England,  with  large  rein- 
forcements, such  as,  together  with  the  loyalist  rising,  upon  which  they  seem 
ever  to  have  counted,  would  prove,  they  imagined,  amply  sufficient  to  suppress 
the  insurrection.  He  now  arrived  to  his  brother's  assistance,  furnished  also 
with  proposals  for  an  accommodation,  which  were  to  be  tried  before  resorting 
to  further  hostilities.  A  circular  letter  to  the  royal  governors,  stating  the 
terms  proposed  for  a  reconciliation,  together  with  a  general  offer  of  pardon, 
were  sent  on  shore  under  a  flag  of  truce,  and  were  forwarded  by  Washington 
to  Congress.  It  is  possible  that  had  Howe's  arrival  been  somewhat  earlier, 
these  proposals  might  have  in  some  degree  protracted  the  hesitations  in 
that  body,  and  have  sown  division  in  the  public  mind ;  but  could  have  hardly 
produced  any  decided  effect,  inasmuch  as  they  left  the  matters  in  dispute  main- 
ly untouched,  and  offered  no  security  but  the  royal  clemency.  As  it  was,  the 
Rubicon  had  been  passed — the  Declaration  of  Independence  put  forth,  and 
the  only  effect  of  the  proclamation  was  to  unite  the  people  more  closely  toge- 
ther. Indeed,  so  far  from  dreading  its  effects,  Congress  caused  it  to  be  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers,  in  order  "  that  the  few  whom  hopes  of  moderation 
and  justice  had  still  kept  in  suspense,  might  now  be  convinced  "  that  the 
valour  alone  of  their  country  is  to  save  its  liberties. 

Although  provided  with  an  army  and  fleet  sufficient,  as  it  might  well  seem, 
to  put  down  resistance  by  force,  both  General  Howe  and  his  brother  were 
sincerely  anxious  to  effect  if  possible  a  peaceable  solution  of  the  quarrel.  The 
Admiral,  as  generous  as  he  was  brave,  had  undertaken  the  command  of  the 
fleet  with  marked  reluctance.  In  his  place  in  parliament  he  had  warmly  and 
feelingly  descanted  upon  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  and  declared  that  "  he  knew 
no  struggle  so  painful  as  that  between  a  soldier's  duties  as  an  officer  and  man. 
If  left  to  his  own  choice,  he  should  decline  serving  ;  but  if  commanded,  it  be- 
came his  duty,  and  he  should  not  refuse  to  obey."  Having,  to  their  great 
regret,  failed  in  their  appeal  to  the  American  public,  the  Howes  next  endea- 
voured to  open  a  personal  communication  with  Washington.     For  this  pur- 


A.  D. 1776. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  397 

pose  a  boat  was  sent  with  a  letter  addressed  "  George  Washington,  Esq.,"  under  c  ha  p. 
which  superscription  it  was  however  returned.  They  next  despatched  Colonel 
Paterson,  adjutant-general  of  the  British  army,  who  was  introduced  into  the 
presence  of  the  American  commander,  and  presented  another  letter  similarly 
addressed.  But  this  also  Washington  declined  to  receive,  upon  the  ground, 
that  as  his  public  capacity  was  well  known,  the  letter  ought  to  be  suitably  di- 
rected, or  that  it  would  appear  to  be  a  merely  private  communication.  A 
conference  on  the  subject  of  the  disputes  then  took  place  between  the  Colonel 
and  Washington,  but  though  conducted  with  perfect  courtesy  on  both  sides,  it 
terminated  in  nothing  satisfactory.  "  I  find,"  said  Washington,  "  you  are  only 
empowered  to  grant  pardons :  we  have  committed  no  offence,  we  need  no 
pardon."  Soon  after.  Colonel  Palfrey,  paymaster-general  of  the  American 
army,  repaired  on  board  Lord  Howe's  ship  to  negotiate  a  change  of  prisoners. 
His  lordship  took  this  occasion  to  lament  that  the  fear  of  displeasing  the  king 
had  prevented  his  public  recognition  of  the  rank  of  General  Washington,  for 
whom  he  professed  the  highest  respect.  He  remarked,  with  evident  emotion, 
that  "  Congress  had  greatly  hurt  his  feelings  by  reminding  him,  in  one  of 
their  publications,  of  the  esteem  and  respect  they  had  for  the  memory  of  his 
brother,  drawing,  by  manifest  inference,  a  contrast  between  the  survivors  and 
deceased ;  that  no  man  could  feel  more  sensibly  the  respect  shown  to  their 
family  than  himself  and  the  General,  that  they  should  always  esteem  America 
for  it,  and  particularly  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  that  he  hoped  America 
would  one  day  be  convinced  that,  in  their  affection  for  America,  he  and  his 
brother  were  also  Howes.  With  these  courteous  overtures  terminated  for  the 
present  all  prospect  of  a  reconciliation. 

Two  months  had  elapsed  since  the  English  general  landed  on  Staten  Island, 
and  he  had  now  been  joined  by  all  his  reinforcements,  swelling  his  army  to 
twenty-four  thousand  men,  well  trained,  well  provided,  and  led  by  able  and 
experienced  officers.  Meanwhile  Washington's  forces  had  increased,  by  the 
arrival  of  militia,  to  about  the  same  number,  but  vastly  different  in  organiza- 
tion and  equipment.  A  heterogeneous  medley,  hurriedly  gathered  together 
from  the  different  States,  they  brought  along  with  them  their  sectional  jealousies 
and  disgusts — the  wealthy  gentlemen  of  the  middle  and  southern  States  re- 
volting at  associating,  on  a  footing  of  equality,  with  the  officers  of  the  northern 
and  eastern  militia,  who,  though  inferior  to  none  in  genuine  chivalry,  were 
often  of  a  low  rank  in  society,  and  in  manner  and  bearing  hardly  raised  above 
the  level  of  their  fellow  comrades  from  the  plough.  Overbearing  contempt  on 
one  hand,  and  wounded  pride  on  the  other,  bred  quarrels  and  disorders  which 
threatened  the  most  serious  results,  and  called  for  vigorous  but  kindly  remon- 
strance on  the  part  of  Washington.  We  are  reminded  here,  as  at  every  step, 
of  the  immense  moral  influence  which  he  had  already  acquired  over  the 
minds  of  his  countrymen — an  influence  alone  able  to  conciliate  and  to  con- 
trol the  ever-recurring  discords  and  discouragements  which  beset  the  in- 
fancy of  the  republic.  "  The  General  most  earnestly  entreats  the  officers  and 
soldiers  to  consider,  that  they  can  no  way  assist  our  enemies  more  effectually 


i 


398  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.   than  by  making  divisions  among  themselves,  that  the  honour  and  success  of  our 

__  army  and  the  safety  of  our  bleeding  country  depend  upon  harmony  and  good 

*  agreement  with  each  other,  that  the  provinces  are  all  united  to  oppose  the 
common  enemy,  and  all  distinctions  sunk  in  the  name  of  an  American.  To 
make  this  name  honourable,  and  to  preserve  the  liberty  of  our  country,  ought 
to  be  our  only  emulation,  and  he  will  be  the  best  soldier  and  the  best  patriot 
who  contributes  most  to  this  glorious  work,  whatever  his  station,  and  from 
whatever  part  of  the  continent  he  may  come."  This  spirited  appeal  had  for 
the  present  the  effect  of  putting  a  stop  to  dissensions,  which  could  only  be 
effectually  repressed  by  a  more  efficient  organization  of  the  army. 

In  the  expectation  that  Howe  would  direct  his  attack  by  way  of  Long 
Island,  a  body  of  nine  thousand  men  had  been  encamped  at  Brooklyn,  pro- 
tected by  a  line  of  works  executed  under  the  superintendence  of  General 
Greene,  extending  from "Wallab out  Bay  on  the  East  river  to  Gowan'scove  on 
New  York  Bay.  In  advance  was  a  range  of  wooded  heights,  crossed  directly 
by  two  roads,  while  a  third  turned  their  eastern  extremity  near  the  shore  of 
the  bay,  and  a  fourth,  by  falling  into  the  Jamaica  road,  the  western.  The 
central  passes,  leading  over  the  hills,  were  guarded  and  fortified,  and  orders 
had  been  given  carefully  to  watch  over  them  all.  But  General  Greene,  to 
whom  the  command  was  intrusted,  and  who  perfectly  understood  the  ground, 
happened  to  fall  ill,  and  the  command  devolved  on  Putnam,  who  was  not  so 
well  acquainted  with  it,  and  by  some  neglect,  or  want  of  foresight,  the  Jamaica 
road  was  left  without  adequate  protection,  neither  was  a  proper  system  of 
communication  kept  up  between  the  different  posts. 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  Americans  when  the  British  troops  landed  on 
Long  Island,  extending  their  line  along  the  southern  side  of  the  heights 
which  intervened  between  them  and  the  American  camp.  Opposite  the 
middle  of  the  heights  was  De  Heister  with  the  centre  composed  of  Hessians, 
the  left  wing  under  General  Grant  prepared  to  attack  by  the  lower  road, 
while  General  Clinton,  supported  by  Earl  Percy  and  General  Cornwallis,  ad- 
vanced at  the  head  of  the  right  wing  towards  the  unprotected  Jamaica  road, 
with  the  purpose  of  turning  the  American  left,  placing  them  between  two 
fires,  and  cutting  off  their  retreat  to  the  camp. 

This  combination,  as  sagaciously  planned  as  it  was  vigorously  executed, 
proved,  notwithstanding  the  most  resolute  bravery  on  the  part  of  the  Ameri- 
cans at  particular  points,  entirely  successful. 

About  nine  o'clock  at  night  Clinton's  division  advanced  steadily  and 
swiftly  towards  the  Jamaica  road,  and  after  capturing  a  patrol,  a  little  before 
day-break  had  attained  this  spot,  the  key  of  the  position,  without  obstacle. 
Grant  meanwhile  advanced  at  midnight  along  the  lower  road,  and  thus  came 
into  contact  with  the  American  troops  under  Lord  Sterling,  while  at  day- 
break De  Heister  assaulted  the  American  centre  posted  upon  the  crest  of  the 
hills.  One  of  the  ships  meanwhile  kept  thundering  on  the  American  right. 
The  object  of  the  English  was  to  draw  the  attention  of  their  enemy  from  what 
was  passing  on  their  left,  but  no  sooner  were  they  aware  that  Clinton  stood 


A.D.  1776. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  399 

prepared  to  act  on  the  offensive,  than  they  advanced  to  the  attack  with  chap. 
vigour,  and  after  a  strenuous  resistance,  succeeded  in  forcing  the  passages, 
and  gradually  driving  in  their  opponents. 

Meanwhile  Clinton,  unopposed  on  the  Jamaica  road,  marched  rapidly 
through  Bedford,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  left  flank  of  the  Americans, 
who  finding  themselves  in  a  way  to  be  cut  off,  endeavoured  to  retreat  to  the 
camp,  but  were  intercepted  and  driven  back  upon  the  Hessians,  or  forced  to  fly 
into  the  woods.  Cornwallis  at  the  same  time  pushed  round  to  cut  off  Lord 
Sterling,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  his  corps  with  great  difficulty  effecting 
their  retreat.  Sullivan,  hemmed  in  as  he  was  by  De  Heister  on  one  side  and 
Clinton  on  the  other,  was  obliged  to  surrender.  The  defeat  of  the  Americans 
was  complete  at  all  points,  and  upwards  of  a  thousand  prisoners  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Such  as  escaped  fell  back  within  the  lines  at 
Brooklyn,  closely  pursued  by  the  victorious  English. 

Inexperienced  as  were  the  Americans  in  the  science  of  war,  having 
so  extensive  and  broken  a  line  to  defend,  without  cavalry,  and  attacked 
by  a  vastly  superior  and  highly  disciplined  force,  the  issue  of  the  combat 
might  have  been  foreseen,  and  Washington,  it  is  evident,  almost  an- 
ticipated it.  Speaking  of  his  soldiers  before  the  struggle,  he  observed, 
"  The  superiority  of  the  enemy  and  the  expected  attack  does  not  seem  to  have 
depressed  their  spirits.  These  considerations  lead  me  to  think  that,  though  the 
appeal  may  not  terminate  as  happily  as  I  could  wish,  yet  that  the  enemy  will 
not  succeed  in  their  views  without  considerable  loss.  Any  advantage  they 
may  gain  I  trust  will  cost  them  dear."  He  was  not,  however,  prepared  for  so 
complete  a  discomfiture  as  this ;  and  his  anguish,  at  witnessing  it,  is  said  to 
have  been  extreme. 

During  the  action  he  had  crossed  over  to  the  camp  at  Brooklyn,  now 
crowded  with  disheartened  fugitives,  and  menaced  with  an  immediate  attack 
by  the  English,  flushed  with  victory  and  eager  to  be  led  on  to  the  assault.  The 
moment  was  fearfully  critical.  Had  the  counsels  of  the  English  officers  been 
as  vigorous  as  the  temper  of  their  troops  was  excited,  the  lines  would  have 
been  at  once  stormed  and  probably  carried.  But  whether  General  Howe 
dreaded  the  result  of  thus  attacking  a  desperate  foe,  or  supposed  that  with 
the  co-opeiation  of  the  ships  the  enemy  could  not  escape  him,  he  preferred  to 
make  regular  approaches,  and  began  immediately  to  open  trenches.  The  rain 
poured  incessantly  for  two  days,  and  the  Americans  were  exposed  to  it  un- 
sheltered. Had  the  English  ships  advanced  up  the  East  river,  and  stationed 
themselves  between  Brooklyn  and  New  York,  nothing  could  have  saved  the 
camp;  but  a  strong  north-east  wind  had  hitherto  prevented  them  from 
doing  so.  Every  moment  was  precious,  when  a  sudden  shift  of  wind 
would  cut  off  the  possibility  of  flight.  It  was  known  besides,  that  Clinton 
was  threatening  to  send  part  of  his  army  across  the  sound,  thus  menacing 
New  York.  "Washington  called  a  council  of  war,  at  which  it  was  resolved 
to  retreat  instantly.  The  hour  of  eight  in  the  evening  of  the  twenty-ninth 
of  August  was  fixed  upon  for  the  embarkation.     Every  thing  had  been 


A.  D.  1776. 


400  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  prepared,  and  the  troops  were  ready  to  march  down,  but  the  force  of  the 
wind  and  ebb  tide  delayed  them  for  some  hours,  and  seemed  as  if  it  would 
entirely  frustrate  the  enterprise.  The  enemy,  toiling  hard  at  the  approaches, 
were  now  so  near,  that  the  blows  of  their  pickaxes  and  instruments  could  be 
distinctly  heard,  while  the  noise  of  these  operations  deadened  all  sound  of  the 
American  movements,  which  were  carried  on  in  the  deepest  silence.  About 
two  in  the  morning,  a  thick  fog  settling  over  Long  Island  prevented  all  sight 
of  what  was  going  on,  and  the  wind  shifting  round  to  the  south-west,  the 
soldiers  entered  the  boats,  and  were  rapidly  transferred  to  the  opposite  shore. 
So  complete  were  the  arrangements,  that  almost  all  the  artillery,  with  the 
provisions,  horses,  waggons,  and  ammunition  safely  crossed  over  to  New 
York.  Washington,  who,  from  the  commencement  of  the  action  till  he  had 
seen  the  troops  placed  out  of  danger,  had  never  closed  his  eyes,  and  been 
rarely  out  of  the  saddle,  was  himself  the  last  to  quit  the  shore. 

Scarcely  had  the  fog  cleared  off,  when  the  British  saw  with  amazement  the 
last  American  boat,  which  had  returned  to  fetch  off  some  munitions,  fast 
nearing  the  opposite  bank  of  the  East  river.  Washington  had  saved  his 
army.  Several  thousand  men  were  still  assembled  in  New  York  Island,  but 
their  leader  was  but  too  sensible  how  little  reliance  could  be  placed  upon  them. 
A  highly  disciplined  force  may  succeed  in  bearing  up  against  even  a  series  of 
reverses,  but  to  the  undisciplined  a  single  one  is  often  enough.  The  suc- 
cesses of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  had  so  excited  the  spirits  of  the 
American  soldiers,  that  they  undervalued  the  importance  of  military  tactics, 
and  believed  that  in  native  valour  and  determined  courage  they  would  prove 
an  overmatch  for  the  mercenary,  if  better  trained,  soldiers  of  the  king.  The 
recent  defeat  had  opened  their  eyes  to  this  mistake,  and  they  now,  by  a  na- 
tural revulsion,  fell  into  the  opposite  error.  In  spite  of  all  his  influence, 
Washington  beheld  his  army  falling  rapidly  away.  He  had  long  felt  that, 
with  the  present  system  of  limited  enlistments,  and  necessarily  imperfect  dis- 
cipline, it  would  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  conflict ;  and  he  resolved  to 
turn  his  present  distresses  to  account,  by  making  a  vigorous  appeal  to  Con- 
gress for  the  establishment  of  a  standing  army. 

"  Our  situation  (thus  he  wrote  to  Congress)  is  truly  distressing.  The  check 
our  detachment  sustained  on  the  27th  ultimo,  has  dispirited  too  great  a  pro- 
portion of  our  troops,  and  filled  their  minds  with  apprehension  and  despair. 
The  militia,  instead  of  calling  forth  their  utmost  efforts  to  a  brave  and  manly 
opposition  in  order  to  repair  our  losses,  are  dismayed,  intractable,  and  impa- 
tient to  return.  Great  numbers  of  them  have  gone  off;  in  some  instances, 
almost  by  whole  regiments,  by  half  ones,  and  by  companies  at  a  time.  This 
circumstance  of  itself,  independent  of  others,  when  fronted  by  a  well-ap- 
pointed enemy,  superior  in  number  to  our  whole  collected  force,  would  be 
sufficiently  disagreeable ;  but,  when  their  example  has  infected  another  part 
of  the  army,  when  their  want  of  discipline,  and  refusal  of  almost  every  kind 
of  restraint  and  government,  have  produced  a  like  conduct  but  too  common 
to  the  whole,  and  an  entire  disregard  of  that  order  and  subordination  neces- 


1 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA,  401 

sary  to  the  well-doing  of  an  army,  and  which  had  been  inculcated  before,  as    chap. 

well  as  the  nature  of  our  military  establishment  would  admit  of, — our  condi- ,' — 

tion  becomes  still  more  alarming ;  and,  with  the  deepest  concern,  I  am  obliged 
to  confess  my  want  of  confidence  in  the  generality  of  the  troops. 

"  All  these  circumstances  fully  confirm  the  opinion  I  ever  entertained,  and 
which  I  more  than  once  in  my  letters  took  the  liberty  of  mentioning  to  Con- 
gress, that  no  dependence  could  be  put  in  a  militia,  or  other  troops,  than  those 
enlisted  and  embodied  for  a  longer  period  than  our  regulations  heretofore 
have  prescribed.  I  am  persuaded,  and  as  fully  convinced  as  I  am  of  any  one 
fact  that  has  happened,  that  our  liberties  must  of  necessity  be  greatly  hazarded, 
if  not  entirely  lost,  if  their  defence  is  left  to  any  but  a  permanent  standing 
army ;  I  mean,  one  to  exist  during  the  war.  Nor  would  the  expense,  inci- 
dent to  the  support  of  such  a  body  of  troops  as  would  be  competent  to  almost 
every  exigency,  far  exceed  that,  which  is  daily  incurred  by  calling  in  succour 
and  new  enlistments,  which,  when  effected,  are  not  attended  with  any  good 
consequences.  Men  who  have  been  free  and  subject  to  no  control,  cannot 
be  reduced  to  order  in  an  instant ;  and  the  privileges  and  exemptions,  which 
they  claim  and  will  have,  influence  the  conduct  of  others ;  and  the  aid  de- 
rived from  them  is  nearly  counterbalanced  by  the  disorder,  irregularity,  and 
confusion  they  occasion." 

Whilst  Washington,  on  one  hand,  was  urging  the  adoption  of  more  vigor- 
ous measures ;  the  Howes,  on  the  other,  taking  advantage  of  the  discourage- 
ment in  the  American  army,  which  they  naturally  concluded  would  induce 
Congress  to  lower  their  tone,  despatched  then  a  prisoner,  General  Sullivan, 
to  Philadelphia,  with  further  advances  towards  a  pacification.  Unable  of- 
ficially to  recognise  or  treat  with  Congress,  the  British  commanders  expressed 
their  desire  of  conferring  with  some  members  of  that  body,  as  private  gentle- 
men, to  effect  if  possible  some  amicable  settlement  of  the  dispute.  The 
Congress  replied,  that  as  representatives  of  the  American  confederation,  they 
were  unable  consistently  to  send  any  of  their  members  in  their  private 
capacity,  but  would  depute  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  Howes,  upon  whom 
they  might  look  in  whatever  light  they  pleased.  Meanwhile,  the  prospects 
of  accommodation,  thus  opened  to  Congress,  occasioned  considerable  debate, 
which  terminated  in  the  resolution,  the  die  being  now  cast,  to  maintain 
their  independence  at  all  hazards,  and  in  spite  of  all  reverses.  With  this 
view,  Franklin,  John  Adams,  and  John  Rutledge  were  deputed  to  confer 
with  the  Howes,  at  Staten  Island.  Nothing  could  be  more  friendly  than  the 
disposition  of  the  Howes  ;  but,  as  before,  they  were  unfurnished  with  any 
proposals  beyond  a  promise  of  pardon,  and  vague  promises  of  the  royal  bene- 
volence, and  of  a  revision  of  the  subjects  in  dispute.  But  even  a  distinct  promise 
of  the  reversal  of  all  the  obnoxious  acts  of  parliament  would  not  now  have 
proved  enough.  The  terms  that  would  once  have  been  gladly  welcomed,  it 
was  now  too  late  to  listen  to.  The  honour  of  the  American  nation  was  pledged 
to  the  maintenance,  at  all  risks,  of  a  resolution  so  solemnly  entered  into  in 
the  face  of  the  world.     The  conference  therefore  terminated  as  might  have 


402  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,   been  expected.     The  deputies  declared,  "  That  the  associated  colonies  con  Id 


— '. not  accede  to  any  peace  or  alliance,  but  as  free  and  independent  States.     As 

D,1?76,  such,  they  were  ready  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of  pacification  with  Great  Britai  n, 
but  not  otherwise."  Regretting  that  they  were  unable  to  negotiate  up:m 
these  terms,  the  Howes  broke  off  the  conference.  Appealing  from  the  stii  b- 
bornness  of  Congress  to  the  people  at  large,  they  next  issued  a  proclamation, 
promising  them  a  revisal  of  the  obnoxious  Acts,  and  urging  them  to  return  to 
tb-eir  allegiance. 

Nothing  therefore  now  remained  to  Washington,  but  to  resume  hostilities, 
which  had  commenced  so  inauspiciously  for  the  American  cause.  Perhaps 
no  one  but  himself  would  have  had  the  moral  firmness  steadily  to  look  his  dis- 
couragements in  the  face,  and  to  persevere  in  spite  of  them ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  no  one  else  could  have  exercised  that  moral  influence,  so  far  beyond  mere 
generalship,  which  could  alone  hold  together  the  disjointed  elements  of  the 
army.  The  character  of  the  struggle,  he  had  the  sagacity  to  see,  must  be 
tedious,  desultory,  and  painful,  redeemed  by  few  of  those  brilliant  exploits 
requisite  to  dazzle  the  public  mind  and  sustain  the  enthusiasm  of  his  coun- 
try. With  so  ill-compacted  a  force,  it  must  be  long  ere  he  could  hope  to 
face  the  enemy  in  a  pitched  battle  with  any  chance  of  success  ;  all  he  could 
expect  was  to  impede  his  march,  cut  off  his  supplies,  and  harass  his  progress  ; 
forced  to  retreat  from  prudential  motives,  when  his  natural  temper  would 
have  led  him  to  solicit  the  combat ;  blamed  for  inevitable  defeats,  and  looked 
to  for  impossible  victories. 

By  his  recent  triumph  Howe  had  acquired  the  possession  of  Long  Island, 
and  was  preparing  to  pass  over  the  East  river  and  menace  New  York ;  but 
where  the  blow  would  fall,  what  were  the  numbers,  plans,  and  dispositions  of 
the  English  army,  Washington  knew  not  with  any  certainty.  To  prevent  sur- 
prise, he  had  removed  the  main  body  of  his  army  to  the  heights  of  Harlem  north 
of  the  city,  overlooking  the  Harlem  river,  sending  across  a  portion  of  the  stores 
and  baggage,  and  establishing  his  head- quarters  at  Morrisiana,  whence  he 
could  better  watch  the  movements  of  the  English  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
strait.  A  considerable  force  still  remained  in  the  city  under  the  command  of 
Putnam,  ready  either  to  act  in  its  defence  or  retreat,  as  the  case  might  require. 

To  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  enemy's  plans  was  now  of  the  highest  im- 
portance, and  Washington  made  known  his  wish  to  Colonel  Know] ton,  one 
of  the  bravest  and  most  resolute  of  his  officers,  who  commanded  a  regiment  of 
light  infantry,  which  formed  the  van  of  the  American  army.  Knowlton 
called  together  his  subordinates,  and  stated  to  them  the  wish  of  the 
general.  The  appeal  was  responded  to  by  Nathan  Hale,  a  native  of  Con- 
necticut, educated  at  Yale  College,  an  excellent  scholar,  winning  in  his  man- 
ners, possessing  a  fine  taste,  and  animated  above  all  with  the  most  ardent 
enthusiasm  in  his  country's  cause.  After  the  battle  of  Lexington,  he  had 
obtained  a  commission  in  the  army,  and  had  already  given  excellent  promise 
as  an  officer.  Contrary  to  the  remonstrances  and  forebodings  of  his  friends, 
he  determined  to  assume  the  perilous  mission. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  403 

Having  disguised  himself,  he  crossed  over  to  Long  Island,  passed  through   chap. 

the  camp  of  the  enemy,  obtained  the  necessary  information,  and  had  even  step ■      ■■- 

ped  into  the  boat  in  order  to  return,  when  he  was  apprehended  on  suspicion, 
and  carried  before  Sir  William  Howe.  Immediately  placed  upon  his  trial  as 
a  spy,  he  was  convicted  upon  his  own  confession,  and,  according  to  military 
law,  ordered  to  be  hanged  on  the  following  morning. 

Far  from  any  sympathy  being  exhibited  towards  him,  his  treatment  during 
his  last  hours  was  harsh  and  cruel  in  the  extreme.  The  provost  marshal, 
whose  office  it  was  to  carry  the  sentence  into  effect,  was  himself  a  refugee, 
and  animated  by  the  bitterest  hatred.  The  attendance  of  a  clergyman  and 
even  the  use  of  a  Bible  were  denied  the  unhappy  captive,  and  his  last 
affectionate  letters  to  his  mother  and  sister  were  destroyed.  For  this  last 
piece  of  cruelty  the  provost  marshal  assigned  a  reason,  which  ought  rather 
to  have  excited  admiration  than  called  forth  malevolence  towards  its  ob- 
ject ;  "  He  would  not  have,"  he  said,  "  the  rebels  to  know,  that  they  had 
a  man  in  their  army  who  could  die  with  so  much  firmness."  Unknown 
and  unfriended,  young  Hale  met  his  ignominious  fate  with  unflinching  cour- 
age, regretting  only  with  his  latest  breath  that  he  had  but  one  life  to  lay 
down  in  the  cause  of  his  country. 

Not  long  after  this  unhappy  episode,  Howe's  designs  became  apparent 
enough,  and  they  were  crowned  with  entire  success.  He  declined  bombarding 
the  city,  which  contained  a  great  number  of  adherents,  and  would  be  desir 
able  as  quarters  for  his  army.  Instead  of  this,  sending  several  ships  up 
the  North  and  East  rivers,  the  fire  from  which  swept  entirely  across  the  island, 
he  began,  under  cover  of  it,  to  land  his  troops  at  Kip's  Bay,  about  mid- 
way between  New  York  and  Harlem.  Works  had  been  thrown  up  on  the 
spot,  sufficient  at  least  to  maintain  a  resistance  till  further  succour  could 
arrive ;  but  no  sooner  did  the  English  set  foot  on  shore,  than  the  troops 
posted  in  them  were  seized  with  a  panic,  broke,  and  fled,  communicating 
their  terror  to  two  New  England  brigades,  who  on  the  first  alarm  of  a  landing 
had  been  despatched  to  their  support.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  Washing- 
ton, hurrying  to  the  scene  of  action,  fell  in  with  the  entire  party  retreating 
in  disorder  without  firing  a  single  shot.  The  sight  was  too  much  for  his  ex- 
cited feelings,  and  for  once  his  equanimity  gave  way  before  a  sense  of  the 
almost  hopelessness  of  his  task.  He  galloped  to  and  fro  among  the  fugitives, 
entreating  them  to  face  the  enemy,  he  struck  them  with  the  flat  of  his  sword, 
snapped  his  pistols  at  them,  and  utterly  unable  to  stay  the  rout,  dashed  his 
hat  on  the  ground,  exclaiming,  "  Are  these  the  men  with  whom  I  am  to  de- 
fend America ! "  Abandoned  by  all,  and  rooted  to  the  spot,  he  seemed  not 
merely  incapable  of  saving  himself  by  flight,  but  even  as  though  he  invoked 
destruction ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  officers,  who  seized  his  bridle  and 
forcibly  dragged  him  off  the  field,  he  would,  in  all  probability,  have  been 
shot  or  taken  prisoner. 

As  the  fugitive  troops  retired,  they  encountered  a  reinforcement  hastening 
to  their  support,  and,  ashamed  of  their  former  panic,  faced  about  and  desired 

3  r  2 


A.  D, 17/6. 


404  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  t0  be  \eo\  against  the  enemy.  But  unable  as  he  was  to  place  any  firm  reliance 
upon  them,  Washington  judged  it  more  prudent  to  fall  back  upon  Harlem 
heights. 

By  this  time  the  British  officers  had  landed  all  their  forces,  and  had  they 
pushed  vigorously  forward  would,  by  placing  themselves  across  the  island 
midway  between  Washington  at  Harlem  and  Putnam  in  New  York,  have 
effectually  cut  off  the  latter,  and  compelled  him  to  surrender.  Orders 
had  been  despatched  to  him  instantly  to  evacuate  the  city,  and  in  the  midst 
of  hurry  and  confusion  he  took  the  lower  road  by  Greenwich,  leaving  behind 
him  his  heavy  artillery  and  a  large  quantity  of  stores  and  provisions.  The 
delay  of  the  British,  generally  attributed  to  the  general's  stopping  for  refresh- 
ment, alone  prevented  his  being  cut  off  with  his  entire  division,  and  as  it  was, 
three  hundred  of  his  men  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

No  sooner  had  he  departed  than  a  detachment  of  the  royal  troops  entered 
the  city,  where  they  were  warmly  received  by  the  Tories.  The  bitterest  feel- 
ing existed  between  the  two  hostile  parties,  and  it  was  fearfully  exemplified 
by  means  of  an  accident  that  occurred  a  few  nights  after  the  occupation. 
This  was  a  fire,  which  broke  out  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  owing  to  the  drought 
of  the  season  and  a  strong  south  wind,  increased  with  alarming  rapidity.  Up- 
wards of  a  thousand  buildings  were  consumed,  and  but  for  the  exertions  of 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  the  whole  city  would  probably  have  been  destroyed. 
In  the  excited  state  of  party  feeling*  it  was  said  that  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  " 
were  the  incendiaries,  with  a  view  to  drive  out  the  army,  and  several  sus- 
pected persons  were  hurled  into  the  blazing  buildings  by  the  soldiers.  General 
Howe,  in  the  mean  while,  had  taken  up  a  position  with  the  main  body  of 
his  troops  in  front  of  Washington's  intrenchments  at  Harlem,  extending 
across  the  island  from  the  East  to  the  North  river,  supported  at  each  extre- 
mity by  his  ships.  Within  their  intrenchments  the  "  morale  "  of  the  Ame- 
rican troops  revived,  they  reflected  with  shame  on  the  events  of  the  day,  and 
determined  to  retrieve  their  character  on  the  first  opportunity.  Volunteers 
came  forward  next  morning,  and  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Knowlton 
went  out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy.  A  party  of  the  British  came  forward  to 
meet  them,  and  a  spirited  skirmish  ensued,  in  which  the  very  same  men 
who  the  day  before  had  fled  so  disgracefully,  behaved  with  such  spirit  as 
decidedly  to  have  the  best  of  the  encounter,  though  at  the  loss  of  their  gal- 
lant commander,  who  had  led  them  into  action.  This  incident  revived  the 
drooping  confidence  of  the  troops,  and  was  no  less  encouraging  to  Washing- 
ton himself,  after  his  recent  and  bitter  mortification.  He  occupied  himself 
diligently  with  strengthening  his  lines,  which  Howe  considered  too  formida- 
ble to  be  attacked  with  prudence,  until  he  had  obtained  reinforcements. 

While  the  two  armies  thus  remained  inactive  in  face  of  each  other,  Wash- 
ington was  earnestly  engaged  in  correspondence  with  Congress.  The  state  of 
his  army,  though  somewhat  raised  from  despondency  by  the  recent  success, 
was  deplorable.  Hospitals  were  wanting  to  receive  the  numerous  sick,  who 
were  exposed  almost  unsheltered  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather.     Deser- 


A.  D. 1776. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  405 

tions  were  constantly  taking  place,  and  the  very  next  reverse  might  occasion  chap. 
the  entire  dissolution  of  the  army.  The  feelings  of  Washington  were  thus 
expressed  to  Congress.  "  There  is  no  situation  upon  earth  less  enviable,  or 
more  distressing,  than  that  person's  who  is  at  the  head  of  troops  regardless 
of  order  and  discipline,  and  unprovided  with  almost  every  necessary.  In  a 
word,  the  difficulties,  which  have  for  ever  surrounded  me  since  I  have  been 
in  the  service,  and  kept  my  mind  constantly  upon  the  stretch  ;  the  wounds, 
which  my  feelings  as  an  officer  have  received  by  a  thousand  things,  that  have 
happened  contrary  to  my  expectations  and  wishes  ;  the  effect  of  my  own  con- 
duct, and  present  appearance  of  things,  so  little  pleasing  to  myself,  as  to 
render  it  a  matter  of  no  surprise  to  me  if  I  should  stand  capitally  censured 
by  Congress ;  added  to  a  consciousness  of  my  inability  to  govern  an  army 
composed  of  such  discordant  parts,  and  under  such  a  variety  of  intricate  and 
perplexing  circumstances  ; — induce  not  only  a  belief,  but  a  thorough  convic- 
tion in  my  mind,  that  it  will  be  impossible,  unless  there  be  a  thorough  change 
in  our  military  system,  for  me  to  conduct  matters  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give 
satisfaction  to  the  public,  which  is  all  the  recompence  I  aim  at  or  ever 
wished  for." 

Reluctant  as  Congress  had  been  to  establish  a  standing  army,  they  had  now 
drawn  the  sword  and  cast  away  the  scabbard,  and  the  recent  losses  seconded 
so  powerfully  the  expostulations  of  Washington,  that  a  scheme  was  drawn  up 
in  harmony  with  his  suggestions,  with  which  a  committee  of  delegates  re- 
paired to  the  camp  at  Harlem,  in  order  to  confer  with  him  on  the  subject. 
The  new  army  was  to  consist  of  eighty-eight  battalions,  to  be  provided  for  by 
the  respective  States  in  due  proportion,  and  the  soldiers,  who  received  a 
bounty  for  enlistment,  were  required  to  serve  for  the  whole  war, — the  system 
of  limited  enlistments  having  been  found  the  great  obstacle  to  discipline. 
Great  difficulties  however  were  still  to  be  surmounted.  The  selection  of 
officers  for  their  respective  quotas  was  at  first  to  be  left  to  the  States  them- 
selves, instead  of  confided  to  the  commander-in-chief;  but  a  midway  course 
was  afterwards  agreed  upon,  by  which  the  States  were  to  send  commissioners 
to  arrange  the  appointments  with  him. 

While  engaged  in  deep  and  anxious  conference  with  the  delegates  of  Con- 
gress, Washington  had  also  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  the  movements  of 
his  skilful  adversary.  The  two  armies  had  now  maintained  the  same  posi- 
tion for  three  weeks,  when  Howe,  finding  the  lines  at  Harlem  too  strong 
to  be  attacked  with  any  chance  of  success,  determined  upon  a  change  of 
tactics.  He  first  sent  some  ships  of  war  up  the  Hudson,  which,  in  spite  of 
the  American  batteries,  succeeded  in  forcing  a  passage,  thus  intercepting  the 
communication,  and  preventing  supplies  from  reaching  Washington  by  the 
river.  Leaving  behind  him  a  force  to  cover  New  York,  he  transferred  the 
rest  of  his  army  to  Pell's  Point  on  Long  Island  Sound,  and  took  up  a  position 
on  the  neighbouring  heights  of  New  Rochelle.  Hence,  having  received  a 
strong  reinforcement  of  Hessians  and  Waldeckers  under  General  Knyphau- 
sen,  he  threatened  a  movement  in  the  rear  of  Washington,  so  as  to  cut  him 


A.  D. 1776. 


406  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  off  from  all  communication  either  by  land  or  water,  or  compel  him  to  a  general 
action.  A  council  of  war  was  now  called,  when,  to  traverse  this  design,  it  was 
resolved  to  evacuate  the  island  and  advance  into  the  interior.  The  question 
arose,  whether  a  garrison  should  be  left  behind  in  Fort  Washington,  a  mea- 
sure which  seemed  of  little  use,  inasmuch  as  the  British  had  obtained  the 
command  of  the  river.  Washington  and  Lee  were  opposed  to  this  plan,  but 
it  was  strenuously  urged  by  Greene,  who  considered  the  fort  to  be  sufficiently 
strong  to  resist  an  attack  from  the  enemy.  It  was  supposed  too  that  the  be- 
sieged would  always  be  able  to  escape,  if  needful,  by  crossing  the  river;  and 
a  garrison  of  two  thousand  men  was  accordingly  left  on  it,  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Magaw. 

The  American  army,  deplorably  wanting  in  draught  cattle  to  remove  their 
baggage  and  munitions,  advanced  to  the  northward,  along  the  heights  above 
the  river  Bronx,  which  separated  them  from  the  columns  of  the  enemy,  who 
followed  after  on  close  pursuit.  Washington  halted  at  White  Plains,  where 
he  concentrated  his  forces  in  a  strongly  fortified  camp.  No  sooner  had  they 
come  up  with  him,  than  the  British  attacked  a  detached  body  of  Americans, 
posted  on  a  hill  in  the  neighbourhood  of  their  camp,  and  succeeded  in 
driving  them  in.  A  general  assault  was  momentarily  expected  to  take  place. 
For  political  reasons,  however,  afterwards  stated  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
Howe  was  induced  to  remain  inactive  at  this  critical  moment,  and  Washington 
took  advantage  of  his  delay,  to  remove  his  whole  force  by  night  to  a  much 
stronger  position,  on  the  neighbouring  heights  of  North  Castle,  where  the 
American  army  stood  secure  against  all  further  attack.  Having  thus  failed 
to  enclose  his  enemy,  Howe  suddenly  altered  his  plans,  and  advancing  to  the 
southward,  hastened  to  invest  Fort  Washington,  and  menace  New  Jersey  and 
Philadelphia.  This  movement  called  for  a  corresponding  change  on  the  part 
of  Washington.  Accordingly,  leaving  General  Lee  at  the  head  of  about  four 
thousand  men,  including  the  New  England  militia,  whose  term  of  enlistment 
was  about  to  expire,  he  ordered  all  the  forces  west  of  the  Hudson  to  make  a 
tedious  circuit,  and  cross  the  river  at  King's  Ferry,  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Hudson  Highlands,  the  enemy's  ships  occupying  the  lower  part  of  the  river. 
He  next  visited  the  strong  posts  in  the  Highlands,  ordered  fresh  works  to  be 
thrown  up,  and  crossing  the  river,  joined  his  troops  at  Hackinsac,  near  Fort 
Lee,  exactly  opposite  to  Fort  Washington,  which  the  enemy  had  already 
invested. 

The  policy  of  maintaining  this  post  had  always  seemed  exceedingly 
doubtful ;  but  it  was  now  too  late  to  evacuate  it — the  troops  could  not  be 
got  off  in  face  of  the  enemy.  Colonel  Magaw  had  already  been  summoned  to 
surrender,  but  replied,  that  it  was  his  intention  to  defend  the  post  to  the 
uttermost.  The  evening  before  the  attack,  Washington  was  crossing  the 
river  to  visit  the  garrison,  when  he  met  Greene  and  Putnam  coming  over 
from  it,  who  assured  him  the  men  were  in  high  spirits  and  would  make  a 
good  defence,  which  induced  him  to  return  with  them  to  the  camp. 

The  fort  stands  on  bold  ground,  overlooking  the  magnificent  Hudson,  and 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  407 

the  approach  to  it  on  the  land  side  is  difficult,  and  obstructed  with  wood.    chap. 
Next  morning,  the  enemy  unexpectedly  attacked  it  in  four  columns,  at  as 


many  different  points.  Notwithstanding  the  most  strenuous  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  Americans,  who  firing  from  behind  the  rocks  and  trees,  which 
impeded  the  ascent,  cut  off  four  hundred  of  their  assailants,  such  was  the 
vigour  of  the  attack,  and  the  emulation  between  the  Germans  and  English, 
that  the  outworks  were  successively  carried,  and  the  skirmishers  driven  back 
in  tumultuous  confusion  within  the  body  of  the  place.  , 

During  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  Washington,  with  Putnam,  Greene, 
and  other  officers,  had  crossed  the  river,  and  were  ascending  to  the  fort,  when 
seeing  that  they  were  running  the  risk  of  capture  for  an  insufficient  object, 
they  returned.  It  is  said,  that  from  the  post  whence  he  intently  watched 
the  onset,  Washington  could  see  his  soldiers  bayonetted,  when  imploring 
mercy  on  their  knees,  and  was  unable  to  restrain  his  tears. 

The  assailants  having  forced  their  way  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the 
fort,  Colonel  Magaw  was  again  summoned  to  surrender.  With  a  confused 
and  disheartened  crowd  of  fugitives,  who  could  not  be  brought  to  man  the 
lines,  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  comply;  and  thus  two  thousand  men, 
with  a  considerable  quantity  of  artillery,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victori- 
ous English — another  limb  lopped  off  the  feeble  and  disorganized  American 
army ! 

Scarcely  had  Fort  Washington  fallen,  when  a  body  of  six  thousand  men, 
under  Lord  Cornwallis,  one  of  the  most  active  and  energetic  of  the  British 
officers,  crossed  the  Hudson  to  Fort  Lee,  to  pursue  the  American  army.  The 
fort  was  hurriedly  abandoned,  with  a  heavy  loss  of  provisions  and  stores,  and 
the  garrison  joined  the  main  body,  which  rapidly  retreated  before  the  English. 
Such  was  the  profound  discouragement  occasioned  by  the  then  recent  suc- 
cesses, that  Washington  found  his  army  rapidly  falling  to  pieces,  and  in 
danger  of  utter  and  speedy  dissolution.  During  the  march,  the  term  of  en- 
listment of  the  corps  forming  the  "  Flying  Camp,"  for  the  protection  of  New 
Jersey,  expired,  and  no  persuasion  could  induce  them  to  enlist.  Destitute 
of  every  necessary,  broken  by  repeated  defeats,  and  so  closely  pursued  by  a 
victorious  enemy,  a  feeling  of  despair  succeeded  to  the  overstrained  enthu- 
siasm which  had  at  first  animated  them,  and  the  only  wonder  is  that  even 
the  shadow  of  an  army  should  have  remained  on  foot. 

Earnestly  entreating  the  support  of  Congress,  and  the  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  Washington  retreated  across  the  Passaic  and  the  Raritan  with  Lord 
Cornwallis  pressing  so  closely  at  his  heels,  that  the  van  of  the  British  army 
entered  Newark,  and  Brunswick,  Princeton,  and  Trenton,  just  as  the  Ameri- 
can rear  had  left.  The  destruction  of  the  bridge  over  the  Raritan  arrested 
the  enemy's  advance  for  some  hours,  and  probably  saved  the  baggage  and 
artillery.  A  delay  of  several  hours  took  place  at  Brunswick,  beyond  which 
point  Cornwallis  had  been  ordered  not  to  advance.  Had  that  active  officer 
been  left  unfettered,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  he  would  have  suc- 
ceeded in  overtaking  Washington,  and  capturing  his  entire  force,  which 


A.  D. 1776. 


408  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  had  melted  away  to  between  fourteen  and  fifteen  hundred  men,  when  he  suc- 
ceeded in  placing  the  Delaware  between  himself  and  his  pursuers. 

Having  at  length  come  up,  Howe  prepared  to  pass  the  river,  but  all  the 
boats  had  been  removed,  save  one  large  flour  barge,  which  had  accidentally 
been  overlooked,  and  which  was  only  discovered  and  carried  off  just  in  time 
to  prevent  the  British  from  making  use  of  it  to  get  a  party  across,  seize  the 
boats  upon  the  opposite  side,  and  pass  over  their  entire  army.  Baffled  at  this 
critical  moment,  they  had  still  the  means  of  making  rafts  and  pontoons,  and 
why  they  neglected  to  do  so,  when  by  one  bold  stroke  they  might  have  crushed 
the  enemy  and  put  an  end  to  the  war,  seems  perfectly  inexplicable.  Washing- 
ton at  all  events  had  fully  expected  it,  and  declared  in  his  despatch  to  Con- 
gress, that  nothing  could  have  saved  him  but  this  inaction  of  the  enemy. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  campaign  there  had  been  little  else  than  a  series 
of  disasters  ;  Long  Island,  New  York,  and  the  whole  of  New  Jersey  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  victorious  English,  the  army  had  dwindled  to 
a  feeble  handful,  and  seemed  incapable  of  ever  being  reorganized.  The 
royal  commanders  probably  thought  they  had  well  nigh  crushed  the  insur- 
rection, and  that  the  Americans  would  see  the  hopelessness  of  attempting  any 
further  resistance.  By  many  indeed  the  cause  was  believed  to  be  irrecover- 
ably lost.  Taking  advantage  of  this  state  of  things,  the  Howes  issued 
another  proclamation,  promising  pardon  to  all  who  should  abandon  their  op- 
position, and  within  the  space  of  two  months  swear  allegiance  to  the  king. 
Those  provinces  which  had  been  the  theatre  of  the  campaign,  already  con- 
tained a  large  proportion  of  loyalists,  who  gladly  welcomed  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  royal  authority.  The  lukewarm  and  timid,  seeing  the  country 
overrun  by  the  enemy's  troops,  and  the  miseries  of  civil  war  already  com- 
mencing, trembled  for  the  security  of  their  families  and  homes,  and  for  several 
days  after  the  proclamation,  hundreds  came  in  and  took  the  oaths. 

During  his  retreat  Washington  had  despatched  repeated  messages  to 
General  Lee,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  had  left  behind  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  to  join  him  immediately  with  all  his  forces.  With  this  requisi- 
tion Lee  complied  with  great  reluctance  and  tardiness.  Conscious  that  he  was 
almost  the  only  thoroughly  educated  officer  in  the  American  service,  he  medi- 
tated some  exploit  which  should  confer  on  him  a  special  distinction,  and 
wished  to  retain  his  separate  command,  and  to  watch  the  contingencies  that 
might  offer.  Compelled  at  length  to  obey,  he  moved  in  the  direction  of 
Philadelphia ;  but,  having  taken  up  his  quarters  one  night  in  a  detached 
building,  was,  through  the  information  of  a  Tory,  suddenly  surprised  by  a 
party  of  English  horse,  and  carried  prisoner  to  the  camp.  As  the  most  ex- 
aggerated idea  of  his  abilities  was  entertained,  so  that  by  many  he  was  called 
the  Palladium  of  America,  his  loss  at  this  critical  juncture  deepened  the  de- 
pression of  the  patriot  party,  and  it  was  even  suspected,  though  unfairly,  that 
he  had  adopted  this  expedient  to  abandon  a  sinking  cause  and  return  to  his 
natural  allegiance.  The  command  of  his  detachment  now  devolved  on 
Sullivan,  who  repaired  with  it  to  the  assistance  of  Washington. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  409 

In  anticipation  of  a  speedy  attack  by  the  enemy,  Washington,  at  this  alarm-  chap. 
ing  crisis,  pressed  upon  Congress  the  necessity  of  more  vigorous  measures  - — ^-7— 
for  the  re-organization  of  the  army.  "  The  enemy,"  he  observes  to  the  pre- 
sident, "are  daily  gathering  strength  from  the  disaffected.  This  strength, 
like  a  snowball,  will  increase  by  rolling,  unless  some  means  can  be  devised  to 
check  effectually  the  progress  of  the  enemy's  arms.  Militia  may  probably  do 
it  for  a  while,  but  in  a  little  while  also  the  militia  of  those  States,  which  have 
been  frequently  called  upon,  will  not  turn  out  at  all,  or  if  they  do,  it  will  be 
with  so  much  reluctance  and  sloth  as  to  amount  to  the  same  thing.  Instance 
New  Jersey  !  Witness  Pennsylvania  !  Could  any  thing  but  the  river  Dela- 
ware have  saved  Philadelphia  ?  Can  any  thing  be  more  destructive  to  the 
recruiting  service,  than  giving  ten  dollars  bounty  for  six  weeks'  service  of  the 
militia,  who  come  in  you  cannot  tell  how,  go  you  cannot  tell  when,  and  act 
you  cannot  tell  where,  consume  your  provisions,  exhaust  your  stores,  and 
leave  you  at  last  at  a  critical  moment  ?  These,  sir,  are  the  men  I  am  to  depend 
upon  ten  days  hence,  this  is  the  basis  on  which  your  cause  will  and  must  for 
ever  depend,  till  you  get  a  large  standing  army  sufficient  of  itself  to  oppose 
the  enemy."  ■ 

Notwithstanding  the  unfortunate  reverses  that  had  lately  attended  his 
arms,  Congress  had  by  this  time  acquired  so  profound  a  confidence  in  the 
character  and  abilities  of  Washington,  such,  besides,  was  the  manifest 
imminence  of  the  peril,  that  throwing  aside  their  lingering  apprehensions 
from  the  establishment  of  a  standing  army,  they  at  once  empowered  Wash- 
ington to  raise  and  embody  one,  conferring  on  him  at  the  same  time,  for  the 
period  of  six  months,  the  authority  of  a  military  dictator.  "  Happy  is  it 
for  this  country,"  said  Congress  in  their  letter  to  him  on  this  occasion, 
"  that  the  general  of  their  forces  can  safely  be  intrusted  with  the  most  un- 
limited power,  and  neither  personal  security,  liberty,  or  property,  be  in  the 
least  degree  endangered  thereby." 

Leaving  Washington  to  obtain  a  little  breathing  time  before  sustaining 
fresh  attacks,  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  the  northern  army,  which,  as  before 
observed,  after  the  daring  but  unsuccessful  attack  upon  Quebec,  had  been 
driven  discomfited  out  of  Canada,  and  taken  refuge  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Champlain.  Upon  the  first  distribution  of  commands,  Philip  Schuyler,  a 
wealthy  and  influential  gentleman  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Albany,  had  been 
appointed  general  in  the  northern  district.  The  same  mutual  jealousies  which 
had  already  been  so  rife  in  Washington's  camp,  prevailed  between  the  sol- 
diers of  New  England  and  New  York  ;  and  Schuyler,  as  a  leading  inhabitant 
of  the  latter  province,  had  become  unpopular  with  the  former.  Owing  to 
the  arts  of  the  New  England  delegates  in  Congress,  Gates  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  northern  army  over  his  head.  His  enemies 
having  even  accused  him  of  treachery,  he  offered  his  resignation,  which  Con- 
gress however  refused  to  accept,  and  in  his  subordinate  position  he  continued 
zealously  to  labour  for  his  country's  cause,  and  eventually  rendered  her  the 
most  vital  services. 

3  G 


410  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.        General  Carleton,  the  able  governor  of  Canada,  having  obtained  reinforce- 

■ ments  from   England,  had  advanced  to  the   northern   extremity  of  Lake 

*  Champlain  with  thirteen  thousand  troops,  with  which  he  was  eager  to  pursue 
and  destroy  the  disorganized  American  army,  now  reduced  by  malignant 
diseases  and  continual  desertion  to  a  feeble  body  of  five  thousand  men.  But  all 
the  boats  on  the  lake  had  been  withdrawn,  and  the  American  force,  abandon- 
ing Crown  Point,  had  been  judiciously  secured  within  the  walls  of  Fort 
Ticonderoga.  The  entire  lake  thus  intervened  betwixt  the  two  armies ;  its 
shores,  still  covered  with  thick  forests,  were  impassable  by  land.  As  there  was 
no  doubt  that  Carleton  would  speedily  equip  a  flotilla  to  pursue  the  Ameri- 
cans, Gates  resolved  to  prepare  another  with  which  to  impede  his  progress. 
The  design  was  carried  out  with  indefatigable  perseverance,  ship  carpenters 
and  stores  were  brought  from  the  New  England  sea-ports,  and  in  the  course 
of  three  months,  by  the  middle  of  August,  sixteen  vessels  of  different  burden 
were  ready  to  contest  possession  of  the  lake. 

A  new  opportunity  was  thus  opened  to  Arnold,  ready  to  meet  any  odds  so 
that  he  could  but  gratify  that  thirst  for  distinction,  that  love  of  daring  and 
desperate  enterprise,  of  which  he  had  already  given  such  signal  proofs  in  the 
romantic  expedition  to  Quebec.  Although  suspected  of  dishonesty,  and  dis- 
liked for  his  restless,  jealous,  and  turbulent  character,  his  courage  and  conduct 
were  unquestionable,  and  as  he  had  moreover  formerly  been  a  shipmaster,  he 
received  from  Gates  the  command  of  the  little  flotilla. 

Carleton,  meanwhile,  had  been  no  less  active  than  his  opponents,  and  as 
the  resources  at  his  command  were  much  greater  than  theirs,  the  results  were 
p«roportionably  imposing.  The  frames  of  five  large  vessels,  prepared  in  Eng- 
land and  brought  across  by  land  from  Montreal  to  St.  John's,  were  soon  put 
together  on  the  lake.  A  large  number  of  gun-boats  were  also  brought  from 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  dragged  over  the  rapids  of  the  Sorel  at  Fort  Chambly. 
This  flotilla  was  worked  by  seven  hundred  seamen  from  the  British  ships, 
whereas  the  American  was  manned  by  soldiers  drafted  from  the  army. 

Cautiously  advancing  up  the  lake,  Arnold,  aware  of  the  disadvantage  he 
would  be  placed  under  in  the  open  expanse  with  so  inferior  a  force,  posted 
his  vessels  with  great  judgment  in  the  narrow  channel  between  Valcour 
Island  and  the  shore,  so  that  he  could  neither  be  surrounded  nor  attacked 
except  in  front  by  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  flotilla.  Early  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  11th  of  October,  they  came  in  sight,  led  by  Captain  Pringle 
in  the  Inflexible,  the  youthful  Edward  Pellew,  afterwards  so  brilliantly 
distinguished  as  Lord  Exmouth,  being  among  his  officers.  Sweeping  round 
the  southern  point  of  the  island,  the  English  vessels  were  soon  engaged 
with  the  American,  and  the  combat  raged  for  four  hours  with  the  most 
desperate  fury.  Arnold  had  posted  himself  on  board  the  "  Congress " 
galley,  he  pointed  every  gun  with  his  own  hand,  and  cheered  on  his  men  with 
his  characteristic  enthusiasm.  His  men  fell  dead  around  him,  the  hull  of 
his  ship  riddled  with  cannon-balls,  the  mainmast  shattered,  and  the  rigging 
cut  to  pieces,  yet  still  he  continued  to  fight  on.     The  position  he  had  chosen 


A.  D. 1776. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  411 

greatly  neutralized  the  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  and  thus  the  battle  was    chap. 
yet  undecided,  when  night  closed  in  upon  the  scene. 

One  of  the  American  vessels  had  been  burned,  another  sunk,  and  the 
rest  had  suffered  very  severely.  To  renew  the  combat  on  the  morrow  was  so 
obviously  hopeless,  that  Arnold  and  his  officers,  after  holding  consultation, 
determined  upon  falling  back  to  Crown  Point.  This  however  was  much 
easier  to  resolve  on  than  to  execute,  for  the  British  commander  had  disposed 
his  ships  in  a  line  from  the  island  to  the  shore,  so  as  to  prevent  the  retreat  of 
his  enemy  till  daylight  should  enable  him  to  attack  and  overpower  him.  But 
the  night  happened  to  be  unusually  dark,  it  blew  a  stiff  breeze  from  the 
north,  and  as  soon  as  the  English  sailors  had  retired  to  rest  after  a  hard- 
fought  day,  the  American  ships  hoisted  their  sails,  and  slipped  unperceived  be- 
tween those  of  the  foe,  Arnold  fetching  up  the  rear  in  the  battered  and 
crazy  "  Congress,"  and  by  daylight  had  placed  full  ten  miles  between  them- 
selves and  their  too  powerful  opponents. 

No  sooner  was  the  flight  discovered,  than  the  English,  full  of  shame 
and  vexation,  crowded  all  sail  in  pursuit.  A  contrary  wind  baffled  them 
during  the  day,  but  on  the  following  morning  they  were  close  upon  the  fugi- 
tives. The  foremost  ships  continued  their  flight  and  succeeded  in  effecting 
their  escape,  but  the  rear,  consisting  of  Arnold's  galley,  with  the  "  Wash- 
ington "  and  four  gondolas,  were  attacked  with  redoubled  fury.  The  "Wash- 
ington "  was  soon  obliged  to  strike,  but  Arnold  continued  to  fight  on  till  his 
ship  was  reduced  to  a  mere  wreck  and  surrounded  by  the  enemy's  squadron. 
He  then  ran  the  "  Congress  "  and  the  four  gondolas  on  shore,  set  them  on  fire, 
and  wading  on  shore  with  his  men,  drew  them  up  in  line  to  guard  the  burning 
vessels  against  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  lest  they  should  be  carried  off  as 
trophies.  Having  waited  till  they  were  consumed,  he  effected  his  escape 
through  the  woods  to  Crown  Point,  narrowly  escaping  an  Indian  ambush 
which  was  posted  to  cut  him  off  only  an  hour  after  he  passed. 

The  result  of  this  protracted  encounter  was  disastrous  for  the  Americans, 
who  lost  eleven  vessels,  and  for  those  of  the  British.  Carleton  immediately 
advanced  to  Crown  Point,  with  the  intention  of  attacking  Ticonderoga,  but  the 
garrison  had  by  this  time  been  increased  to  eight  thousand  men,  it  was  now 
the  middle  of  October,  and  the  English  general  was  reluctantly  obliged  to 
retire  into  winter  quarters. 

The  year  1776,  so  disastrous  to  the  Americans,  was  now  drawing  to  a  close. 
Howe  and  Cornwallis  had  returned  to  New  York,  and  the  English  army,  distri- 
buted in  cantonments  on  the  Delaware  and  its  borders,  considered  the  campaign 
was  at  an  end.  Three  regiments  of  the  much-dreaded  Hessians,  under 
Colonel  Ralle,  a  brave  and  distinguished  officer,  together  with  a  troop  of 
British  light-horse,  lay  at  Trenton,  and  smaller  detachments  in  the  neigh- 
bouring forts  of  Bordentown,  Burlington,  Black  Horse,  and  Mount  Holly. 
The  festivities  of  Christmas  were  at  hand,  and  in  presence  of  an  enemy  they 
looked  upon  as  virtually  crushed,  it  was  justly  anticipated  by  Washington  that 
the  British  would  give  themselves  up  to  enjoyment,  and  their  usual  vigilance 

3  g  2 


412  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  would  "be  relaxed.  Being  by  this  time  reinforced  by  the  arrival  of  Lee's 
A  D  1776  division,  and  other  succours,  he  determined  to  take  advantage  of  this  state  of 
things,  to  strike  a  blow  that  might  redeem  an  unfortunate  campaign,  and  in- 
spire the  army  and  the  country  with  renovated  courage.  Having  matured 
his  plans,  he  divided  his  forces  into  three  corps,  with  the  first  of  which,  ac- 
companied by  Greene  and  Sullivan,  he  proposed  to  pass  the  Delaware  at 
M'Konkey's  ferry,  nine  miles  above  Trenton,  and  fall  upon  the  Hessians  in 
that  town.  The  second  division,  under  General  Irwin,  was  to  cross  over  at 
Trenton  ferry,  and  by  stopping  the  bridge  over  the  Assumpink,  cut  off  the 
enemy's  retreat;  while  the  third, under  General  Cadwallader,was  to  cross  lower 
down  from  Bristol  over  to  Burlington.  Had  the  plan  been  executed  at  all 
points  it  must  have  resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  whole  line  of  British  canton- 
ments, but  owing  to  invincible  obstacles  it  turned  out  but  partially  successful. 

The  evening  of  Christmas  day,  for  obvious  reasons,  was  chosen  as  the  most 
propitious  for  a  surprise.  It  proved  to  be  most  bitter  even  for  that  incle- 
ment season,  the  cold  so  intense  that  two  of  the  soldiers  were  frozen  to  death. 
The  night  was  very  obscure,  it  snowed  and  hailed  incessantly,  and  the  gloomy 
waters  of  the  Delaware  half  choked  with  masses  of  ice,  crashing  against 
the  distant  rocks  with  a  sound  like  thunder.  But  the  worse  the  weather,  it 
was  so  far  better  for  the  purpose,  that  the  enemy  would  be  lulled  into  deeper 
security.  The  soldiers  were  exhorted  to  redeem  their  previous  failures,  and 
reminded  that  the  fate  of  their  country  depended  upon  their  firmness  and 
courage,  and  they  marched  down  to  the  place  of  embarkation  with  a  feeling 
of  enthusiastic  determination. 

Washington  had  expected  that  the  passage  of  his  division  might  have  been 
effected  by  midnight,  but  the  dreadful  weather,  the  encumbered  state  of  the 
river,  and  the  difficulty  of  getting  across  the  artillery,  occasioned  so  much 
delay,  that  it  was  four  o'clock  before  the  whole  body  were  in  marching 
order  on  the  opposite  shore.  The  darkness  of  a  winter  morning  was  still 
further  deepened  by  a  heavy  fog,  and  the  road  was  rendered  slippery  by  a 
frosty  mist.  As  it  would  be  daylight  before  they  could  reach  Trenton,  the 
main  object  of  the  enterprise  seemed  to  be  disconcerted;  but  there  was  now 
no  alternative  but  to  proceed.  "Washington  took  the  upper  road,  while 
Sullivan  commanded  the  lower ;  and  about  eight  in  the  morning  both  parties 
encountered  the  pickets  of  the  enemy,  who  keeping  up  a  fire  from  behind  the 
houses,  fell  back  upon  the  town,  and  aroused  their  comrades.  The  Americans 
followed  them  up  so  closely,  that  they  were  able  to  open  a  battery  at  the  end 
of  the  main  street,  before  the  drowsy  Hessians  could  offer  any  effectual  re- 
sistance. 

It  is  said,  that  on  the  morning  of  the  surprise,  Colonel  Ralle,  who  had  been 
carousing  all  night  after  an  entertainment,  was  still  engaged  at  cards,  when 
a  warning  note,  forwarded  by  a  Tory  who  had  discovered  the  approach  of 
the  Americans,  was  handed  to  him  by  the  negro  porter,  as  being  of  par- 
ticular importance.  He  thrust  it  into  his  pocket  and  continued  the  game, 
till   aroused  at  length  by  the  roll  of  the  American  drums  and  the  sound 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  413 

of  musketry,  he  started  to  his  legs,  hurried  to  his  quarters,  mounted  his  horse,    chap. 

and  in  a  few  moments  was  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  vainly  attempting  to ■ — 

stem  the  progress  of  the  Americans.  In  a  few  moments,  he  fell  to  the 
ground  mortally  wounded,  and  was  carried  away  to  his  quarters.  All  order 
was  now  at  an  end ;  the  Germans,  panic-struck,  gave  way,  and  endeavoured 
to  escape  by  the  road  to  Princeton ;  but  were  intercepted  by  a  party  judi- 
ciously placed  there  for  the  purpose,  and  compelled  to  surrender  at  discre- 
tion, to  the  number  of  about  a  thousand  men.  Six  cannon,  a  thousand  stand 
of  arms,  and  four  colours  adorned  the  triumph  of  Washington.  In  this  mo- 
ment of  brilliant  success,  purchased  at  the  expense  of  others,  he  was  not  un- 
mindful of  the  duties  of  humanity ;  but,  accompanied  by  Greene,  paid  a  visit 
to  the  dying  Hessian  leader,  and  soothed  his  passage  to  the  grave  by  the  ex- 
pression of  that  grateful  and  generous  sympathy,  which  one  brave  man  owes 
to  another,  even  when  engaged  in  opposite  causes. 

Had  Irwin  been  able  to  cross  at  Trenton  ferry,  and  occupy  the  Assumpink 
bridge,  the  English  light-horse  must  also  have  been  cut  off;  but  such  was 
the  accumulation  of  the  floating  ice  at  this  particular  point,  that  he  had  found 
it  impossible  to  perform  his  portion  of  the  plan,  and  thus  the  division  above 
mentioned  hurried  across  the  Assumpink,  in  the  direction  of  Bordentown,  and 
escaped.  The  same  obstacle  prevented  Cadwallader  from  crossing  over  to 
Burlington ;  he  succeeded  indeed  in  landing  a  body  of  troops,  but  the  state 
of  the  ice  prevented  the  artillery  from  being  got  ashore ;  and  unable  to  pro- 
ceed without  it,  he  was  obliged  to  recross  the  Delaware. 

As  considerable  bodies  of  the  English  were  at  a  short  distance,  and  his 
troops  were  exhausted  with  fatigue  and  cold,  Washington  thought  it  prudent 
immediately  to  recross  the  river  with  his  prisoners.  The  effect  produced 
upon  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  Americans  by  this  daring  and  successful 
achievement,  especially  in  Philadelphia,  was  indescribable.  On  the  alarming 
news  of  Washington's  retreat  from  the  Hudson,  and  the  near  approach  of  the 
British,  Congress  had  thought  prudent  to  leave  the  city  and  retire  to  Balti- 
more. The  citizens,  expecting  to  be  shortly  attacked,  were  in  a  state  of  great 
excitement — the  partisans  of  the  royal  cause  eager  to  witness  its  triumph  by  the 
capture  of  the  city,  while  the  friends  of  Congress  were  proportionally  alarmed. 
To  overawe  the  former,  and  encourage  the  latter,  the  Hessians  were  paraded 
with  military  pomp  through  the  streets  of  the  city,  the  people  scarcely  be- 
lieving their  eyes,  when  they  saw  these  dreaded  foreigners  defiling  as  cap- 
tives before  them — trophies  of  the  valour  of  that  army  which  some  had  hoped, 
and  others  feared,  was  irrecoverably  disgraced  and  broken.  Nor  were  the 
English  commanders  less  astonished  and  confounded,  when  they  heard  that  • 

the  enemy  whom  they  had  fondly  believed  to  be  crushed,  had  turned  and 
routed  his  pursuers.  They  discovered  that  they  had  to  do  with  a  commander 
no  less  daring  than  he  was  cautious,  whose  steady  determination  no  defeat 
could  shake ;  who,  on  one  hand,  was  prepared  to  retreat,  if  needful,  even  to 
the  fastnesses  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  on  the  other,  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  the  least  oversight  on  their  own  part,  to  convert  defeat  into  victory. 


414  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Cornwallis,  who  was  about  to  embark  for . Europe,  was  immediately  de- 
D  V77  spatclied  to  take  the  command  of  the  troops  in  New  Jersey.  On  arriving  there, 
he  found  that  Washington  had  again  crossed  over  to  Trenton,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  act  upon  the  offensive.  It  happened  that  the  term  of  several  regi- 
ments had  expired,  and  the  men  were  anxious  to  return  to  their  homes,  but 
by  persuasion  and  a  bounty,  had  been  induced  to  remain  in  the  service.  The 
whole  American  force,  now  concentrated  at  Trenton,  amounted  however  only 
to  about  four  thousand  men. 

Having  obtained  reinforcements  at  Brunswick,  Cornwallis,  with  his  usual 
celerity,  pushed  on  to  attack  Washington,  who,  on  his  approach,  retired  into 
intrenchments  behind  the  river  Assumpink,  the  bridge  and  ford  over  which 
were  carefully  guarded.  The  whole  day  attempts  were  made,  but  in  vain,  to 
pass  the  stream,  and  a  cannonade  was  kept  up  against  the  intrenchments.  The 
following  day,  Cornwallis  intended  to  storm  the  works,  and  should  he,  as  was 
but  too  probable,  succeed,  the  American  army,  with  the  Delaware  behind 
them,  must  inevitably  be  captured.  To  abide  his  attack  would  therefore  be 
an  act  of  foolish  temerity,  while  to  attempt  to  recross  the  river  in  presence  of 
his  army  would  be  still  more  hazardous.  A  council  of  war  was  called,  at  which 
the  bold  design  was  adopted  of  getting  into  the  rear  of  the  English,  falling 
upon  their  magazines  at  Brunswick,  and  carrying  the  war  again  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Philadelphia  into  the  mountainous  interior  of  New  Jersey. 

Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  The  superfluous  baggage  was  sent  down 
the  river  to  Burlington,  the  watch-fires  were  kept  up,  the  patrols  ordered  to 
go  their  rounds,  and,  still  further  to  deceive  the  enemy,  parties  sent  out  to 
labour  at  the  intrenchments  within  hearing  of  their  sentinels.  About  mid- 
night the  army  silently  defiled  from  the  camp,  and  marched  off  in  a  circuit- 
ous and  difficult  road  towards  Princeton. 

It  was  a  brilliant  winter  morning  when  they  drew  near  that  town,  and 
General  Mercer  was  sent  forward  by  a  by-road  to  seize  a  bridge  at  Worth's 
mills,  so  as  to  cut  off  any  fugitives,  and  also  check  any  pursuit  on  the  part  of 
Cornwallis.  Three  British  regiments,  destined  to  reinforce  the  latter,  had 
passed  the  night  in  Princeton,  and  two  of  them,  the  17th  and  40th,  under 
Colonel  Mawhood,  had  already  set  out,  when  they  suddenly  came  in  sigl.it  of  the 
approaching  Americans,  with  whom  they  were  almost  immediately  in  action. 
The  Americans,  posted  behind  a  fence,  poured  in  a  heavy  and  well-directed 
volley,  after  receiving  which,  the  British,  with  fixed  bayonets,  charged  them 
with  such  impetuosity,  that  abandoning  their  shelter  they  broke  and  fled  pre- 
cipitately, closely  pursued  by  their  victorious  enemies.  Both  fugitives  and 
•  pursuers,  however,  were  suddenly  arrested  by  the  sight  of  the  troops  under 

Washington,  who,  beholding  the  rout,  hastened  on,  colours  in  hand,  to  rally 
the  discomfited  Americans.  At  no  time  in  his  life,  perhaps,  was  he  exposed 
to  more  imminent  hazard.  The  Americans  immediately  rallied,  the  English 
re-formed  their  line,  both  levelled  their  guns  and  prepared  to  fire,  while 
Washington,  whose  ardour  had  hurried  him  forward  into  a  most  perilous  pre- 
dicament, stood  like  a  mark  for  the  bullets  of  both.      Fitzgerald,  his  aide- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  415 

de-camp,  dropped  the  reins  upon  his  horse's  neck,  and  shuddering,  drew  chap. 
his  hat  over  his  face,  that  he  might  not  see  his  leader  die.  A  tremendous  — - — — •• 
volley  was  heard,  then  a  shout  of  triumph,  and  when  the  trembling  officer 
ventured  to  look  up,  the  form  of  Washington  was  dimly  seen  amidst  the 
rolling  smoke,  urging  forward  his  men  to  attack  the  enemy.  Fitzgerald 
burst  into  tears,  and  putting  spurs  to  his  horse,  dashed  after  his  beloved  com- 
mander. The  British,  however,  did  not  await  the  onset.  Mawhood,  already 
severely  handled  and  seeing  reinforcements  about  to  come  up,  abandoned  his 
artillery,  wheeled  off,  and  regaining  the  Trenton  road,  continued  his  march 
to  join  Cornwallis  without  any  further  molestation. 

"Washington  now  advanced  to  Princeton,  encountering  in  his  way  the 
British  55th,  which  after  a  brave  resistance,  finding  it  impossible  to  follow 
the  17th,  retreated  in  the  direction  of  Brunswick,  accompanied  by  the  40th, 
which  had  been  but  very  partially  engaged.  On  entering  Princeton  a  part 
of  this  regiment  was  found  to  be  in  occupation  of  the  college,  who  made  some 
show  of  resistance,  but  on  cannon  being  brought  up,  and  the  door  of  the 
building  forced  in,  they  were  obliged  to  surrender  themselves  prisoners. 

In  this  battle  the  Americans  had  to  deplore  the  loss  of  the  gallant  General 
Mercer,  an  officer  much  beloved  by  the  army  and  Washington,  with  whom 
he  had  served  in  the  American  and  French  wars.  Dismounting  from  his 
horse  to  rally  his  broken  column,  he  was  struck  down  by  a  blow  from  a 
musket,  and  the  enemy,  mistaking  him  for  Washington,  exclaimed,  "  The 
rebel  general  is  taken ! "  Several  soldiers  pushed  forward,  exclaiming,  "  Call 
for  quarter,  you  d — d  rebel."  "  I  am  no  rebel,"  cried  Mercer,  endeavouring 
to  defend  himself  with  his  sword  ;  upon  which  he  was  instantly  pierced  with 
several  bayonets,  and  left,  as  the  soldiers  imagined,  in  the  agonies  of  death. 
He  was  carried  off  the  field  to  a  neighbouring  house,  where  he  lingered  for 
some  days  in  extreme  suffering.  As  soon  as  Washington  received  the  news, 
he  despatched  a  flag  to  Cornwallis  by  the  hands  of  his  nephew  Captain  Lewis, 
requesting  that  the  latter  might  remain  with  the  sinking  hero  till  he  died,  a 
request  which  was  immediately  granted.  His  body  was  transported  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  now  reposes  in  the  beautiful  cemetery  at  Laurel  Hill. 

Short  time  was  given  to  Washington  to  profit  by  this  success  at  Princeton. 
It  is  said  that  Lord  Erskine  had  urged  Cornwallis  the  evening  before  to  attack 
the  Americans  at  once,  lest  Washington  should  escape  him  in  the  night,  but 
this  he  believed  to  be  impossible.  Next  morning  the  distant  sound  of  artil- 
lery, and  the  empty  intrenchments  in  front  of  him,  proved  but  too  plainly 
that  Erskine's  prognostications  were  realized.  The  English  general  was  in- 
stantly in  motion,  and  as  the  Americans  were  ready  to  leave  Princeton,  was 
close  upon  their  traces.  Worn  out  with  a  night  march  and  a  hard- 
fought  battle,  famished  with  hunger,  some  barefoot  and  bleeding,  and  all 
miserably  provided  with  necessaries,  they  were  in  no  condition  to  await  his 
approach.  Aware  that  Cornwallis  would  immediately  follow  him,  Washing- 
ton detached  a  party  to  break  down  the  before-mentioned  bridge  at  Worth's 
mills,  and  they  had  partly  succeeded  in  demolishing  it,  when  the  British 


A.  D.  1777. 


416  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  came  in  sight.  They  instantly  opened  a  fire  upon  the  Americans,  who  had 
already  loosened  the  planks,  Major  Kelley,  their  leader,  continuing  to  cut 
away  a  log  on  which  they  rested,  while  the  balls  were  whistling  about  his  ears. 
At  length  it  fell  into  the  stream,  and  he  with  it,  and  was  afterwards  cap- 
tured, but  the  communication  was  effectually  stopped  for  the  present.  Corn- 
wallis  ordered  his  soldiers  to  ford  the  swollen  waters,  breast  deep  and  filled 
with  ice  ;  they  obeyed,  and  advanced  towards  Trenton,  but  kept  in  check 
by  a  battery  and  the  necessity  of  reconnoitring  the  enemy,  were  some  time 
in  reaching  the  town ;  and  when  they  did,  they  found  that  the  American 
army  had  a  second  time  escaped  their  clutches. 

Washington  pushed  on  in  the  direction  of  the  fugitive  regiments,  and 
when  three  miles  north  of  Princeton,  held  a  brief  council  on  horseback  with 
his  officers.  With  an  exhausted  and  inferior  force,  it  would  have  been  mad- 
ness to  carry  out  their  original  design  upon  the  British  stores  at  Princeton,  it 
was  well  indeed  if  they  could  even  save  the  troops.  Cornwallis  was  close 
upon  their  heels,  they  struck  into  a  by-road,  crossed  the  river  at  Kingston, 
and  breaking  down  the  bridge  after  them,  retreated,  as  fast  as  their  enfeebled 
condition  would  permit,  towards  the  hilly  country  to  the  northward.  Many 
dropped  on  the  road  from  fatigue  and  fell  asleep.  They  reached  Pluckemin 
that  evening,  and  on  the  following  day  retired  still  farther  back  to  Morris- 
town,  where  Washington  put  his  suffering  troops  into  winter  quarters.  By  a 
brilliant  and  successful  movement,  he  had  redeemed  the  inauspicious  opening 
of  the  campaign,  and  by  his  mingled  caution  and  daring,  had  acquired  the 
title  of  "  the  American  Fabius." 


n. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PROCEEDINGS  OP  CONGRESS. — CAMPAIGN  OP  1777. — BATTLE  OF  THE  BRANDYWINE. — OCCUPATION 
OP  PHILADELPHIA. — EXPEDITION  AND  SURRENDER  OF  BURGOYNE. — BATTLE  OP  GERMANTOWN. 
— CONWAY   CABAL. — WINTER  ENCAMPMENT   AT   VALLEY   FORGE. 

chap.  To  insure  the  triumph  of  the  Americans,  in  the  face  of  the  most  formidable 
obstacles,  three  things,  it  is  evident,  were  indispensable — first,  the  patriotic 
zeal  of  the  people ;  secondly,  the  firmness  and  ability  of  Congress ;  and 
thirdly,  that  rare  union  of  noble  qualities  which  adorned  the  commander-in- 
chief.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  that  had  any  one  of  these  conditions 
been  wanting,  the  cause  of  the  republic  must  inevitably  have  failed. 

Happily,  the  men  who  had  assumed  the  helm  of  affairs  at  this  momentous 
juncture,  were  fully  equal  to  their  task.  Having  in  vain  laboured  to  procure 
an  honourable  reconciliation  with  England,  and  taken  the  decisive  measure 


A.D.  1777. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  417 

of  renouncing  her  supremacy,  they  had  resolved  that  no  temporary  dis-  chap. 

couragements  should  induce  them  to  surrender  their  cause.     Their  spirits,  on 

the  contrary,  rose  with  the  emergency,  their  powers  were  called  forth,  and  the 
energy  and  vigour  of  their  counsels  responded  to  the  perils  which  threatened 
to  overwhelm  their  country. 

One  of  their  first  difficulties  was,  besides  organizing  a  standing  army,  to 
furnish  money  for  its  pay  and  support.  There  was  but  one  expedient  at  their 
command,  namely,  the  emissions  of  bills  of  credit ;  and  during  the  eighteen 
months  which  had  elapsed  since  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities,  they  had 
authorized  an  issue  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  Besides  this  general  bur- 
den, the  different  States  had  issued  largely  on  private  account ;  and  at  length 
it  became  obvious,  that  a  depreciation  could  no  longer  be  prevented.  Loan 
offices  were  accordingly  opened  in  the  different  States,  to  borrow  five  millions 
of  dollars,  to  be  reimbursed  in  three  years;  but  as  this  was  far  from  meeting 
the  difficulty,  Congress  were  reluctantly  obliged  to  resort  to  fresh  issues.  The 
depreciation  continued  to  increase  so  rapidly,  that  a  resolution  was  passed, 
declaring  that  their  bills  ought  to  pass  current  in  all  transactions  for  the  same 
value  in  Spanish  dollars,  and  that  all  persons  refusing  to  take  them  as  such, 
were  to  be  deemed  enemies  of  their  country,  and  rendered  liable  to  forfeitures 
and  fines.  Among  the  stringent  powers  devolved  on  Washington,  was  also 
the  enforcing  of  this  regulation.  As  the  natural  effect  of  these  measures  was 
to  bring  about  a  rise  in  prices,  measures  no  less  arbitrary,  though  justified  by 
the  necessity  of  the  moment,  were  enacted,  to  fix  the  prices  of  all  articles  re- 
quired by  the  army,  and  even  to  compel  the  traders  to  furnish  them  when 
able,  though  unwilling,  to  do  so. 

The  pressure  of  the  occasion  also  compelled  Congress  to  seek  for  support 
from  foreign  powers.  The  position  of  Great  Britain  was  at  that  time  so 
proud  and  threatening,  that  all  Europe  felt  jealous  of  her  increasing  influence, 
and  secretly  desired  her  humiliation.  Especially  did  France,  her  hereditary 
enemy,  stung  by  the  recent  loss  of  her  Canada,  labour  to  promote  dissension 
between  the  Americans  and  their  rulers.  Franklin  had  observed,  when  at 
London,  "  that  this  intriguing  nation  would  like  to  blow  the  coals  of  discord, 
but  he  hoped  no  occasion  would  be  offered  them."  The  case,  however,  was 
now  widely  different,  and  the  secret  offers  of  the  French  were  eagerly  re- 
sponded to  by  Congress.  During  November,  1775,  at  Philadelphia,  they  were 
told  that  a  foreigner  was  desirous  of  obtaining  a  private  conference.  The 
application  remained  for  some  time  unnoticed ;  but  at  length  a  committee, 
consisting  of  John  Jay,  Jefferson,  and  Franklin,  was  appointed  to  receive  his 
communications.  The  agent,  an  old  French  officer,  told  them  that  the  king 
of  France  rejoiced  at  their  exertions  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  that  he  wished 
them  success,  and  when  circumstances  permitted,  would  openly  espouse  their 
cause.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  if  you  want  arms,  you  shall  have  them ; 
if  you  want  ammunition,  you  shall  have  it ;  if  you  want  money,  you  shall 
have  it."  Observing  that  these  assurances  were  most  important,  the  com- 
mittee then  sought  to  obtain  some  more  definite  authority  for  them ;  but  this 

3  H 


418  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    the  old  agent  evaded,  by  drawing  his  hand  across  his  throat,  with  the  ex- 
— — -  pressive  addition,  "  Gentlemen,  I  shall  take  care  of  my  head ! "    After  this 
'  meeting  he  disappeared ;  but  the  hint  was  not  lost  upon  his  auditors.      It 
was  evident  that  Louis,  while  anxious  to  promote  the  cause  of  the  colonists, 
wished  to  avoid  committing  himself  to  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  until  it  had 
been  proved  that  their  resolution  was  to  be  depended  upon. 
^Arthur  Lee,  who  still  remained  at  London,  occupied  in  watching  the  move- 
ments of  the  English,  entered  into  relations  with  the   French  ambassador, 
soon  after  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities.     Through  their  contrivance,  Ver- 
gennes,  the  French  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  had  sent  Beaumarchais,  the 
celebrated  dramatist,  to  concert  a  plan  for  surreptitiously  forwarding  supplies 
of  arms  and  stores  to  America,  under  the  disguise  of  a  fictitious  trading  firm. 
Shortly  afterwards,  Silas  Deane  was  sent  over  to  Paris,  ostensibly  as  a  private 
merchant,  but  in  reality  as  political  agent.     Congress  having  at  length  re- 
solved upon  a  treaty  with  foreign  powers,  with  whom  their  commercial  rela- 
tions, no  longer  under  the  restrictions  of  dependency  on  Great  Britain,  were 
every  day  becoming  more  important,  it  was  determined  to  appoint  Franklin, 
Deane,  and  Jefferson,  as  commissioners  to  the  French  court.     Jefferson  being 
prevented  from  accepting  the  post,  Lee  was  appointed  his  substitute.    Frank- 
lin went  over  in  the  Reprisal,  the  first  American  frigate  that  had  2ver  ap- 
peared on  the  shores  of  Europe,  and  was  soon  joined  by  Lee  from  London. 
Though  not  openly  accredited  by  the  French  government,  they  were  treated 
with  distinction,  and  privately  supplied  with  funds  for  the  purchase  of  arms  and 
military  stores.     Some  of  these  were  intercepted  by  the  British  cruisers,  but 
others  arrived  at  their  destination,  and  were  found  to  be  a  very  seasonable  relief. 
The  scientific  reputation,  benevolent  temper,  and  venerable  appearance  of 
Franklin,  attracted  genuine  regard,  and  he  became  the  object  of  universal 
attention.     Much  enthusiasm  was  awakened  among  the  young  and  ardent  in 
France,  and  throughout  Europe,  for  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  and  gallant 
Americans,  and  many  prepared  to  go  over  to  their  assistance,  some  merely 
military  adventurers  in  quest  of  pay  and  promotion,  but  others  animated  by 
an  enthusiastic  love  of  freedom.     Such  was  Thaddeus  Kosciusko,  of  a  noble 
Polish  family,  who  had  received  a  military  education,  and  becoming   ac- 
quainted with  Franklin  at  Paris,  went  over  to  America  with  a  recommenda- 
tion from  him  to  General  Washington. 

On  his  arrival  he  repaired  to  the  commander-in-chief,  who  inquired  his 
object.  "  I  come,"  he  said,  "  to  fight  as  a  volunteer  for  American  independ- 
ence." "  What  can  you  do?  "  said  Washington.  "  Try  me,"  was  the  simple 
reply ;  and  the  general,  delighted  with  him,  appointed  him  one  of  his  aides. 
He  afterwards  obtained  the  grade  of  Colonel  of  Engineers,  and  rendered  im- 
portant service  in  fortifying  West  Point,  in  the  Hudson  Highlands,  where  a 
monument  has  been  erected  to  his  memory.  After  the  revolutionary  war  he 
returned  to  fight  the  battles  of  his  own  country,  and  was  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Russians.  The  emperor,  eager  to  obtain  the  services  of  such  a  hero,  offered 
him  his  own  sword,  which  he  returned  with  the  saying,  "  I  no  longer  need  a 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  419 

sword,  since  I  have  no  longer  a  country  to  defend."      A  no  less  illustrious   c  it  a  i*. 
volunteer  was  the  youthful  Marquis  de  La  Fayette,  afterwards  so  conspicu- 


ous and  disinterested  an  actor  in  two  successive  revolutions.  *  Fired,  at  the 
age  of  nineteen,  with  the  story  of  Ameri-can  resistance  to  British  oppression, 
he  left  a  young  wife  to  whom  he  was  tenderly  attached,  and,  spite  of  the 
prohibition  of  the  French  ministry,  anxious  to  avoid  openly  assisting  the 
Americans,  he  purchased  a  vessel,  and,  with  a  chosen  body  of  military  com- 
rades, reached  America  in  safety,  and  presented  his  credentials  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Foreign  Affairs.  Owing  to  the  numerous  applications  for  employ- 
ment, he  received  at  first  a  very  discouraging  answer  ;  but  when  he 
expressed  his  desire  to  serve  as  a  volunteer,  and  receive  no  pay,  his  claims 
were  admitted,  and  he  shortly  afterwards  received  the  grade  of  major-general. 
He  was  at  once  received  into  unrestrained  intimacy  by  Washington,  who 
desired  him  to  consider  the  head-quarters  as  his  home,  and  the  friendship 
thus  founded  endured  without  interruption  until  death. 

The  winter  passed  away  at  Morristown  amidst  considerable  privation  on 
the  part  of  the  American  army,  and  anxious  care  and  continual  correspond- 
ence on  the  part  of  Washington.  The  recruiting  made  but  slow  progress, 
and  the  organization  of  the  new  army  was  a  work  of  difficulty.  There  was 
a  great  deficiency  of  stores,  and  to  crown  all,  the  small  pox  broke  out  in  the 
camp.  It  was  imperatively  necessary  to  stimulate  the  different  States  to  the 
performance  of  their  respective  duties,  and  to  reconcile  the  jarring  claims  of 
candidates  for  precedence.  Many  of  the  States  had  either  sent  in  their  con- 
tingents without  making  the  necessary  appointments,  or  had  made  them 
with  so  little  judgment  that  their  rectification  became  indispensable.  It  re- 
quired the  utmost  tact  on  the  part  of  Washington  to  exercise  the  absolute 
powers  invested  in  him,  in  such  a  manner  as  at  once  to  strengthen  the  public 
service  and  conciliate  the  feelings  of  the  numerous  aspirants. 

Meanwhile  the  state  of  the  country,  and  more  especially  of  the  seat  of  war, 
now  became  daily  more  distracted.  When  the  British  had  triumphed  in  New 
Jersey,  many,  as  before  said,  had  taken  the  oaths  of  allegiance  in  the  hope  of 
escaping  the  miseries  of  civil  war.  They  had  been  bitterly  deceived  in  this 
expectation.  The  Hessians,  it  was  found,  overran  the  country  like  a  con- 
quered province,  plunder  and  outrages  of  the  worst  description  became  com- 
mon, female  virtue  was  exposed  to  insult,  and  in  these  excesses  but  little  dif- 
ference was  made  between  friend  and  foe.  It  was  not  in  the  power  of  Howe 
altogether  to  repress  this  military  licence  on  the  part  of  his  German  allies,  and 
it  soon  worked  a  powerful  reaction  in  favour  of  the  republican  cause  among 
those  who  had  at  first  hesitated  or  refused  to  embrace  it.  Stung  to  madness 
by  these  outrages,  the  farmers  combined  with  Washington's  troops  to  harass 
the  royal  army,  make  prisoners  of  detached  bodies,  cut  off  their  supplies,  and 
to  expel  them  from  the  open  country,  so  that  they  were  now  little  better  than 
prisoners  where  they  had  so  recently  found  themselves  conquerors.  Nor 
were  the  royal  mercenaries  alone  to  blame  in  this  respect.  Taking  advantage 
of  party  excitement  and  the  growing  disorganization,  many  of  Washington's 

2  h  2 


A.  D.  1777. 


4£0  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  troops  indulged  in  similar  licence  at  the  expense  of  parties  who  had  observed 
a  peaceful  neutrality,  and  "Washington  had  repeatedly  to  issue  the  most 
stringent  ordeVs  "  against  the  infamous  practice  of  plundering  the  inhabitants 
under  pretence  that  they  are  Tories."  Neutrality,  however,  was  no  longer 
possible.  In  reply  to  Howe's  proclamation  requiring  allegiance  to  the  king, 
Washington  now  issued  a  counter  one,  commanding  "  all  persons  who  had  re- 
ceived protections  from  the  British  commissioners,  either  to  give  them  up  and 
swear  allegiance  at  all  hazards  to  the  United  States,  or  in  thirty  days  to 
withdraw  themselves  and  their  families  within  the  enemy's  lines."  Ow- 
ing to  thi3  arbitrary  order,  which  excited  murmurs  from  the  New  Jersey 
legislature,  and  which  political  necessity  could  alone  justify,  the  neutral  were 
forced  to  choose  a  side  ;  exposed,  should  they  embrace  the  popular  cause,  to 
the  outrages  of  the  British,  and  if  they  preferred  the  British,  to  reprisals  on 
the  part  of  their  own  countrymen.  Moreover,  by  a  recommendation  of 
Livingston,  the  state  legislature  of  New  Jersey  decreed  that  the  estates  of  all 
such  refugees  as  did  not  return  within  a  limited  period,  were  to  be  confiscated. 
Thus  were  the  most  moderate  compelled  to  become  partisans,  while  mutual 
animosity  was  inflamed  to  the  highest  pitch. 

We  are  here  called  upon  to  distinguish  a  second  time  between  that  class  of 
Tories,  who  from  principle  adhered,  though  passively,  to  the  cause  of  the 
mother  country,  and  were  unwilling,  till  compelled,  or  ill-treated,  to  take 
part  in  the  quarrel,  and  that  more  active  body  who,  regarding  the  republicans 
as  rebels,  pursued  them  with  the  most  implacable  and  vindictive  animosity. 
It  was  by  these  men,  rather  than  the  British  themselves,  that  the  prisoners  in 
New  York,  shut  up  in  convict  ships,  were  treated  with  the  most  unfeeling 
cruelty,  against  which  Washington  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  protest,  and  in 
which  Howe  strenuously  denied  any  wilful  participation. 

The  most  indefatigable  of  the  latter  class  was  Tryon,  the  governor  of  New 
York,  who  had  been  appointed  major-general  in  the  British  service.  As 
soon  as  the  spring  was  sufficiently  advanced,  he  was  intrusted  with  an  expe- 
dition to  Danbury,  an  inland  town  in  Connecticut,  to  destroy  a  quantity  of 
provisions  which  had  been  there  collected  for  the  use  of  the  American  army. 
Landing  between  Fairfield  and  Norwalk,  he  reached  the  place  without  op- 
position, and  succeeded  in  entirely  effecting  his  object,  after  which  he  endea- 
voured to  make  good  his  retreat.  General  Wooster  however  intercepted  him 
with  a  corps  of  militia,  and  while  encouraging  his  men,  in  a  narrow  pass, 
"  not  to  mind  the  random  firing  of  the  enemy,"  fell  mortally  wounded  with  a 
chance  bullet.  Here  was  another  opportunity  for  the  impetuous  Arnold, 
who  happened  to  be  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  repairing  to  the  scene  of 
action,  blockaded  the  road,  and  with  two  hundred  men  confronted  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  as  many  thousand,  till  his  horse  was  shot  dead  under  him. 
The  Americans,  seeing  their  leader  fallen,  took  to  their  heels,  and  a  Tory 
rushing  up  to  the  prostrate  Arnold  with  his  bayonet  exclaimed,  "  Surren- 
der !  you  are  my  prisoner."  "  Not  yet,"  exclaimed  Arnold,  as  he  started 
to  his  feet,  shot  dead  his  assailant,  escaped  amidst  a  shower  of  bullets,  and 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  421 

hurried  forward  to  animate  another  bcdy  of  militia  by  his  example.   In  so  doing,  c  ha  p. 
a  second  horse  was  shot  under  him,  but  Tryon  with  difficulty  succeeded  in  get-  — - — — 
ting  back  to  his  ships.    The  gallantry  of  Arnold  was  justly  appreciated,  and  a 
horse,  handsomely  caparisoned,  was  presented  to  him  by  order  of  Congress. 

If  "Washington  at  this  period  had  to  struggle  with  complicated  difficulties, 
neither  was  the  British  general  exempt  from  them.  He  had  been  unable  to 
terminate  the  war  in  a  single  campaign,  and  his  requisitions  to  the  ministry 
at  home  for  reinforcements  were  but  tardily  responded  to.  The  ministers 
had  all  along  laboured  under  an  illusion,  that  the  partisans  of  the  royal 
cause  were  far  more  numerous  and  influential  than  they  proved  to  be,  and 
would  enlist  in  considerable  numbers.  The  vigorous  measures  of  Congress 
had  however  intimidated  them,  and  but  few  came  forward  and  enrolled  them- 
selves in  the  ranks.  Supplies  too  of  all  kinds,  in  a  hostile  country,  must  be 
derived  from  England  at  vast  expense  and  with  very  considerable  delay. 
Owing  to  these  difficulties,  Howe  had  been  compelled  to  remain  almost  inac- 
tive, and  to  contract  his  operations  until  further  succour  should  arrive.  All 
that  he  was  able  to  accomplish  was  the  sending  out  one  or  two  expeditions  to 
destroy  the  American  stores. 

Of  these  a  considerable  quantity  had  been  accumulated  at  Peekskill,  a  vil- 
lage situated  on  the  Hudson  river,  just  at  the  entrance  of  the  romantic  High- 
lands, which  had  been  diligently  fortified  by  Washington,  and  as  a  post  of 
great  importance  defended  by  a  detachment  from  the  American  army.  As 
the  command  of  the  river  was  open  to  the  English,  they  were  enabled  to  suc- 
ceed in  their  enterprise  without  much  difficulty  ;  and  a  considerable  quantity 
of  stores  and  ammunition  fell  into  their  hands.  The  Americans  reciprocated 
by  seizing  a  quantity  of  provisions  deposited  by  the  British  at  Sagg  Har- 
bour, on  Long  Island,  confided  to  the  charge  of  a  schooner  with  twelve  guns 
and  a  single  company  of  infantry.  This  gallant  exploit  was  successfully 
performed  by  Lieut.-Col.  Meigs,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  Connecticut  recruits. 
These  mutual  annoyances,  together  with  desultory  skirmishes  at  the  outposts, 
ushered  in  the  momentous  campaign  of  the  year  1777. 

But  before  commencing  its  narration,  we  should  not  omit  to  notice  a  cor- 
respondence between  Washington  and  Congress,  which  strikingly  displays 
both  his  prudence  and  humanity.  Upon  the  capture  of  General  Lee,  Howe 
persisted  in  regarding  that  officer  as  a  deserter  from  the  king's  service,  al- 
though he  had  resigned  his  commission  before  joining  the  Americans,  and  on 
this  ground  subjected  him  to  an  unusual  rigour  of  treatment.  Congress  de- 
termined to  retort  by  inflicting  similar  treatment  upon  their  British  and  Hes- 
sian prisoners.  Against  a  system  so  unwise,  as  well  as  unjust,  Washington 
did  not  fail  to  remonstrate  earnestly.  "  In  point  of  policy,  he  observed,  under 
the  present  situation  of  our  affairs,  this  doctrine  cannot  be  supported.  The 
balance  of  prisoners  is  greatly  against  us,  and  a  general  regard  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  whole  should  mark  our  conduct.  Can  we  imagine,  that  our  ene- 
mies will  not  mete  the  same  punishments,  the  same  indignities,  the  same 
cruelties,  to  those  belonging  to  us  in  their  possession,  that  we  impose  on  theirs 


422 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


c  *\* p*  m  our  power  ?  Why  should  we  suppose  them  to  possess  more  humanity  than 
Ai  D  1777  we  have  ourselves  ?  Or  why  should  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  relieve  the  dis- 
tresses of  one  brave  unfortunate  man,  involve  many  more  in  the  same  calam- 
ities ? "  While  thus  opposing  the  vindictive  policy  of  Congress,  he  did  not 
fail  to  remonstrate  against  the  inhuman  treatment  of  the  American  prisoners. 
Many  of  these,  when  released  upon  exchange  from  the  crowded  and  loath- 
some jails  of  New  York,  could  scarcely  stand  from  debility,  and  died  soon 
after,  in  consequence  of  their  cruel  sufferings.  Washington  refused  to  ren- 
der back  an  equal  number  of  able-bodied  British  and  Hessians  for  these 
martyrs  to  their  country's  cause,  respecting  whom  he  observed,  "  that  though 
they  could  not,  from  their  wretched  situation,  be  deemed  proper  for  an  ex- 
change, yet  humanity  required  that  they  should  be  permitted  to  return  to 
their  countrymen." 

The  spring  was  far  advanced  before  Howe  was  in  a  position  to  open  the 
campaign,  and  Washington,  from  his  camp  at  Morristown,  anxiously  watched 
for  the  first  movements  of  the  enemy.  It  was  known  that  General  Burgoyne 
had  assumed  the  command  in  Canada,  but  as  yet  his  intentions  were  unde- 
veloped. A  quantity  of  vessels  and  pontoons,  it  was  ascertained,  was  also 
provided  at  New  York,  apparently  for  an  impending  attack  upon  Philadelphia. 
In  order  to  cover  that  city,  Washington  now  moved  down  to  a  strong  camp 
at  Middlebrook,  with  an  army  increased  to  forty-three  regiments,  but  so  im- 
perfectly filled  up  that  the  number  of  troops  was  only  about  eight  thousand. 

It  was  not  till  the  middle  of  June  that  Howe  marched  out  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, ostensibly  to  attack  Philadelphia,  but  in  reality,  if  possible,  to  draw 
Washington  from  his  defences,  and  bring  on  a  general  engagement,  which 
his  opponent  was  equally  anxious  to  avoid.  With  this  view  he  artfully  made 
a  retrograde  movement  towards  Amboy,  which  drew  down  Washington  from 
the  high  ground  as  far  as  Quibbletown,  when  Howe,  as  suddenly  turning 
round,  endeavoured  to  cut  him  off  from  the  hills ;  but  his  wary  adversary 
made  good  his  retreat  to  Middlebrook.  Foiled  in  this  object,  Howe  retired 
to  Staten  Island  to  meditate  a  fresh  attack. 

Information  having  reached  the  English  general  of  Burgoyne's  meditated 
expedition  from  Canada,  of  which  we  shall  presently  speak  more  fully,  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  was  left  at  New  York,  with  four  thousand  men,  in  order  to 
co-operate  with  him,  while  Howe  embarked  with  the  main  body  of  his  army, 
intending  to  attack  Philadelphia  in  another  direction.  As  Washington  soon 
received  authentic  news  that  Burgoyne  was  advancing  upon  Ticonderoga,  this 
movement  of  Howe's  occasioned  him  the  greatest  perplexity.  It  was  uncer- 
tain whether  he  meant  to  ascend  the  Hudson,  and  co-operate  with  Bur- 
goyne, to  sail  up  the  Delaware,  or  even  to  attack  Boston.  Supposing  it 
was  the  first,  Washington  advanced  towards  the  Highlands ;  but  when  the 
ships  had  been,  by  his  spies,  reported  steering  to  the  southward,  he  directed 
his  march  towards  Philadelphia.  The  fleet,  however,  instead  of  ascending 
the  Delaware,  had  been  seen  sailing  to  the  eastward,  a  movement  which  re- 
quired fresh  attention ;  finally,  it  was  again  descried  to  the  southward,  until 


A.  D. 1777. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  423 

it  was  the  general  impression  that  it  was  gone  down  to  Charleston.  During  chap. 
these  movements  and  counter-movements,  Washington  had  repaired  to  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  had  an  interview  with  Congress,  and  had  marched  down  his 
army  to  Germantown,  in  order  to  be  ready  for  any  casualty.  It  was  not  until 
the  22nd  of  August,  that  certain  information  came  in  that  the  British  ships 
had  entered  the  Chesapeake,  and  landed  the  troops  at  the  head  of  Elk  river, 
whence,  as  soon  as  his  stores  and  baggage  were  landed,  Howe  directed  his 
march  upon  Philadelphia. 

Although  inferior  even  in  numbers,  and  still  more  in  the  quality  of  his 
troops — some  of  whom  indeed  had  already  seen  some  service,  but  a  consider- 
able portion  were  raw  recruits,  but  lately  arrived  at  the  camp,  Washington  was 
well  aware  how  great  would  be  the  public  discouragement,  were  he,  after  all 
the  efforts  made  by  Congress  to  organize  an  ar,my,  to  retreat  without  offering  bat- 
tle in  defence  of  Philadelphia.     He  determined  therefore  to  do  so  at  all  events. 

After  some  preliminary  manoeuvring,  the  American  army  was  drawn  up  on 
the  heights  above  the  Brandywine,  a  small  river  falling  into  the  Delaware, 
near  Wilmington,  and  which  it  was  necessary  that  the  enemy  should  pass,  to 
continue  their  march  on  Philadelphia.  The  principal  passage  at  Chad's  Ford 
was  defended  by  General  Wayne,  having  under  him  Lincoln's  division  of 
militia ;  and  the  rest  of  the  army,  commanded  by  Washington  in  person,  ex- 
tended in  a  line  above  the  river. 

On  this  occasion,  the  English  general  determined  to  put  in  practice  the 
same  ruse  which  had  already  been  crowned  with  such  signal  success  at  the 
battle  in  Long  Island,  and  strange  to  say,  although  foreseen  by  the  enemy,  it 
proved,  through  accidental  circumstances,  a  second  time  decisive  of  victory. 

Accordingly,  when  advanced  within  seven  miles  of  the  field  of  battle, 
having  divided  his  army  into  two  columns,  he  sent  forward  one,  under 
General  Knyphausen,  by  the  direct  road  to  Chad's  Ford,  while  the  second,  led 
by  Cornwallis,  and  accompanied  by  himself,  made  a  considerable  circuit,  for 
the  purpose  of  crossing  the  river  higher  up  at  the  Forks,  where  easily  ford- 
able,  and  turning  the  right  wing  of  the  Americans.  Washington,  suspecting 
this  movement,  posted  patrols  to  guard  the  fords  and  give  notice  of  the  ene- 
my's movements.  While  anxiously  awaiting  intelligence,  the  advanced  posts 
of  Knyphausen's  division  approached  Chad's  Ford,  and  were  immediately  at- 
tacked by  General  Maxwell,  with  a  body  of  light  troops.  Though  these  were 
driven  in,  and  much  desultory  skirmishing  and  noisy  cannonading  took  place, 
with  a  view  to  distract  the  attention  of  the  Americans,  the  German  general 
still  delayed  the  passage  of  the  river,  till  he  had  ascertained  that  the  other 
party,  under  Cornwallis,  had  first  effected  it. 

Patrol  after  patrol  came  in  to  Washington,  with  the  most  perplexing  and 
contradictory  statements.  At  first,  they  reported  that  a  body  of  the  enemy 
had  been  seen  on  their  march  to  the  Forks ;  and  Sullivan,  who  commanded 
the  American  right,  was  ordered  to  cross  the  river  to  intercept  them.  This 
intelligence  was  shortly  after  contradicted,  and  the  movement  countermanded. 
At  last,  about  two  o'clock,  arrived  undoubted  news,  that  Cornwallis  had 


424  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  *iiA  ?'  rea^y  crossed  at  the  Forks,  and  was  hastily  coming  down  upon  the  American 
.  ^  ,    ■    risrht  flank.     Sullivan  was  now  immediately  detached  to  meet  him,  while 

\.  D.  1/  I  7.  °  ...  .  . 

Greene's  division,  accompanied  by  Washington,  took  up  a  central  position 
between  Chad's  Ford,  still  defended  by  Maxwell,  and  the  advancing  columns 
of  Sullivan. 

No  sooner  had  Cornwallis  come  up  with  this  latter  division,  which,  from 
the  hurry  occasioned  by  confused  and  conflicting  accounts,  had  got  but  imper- 
fectly into  line,  than  he  attacked  it  with  such  irresistible  impetuosity,  that  it 
speedily  began  to  give  way.  Some  of  the  older  troops  stood  their  ground 
manfully,  till  borne  down  by  superior  numbers  ;  but  the  new  levies  of  militia 
soon  broke  and  fled,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  their  officers.  Among  the 
latter,  Deborre,  an  old  French  general,  was  wounded  in  endeavouring  to 
rally  a  brigade  of  Maryland  troops,  which  proved  the  first  to  flinch.  Being 
afterwards  called  to  account  by  Congress,  he  retorted,  that  "  he  had  used 
every  exertion  in  his  power,  and  if  the  Americans  would  run  away,  it  was 
very  hard  to  hold  him  accountable  for  it."  The  confusion  spread  along  the 
line,  which  retired  before  their  assailants,  still  rallying  at  certain  points,  and 
covered  by  Greene's  division,  which  opened  its  ranks  to  receive  the  fugi- 
tives. Meanwhile,  being  assured  by  the  cannonading  that  Howe's  manoeuvre 
had  proved  successful,  Knyphausen  converted  his  feigned  attack  into  a  real 
one,  passed  the  ford,  drove  in  its  defenders  after  a  stout  resistance,  and 
by  his  advance  completed  the  discomfiture  of  the  Americans.  Greene'? 
division  still  continued  to  cover  the  retreat,  till  darkness  overspread  the 
scene  of  conflict,  and  probably  proved  the  salvation  of  the  fugitive  army. 
The  British  halted  upon  the  field  of  battle,  while  the  disorganized  American 
battalions  retreated  to  Chester,  and  thence  fell  back  upon  Philadelphia. 

This  was  indeed  a  severe  blow,  yet,  firm  in  the  moment  of  peril,  Congress 
appeared  to  be  nowise  disconcerted,  but  laboured  to  put  the  best  face  upon 
the  business.  The  victory  was  represented  as  being  neither  impoitant  nor 
decisive ;  and  rewards  were  distributed  to  the  most  deserving  officers.  Count 
Pulaski,  a  noble  Pole,  who  had  displayed  much  gallantry  at  the  head  of  the 
light-horse,  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  received  the 
command  of  the  cavalry.  Captain  de  Flury,  who  had  a  horse  killed]  under 
him,  received  another.  La  Fayette,  who  was  disabled  by  a  severe  wound, 
came  in  for  his  share  of  applause.  On  the  other  hand,  a  rigid  inquiry  was 
also  instituted  into  the  conduct  of  Sullivan,  who  was,  however,  honourably 
acquitted.  Foreseeing  the  necessity  of  speedily  abandoning  Philadelphia, 
Congress  also  removed  the  magazines  and  public  stores,  but  still  continued  to 
protract  their  sittings,  and  maintain  their  authority  to  the  latest  moment. 
Finally — so  far  from  showing  any  decline  of  confidence  in  Washington,  they 
invested  him  with  still  more  ample  authority  than  before.  He  was  empowered 
to  seize  upon  all  provisions  needful  for  the  sustenance  of  his  army,  paying 
for  them  in  the  public  certificates ;  and  even  to  try  by  court  martial,  and  im- 
mediately execute,  all  persons  giving  any  assistance  to  the  British,  or  furnish- 
ing them  with  provisions,  arms,  or  stores.     A  supply  of  blankets,  shoes,  and 


A.  D. 1777. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  425 

clothing,  was  also  required  from  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  before  that  city  chap. 
passed  into  the  enemy's  hands.     These  stringent  powers,  often  painful  to  insist 
upon,  were  considered  to  be  of  inevitable  necessity  in  the  face  of  an  advancing 
British  army,  and  with  the  knowledge  of  a  numerous  body  of  sympathizing 
Tories  or  hesitating  neutrals. 

Neither  did  Washington,  after  so  painful  a  reverse,  exhibit  any  diminution 
of  his  serene  self-confidence  and  persevering  steadiness,  although  the  repulse 
at  the  Brandywine  was  followed  by  fresh  disasters.  The  very  evening  after 
the  battle,  a  British  party  surprised  M'Kinley,  the  president  of  the  State,  at 
Wilmington,  and  captured  a  vessel  containing  the  public  records  and  money. 
A  more  distressing  casualty  was  the  surprise  of  General  Wayne,  who  had 
concealed  his  party  in  the  woods,  with  a  view  of  harassing  the  British  rear ; 
this  design  being  discovered  by  a  Tory  spy,  Major-General  Gray  was  despatched 
to  cut  him  off,  and  making  his  way  through  the  woods  with  silence  and  celer- 
ity, fell  suddenly  upon  his  camp  with  fixed  bayonets,  and,  with  the  loss  of  only 
eight  men,  killed,  wounded,  or  captured  three  hundred  of  the  Americans. 

As  soon  as  the  remains  of  the  army  were  refreshed  and  reorganized,  Wash- 
ington marched  out  of  Philadelphia,  and  encountering  the  advancing  British, 
about  twenty  miles  distant  from  the  city,  prepared  to  offer  them  battle  for 
the  second  time.  The  outposts  begun  the  engagement,  when  a  violent  storm 
of  rain  came  on,  which  lasted  a  whole  day  and  night,  and  prevented  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  conflict.  He  made  another  unfavourable  attempt  to  stop  the 
onward  progress  of  the  British  army,  who,  having  crossed  the  Schuylkill, 
divided  into  two  bodies,  Howe  himself  encamping  with  the  main  body  at 
German  town,  while  Cornwallis  with  a  strong  detachment  entered  Philadel- 
phia in  triumph,  where  he  was  warmly  received  by  the  numerous  partisans  of 
the  royal  cause.  On  his  approach,  Congress  retired  into  the  interior  of  Penn- 
sylvania, first  to  Lancaster,  and  afterwards  to  Yorktown,  where  they  remained 
until  the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  royal  army.  In  this  position  let 
us  leave  Washington  and  his  adversaries  for  the  present. 

Among  those  acts,  dictated  by  dire  necessity,  which  particularly  tended  to 
exasperate  the  feelings  of  the  republicans,  was  the  system  of  pillage  carried 
on  for  the  supply  of  the  royal  forces.  We  have  already  noticed  the  destruc- 
tion of  Bristol,  in  Narragansett  Bay,  by  Admiral  Wallace,  on  account  of  the 
inhabitants  refusing  to  comply  with  his  requisitions.  That  officer  continued  in 
Newport  harbour  levying  contributions  on  the  neighbourhood,  until  at  length 
expelled  by  some  batteries  erected  for  that  purpose.  Other  English  cruisers 
came  in  from  time  to  time  with  their  prizes,  but  were  compelled  to  retire  into 
the  open  sea.  From  an  early  period  in  the  war,  the  fitting  out  of  priva- 
teers was  actively  carried  on  both  here  and  in  the  other  New  England 
ports.  These  vessels  occasioned  such  immense  injury  to  English  com 
merce  that  the  rate  of  marine  insurance  rose  enormously.  They  waylaid 
richly  laden  ships  coming  from  the  West  Indies,  and  even  ventured  to  infest 
the  British  coast ;  carrying  their  prizes  into  the  ports  of  Spain  and  Holland, 
and  especially  of  France,  where  they  found  a  welcome  market.     The  losses 

3  I 


426  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  sustained  by  the  British  merchants  in  1775   and   1776,  were   estimated  at 

■ —  about  a  million  sterling.    The  British  reciprocated  by  inflicting  all  the  injury 

'  in  their  power  upon  American  commerce,  which,  removed  from  the  restric- 
tions under  which  it  formerly  laboured,  had  now  largely  extended  its  field 
of  operations. 

After  the  departure  of  the  English  ships,  Rhode  Island  remained  unmo- 
lested, until,  on  the  26th  of  December,  the  very  same  day  when  "Washington 
surprised  the  Hessians  at  Trenton,  the  English  fleet  under  Sir  Peter  Parker, 
having  on  board  the  troops  returning  from  the  unsuccessful  attack  upon 
Charleston,  made  their  appearance  in  Newport  harbour.  Two  American 
frigates,  and  several  privateers,  narrowly  succeeded  in  effecting  their  escape. 
The  troops  were  unceremoniously  quartered  on  the  inhabitants,  until  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  marched  with  the  greater  part  of  them  to  New  York,  leaving 
the  remainder  under  the  command  of  General  Prescott. 

The  occupation  of  a  hostile  country,  and  the  necessity  of  quartering  troops 
and  enforcing  supplies  from  a  reluctant  people,  always  painful  to  an  officer 
imbued  with  generous  sentiments,  ought,  one  would  think,  in  this  case  to 
have  been  rendered  still  more  so  by  the  consideration,  that  both  parties  were 
of  the  same  blood  and  religion.  But  regarding  the  citizens  as  rebels,  more- 
over being  naturally  harsh,  imperious,  and  unfeeling,  General  Prescott  took 
advantage  of  their  defenceless  situation  to  inflict  on  them  all  sorts  of  petty 
tyranny.  He  would  stop  them  in  the  streets,  and  command  them  to  take  off 
their  hats,  menacing  and  even  striking  them  if  they  refused  to  do  so.  He 
threw  men  into  prison  upon  mere  suspicion,  and  treated  their  relatives  with 
insult  and  cruelty.  The  inhabitants,  groaning  under  the  yoke  of  Prescott,  at 
length  determined  to  get  rid  of  him.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Barton,  embarking 
from  Providence,  with  a  few  stanch  confederates,  in  four  whale  boats,  passed 
with  muffled  oars  through  the  midst  of  some  British  ships,  lying  off  the  de- 
tached house  in  which  Prescott  was  quartered,  surprised  the  lieutenant,  and 
made  their  way  to  the  sleeping-room  of  the  general.  The  door  was  locked, 
but  a  powerful  negro  who  was  with  the  party,  making  use  of  his  head  as  a 
battering-ram,  dashed  it  in  at  a  single  blow.  The  general  was  then  seized,  un- 
dressed as  he  was,  swaddled  in  a  cloak,  and  marched  down  to  the  boats,  which 
reached  the  shores  unchallenged  with  the  prisoner.  Prescott  was  kept  in 
confinement  till  the  following  April,  when  he  was  exchanged  for  General 
Lee.  He  was  afterwards  restored  to  his  command,  and  amply  avenged  him- 
self for  his  mortification  by  fresh  acts  of  rapine  and  incendiarism. 

In  the  preceding  August,  during  the  absence  of  the  main  British  army 
under  Howe,  General  Sullivan  made  a  sudden  descent  upon  Staten  Island, 
surprised  two  loyalist  regiments,  and  carried  off  several  papers  of  importance. 
These  being  communicated  to  Congress,  led  to  the  arrest  of  several  of  the  lead- 
ing Quakers,  who,  with  John  Penn,  the  late  governor,  the  same  who  had  given 
testimony  against  the  Stamp  Act  in  parliament,  and  others  who  had  conscien- 
tiously refused  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  new  State  government  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, were  now  subjected  to  confinement  as  a  matter  of  political  necessity. 


A.D.  1777. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  427 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  north,  and  narrate  the  progress  and  issue  of  that  c  ha  p. 
expedition  under  Burgoyne  to  which  allusion  has  more  than  once  been  made. 
The  fruitless  efforts  that  Carleton  had  made  in  the  preceding  autumn  to  re- 
duce Ticonderoga,  and  the  concentration  of  the  American  troops  at  that  fort, 
have  been  already  narrated.  Not  apprehending  further  attack  in  that 
direction,  a  portion  of  these  regiments  had  been  withdrawn  to  the  assist- 
ance of  Washington,  and  thus  a  comparatively  small  body  were  in  gar- 
rison at  Ticonderoga,  when  it  was  menaced  with  a  sudden  and  formidable 
attack. 

During  the  progress  of  hostilities,  it  had  been  a  favourite  plan  with  the 
British  ministry  to  cut  off  the  New  England  States  from  correspondence 
with  the  central  and  southern,  and  thus,  by  preventing  a  free  communication, 
sever  as  it  were  the  link  that  bound  together  the  rebellious  and  hydra-headed 
confederacy.  In  order  to  effect  this,  a  large  force  was  to  be  sent  by  way  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  lakes,  which,  after  reducing  Ticonderoga,  was  to 
cross  the  few  miles  of  forest  intervening  between  that  fort  and  the  Hudson, 
and  take  possession  of  Albany;  while  another  body,  ascending  the  river,  and 
reducing  the  fortresses  on  the  Highlands,  would  effect  a  junction  with  the 
first.  This  plan  seemed  the  more  plausible,  inasmuch  as  it  required  no  exten- 
sive march  through  the  interior,  but,  except  a  short  interval  of  fifteen  miles, 
could  be  executed  on  both  sides  by  water  carriage  alone.  It  had  been  par- 
ticularly pressed  upon  the  attention  of  ministers  by  Lieutenant-General 
Burgoyne,  whose  knowledge  of  the  country,  and  above  all  the  importunity 
with  which  he  besieged  his  patrons,  at  length  procured  him  the  desired  ap- 
pointment. Burgoyne  was  a  natural  son  of  Lord  Bingley,  and  had  at  an  early 
period  of  his  life  been  devoted  to  a  military  career,  and  honourably  distin- 
guished himself  in  foreign  service.  He  had  obtained  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general,  had  served  in  parliament,  and  become  a  privy  councillor.  He  had 
witnessed,  though  without  sharing,  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  after 
taking  a  prominent  share  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Americans  from  Canada, 
returned  to  London  to  carry  out  his  plans  for  promotion.  Of  his  skill  and 
courage  there  was  ample  evidence,  and  animated  as  he  was  by  an  ardent  de- 
sire of  success  in  this  enterprise,  the  ministers  thought  that  its  command 
could  not  be  intrusted  to  better  hands.  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  indeed,  as  having 
displayed  consummate  conduct  and  prudence  in  the  government  of  Canada, 
possessing  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Canadians  and  Indians,  and  enjoying 
a  high  reputation  for  magnanimity  of  character  among  the  Americans  them- 
selves, might  perhaps  have  been  more  fitted  in  many  respects  than  Burgoyne, 
had  merit  and  fitness  alone  influenced  the  decision  of  ministers  ;  but  then 
Carleton  and  his  claims  were  at  a  distance,  while  Burgoyne  and  his  impor- 
tunity were  on  the  spot.  He  succeeded  in  his  designs,  however,  only  to 
prove  more  painfully  the  inconstancy  of  fortune,  and  the  danger  of  indulging 
in  that 

"  Vaulting  ambition,  which  o'erleaps  itself, 
And  falls  on  the  other  side." 

3  i  2 


CHAP. 
II. 


A  D. 1777 


428  HISTORY   OF  AMERICA. 

Early  in  May  Burgoyne  reached  Quebec,  where  he  devoted  himself  with 
intense  activity  to  the  completion  of  his  preparations,  a  task  in  which  he  was 
warmly  seconded  by  the  generous  Carleton,  though  the  latter,  finding  himself 
by  this  new  appointment  now  reduced  to  a  mere  civil  functionary,  felt  called 
upon  to  resign  his  government.  The  regular  troops  destined  for  this  expedi- 
tion consisted  of  about  eight  thousand  men,  including  a  body  of  rangers  under 
Colonel  St.  Leger,  destined  for  a  separate  expedition  against  Fort  Stanwix,  or 
Schuyler,  in  the  Mohawk  country.  Burgoyne  was  admirably  seconded  by 
several  able  officers,  both  English  and  German,  particularly  Generals  Fraser, 
Phillips,  Powell,  Hamilton,  Major-General  Baron  Iteidesel,  and  Brigadier- 
General  Specht.  A  large  body  of  Canadian  auxiliaries  to  act  as  pioneers  and 
scouts  was  also  attached  to  the  service  of  the  army. 

The  policy  of  also  engaging  the  Indians  as  allies  had  by  this  time  become 
rather  questionable,  their  actual  services  being  outweighed  by  the  trouble 
they  occasioned,  while,  the  cruelties  they  perpetrated  upon  their  captives  had 
reflected  disgrace,  often  undeserved  indeed,  against  their  European  or  Ame- 
rican leaders.  Indignant  remonstrance  had  been  made  in  England  against 
the  employment  of  these  ferocious  auxiliaries,  but  upon  the  plea,  that  unless 
employed  in  the  royal  cause  they  would  be  engaged  by  the  Americans,  the 
ministers  had  insisted  upon  it,  though  Carleton,  and  even  Burgoyne  himself, 
both  of  them  men  of  humane  dispositions,  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  mea- 
sure. As,  however,  the  ministerial  orders  were  positive,  Carleton  exerted 
his  powerful  influence,  and  a  considerable  body  of  Indian  warriors  were  soon 
prevailed  upon  to  embrace  the  royal  cause. 

At  length,  every  thing  being  ready,  this  fine  army,  so  well  officered,  and 
for  its  numbers  unequalled  in  appointments  and  artillery,  ascended  Lake 
Champlain  towards  Ticonderoga.  At  the  falls  of  the  Bouquet,  a  short  distance 
from  its  shores,  four  hundred  Indians,  of  the  Algonquin,  Ottawa,  and  Iro- 
quois tribes,  accompanied  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  were  assembled  to 
join  the  troops.  Here  Burgoyne  encamped  and  gave  them  a  war  feast,  and 
afterwards  addressed  the  plumed  chieftains  in  a  speech,  vainly  intended  at 
once  to  excite  their  military  ardour  and  to  restrain  their  savage  cruelties. 
"  Go  forth,"  he  said,  "  in  the  might  of  your  valour,  strike  at  the  common 
enemies  of  Great  Britain  and  America,  disturbers  of  public  order,  peace,  and 
happiness,  destroyers  of  commerce,  parricides  of  the  state."  He  praised  their 
perseverance  and  constancy,  and  patient  endurance  of  privation,  and  artfully 
flattered  them  by  saying,  that  in  these  respects  they  offered  a  model  of  imita- 
tion for  his  army.  He  then  entreated  of  them,  as  the  king's  allies,  to  regu- 
late their  own  mode  of  warfare  by  that  prescribed  to  their  civilized  brethren. 
"  I  positively  forbid,"  he  energetically  said  to  them,  "  all  bloodshed  when 
you  are  not  opposed  in  arms.  Aged  men,  women,  and  children,  must  be 
held  sacred  from  the  knife  and  hatchet  even  in  the  time  of  actual  conflict. 
You  shall  receive  compensation  for  the  prisoners  you  take,  but  you  shall  be 
called  to  account  for  scalps.  In  conformity  and  indulgence  to  your  customs, 
which  have  affixed  an  idea  of  honour  to  such  badges  of  victory,  you  shall  be 


\iH\  ■ 


A.  T>.  1777. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  429 

allowed  to  take  the  scalps  of  the  dead  when  killed  by  your  fire  and  in  fair  chap. 
opposition,  but  on  no  account,  or  pretence,  or  subtlety,  or  prevarication,  are 
they  to  be  taken  from  the  wounded  or  even  the  dying,  and  still  less  pardon- 
able, if  possible,  will  it  be  held  to  kill  men  in  that  condition  on  purpose,  and 
upon  a  supposition  that  this  protection  to  the  wounded  would  thereby  be 
evaded."  The  warriors  listened  in  respectful  silence,  and  an  old  Iroquois 
chieftain  gravely  arose.  "  I  stand  up,"  he  said,  "  in  the  name  of  all  the 
tribes  present,  to  assure  our  father  that  we  have  attentively  listened  to  his 
discourse.  We  receive  you  as  our  father,  because  when  you  speak  we  hear 
the  voice  of  our  great  father  beyond  the  great  lake.  In  proof  of  the  sin- 
cerity of  our  professions,  our  whole  villages  able  to  go  to  war  are  come  forth. 
The  old  and  infirm,  our  infants  and  wives,  alone  remain  at  home.  With  one 
common  assent  we  promise  a  constant  obedience  to  all  you  have  ordered  and 
shall  order,  and  may  the  Father  of  Days  give  you  success."  Such  were  the 
promises  of  the  Indians,  but  those  who  knew  their  nature  might  have  seen 
how  little  reliance  was  to  be  placed  upon* them.  The  thirst  of  gold,  and  the 
thirst  of  blood,  were  the  real  motives  that  drew  them  forth  from  their  forests ; 
when  the  former  could  no  longer  be  gratified,  their  fidelity  was  at  an  end, 
and  no  human  power  could  prevent  them  from  the  indulgence  of  the  latter. 

While  Burgoyne,  on  one  hand,  was  engaged  in  this  vain,  though  honour- 
able endeavour,  he  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  "  rebels,"  couched  in  the 
most  bombastic  and  grandiloquent  terms.  He  recapitulated  their  various 
crimes,  reminded  them  of  their  oppressive  treatment  of  the  Tories,  who,  on 
account  of  their  adherence  to  their  principles,  had  been  thrown  into  prison 
and  deprived  of  their  property,  or  forced  to  purchase  tranquillity  by  taking 
oaths  against  which  their  consciences  secretly  revolted.  He  had  come,  he 
said,  armed  with  irresistible  power,  to  put  down  such  outrages  ;  and  while  he 
promised  protection  to  those  who  remained  quiet,  and  payment  to  such  as 
brought  in  supplies,  he  menaced  all  such  as  should  be  found  daring  enough 
to  resist  the  terror  of  his  arms,  with  penalties  the  most  tremendous,  especially 
with  the  bloody  licence  of  those  very  savages  he  had  so  lately  endeavoured 
to  restrain.  In  this  ill-judged  manifesto,  dictated  no  doubt  by  policy,  Bur- 
goyne displayed  consummate  ignorance  of  the  American,  and  especially  the 
New  England,  character — far  more  likely  to  be  nerved  into  increased  hardihood 
and  daring  opposition,  than  terrified  by  such  inhuman  menaces.  Accord- 
ingly, they  hurled  defiance  in  his  teeth,  and  treated  his  vaunting  proclamation 
with  the  most  cutting  sarcasm.  Neither  was  it  much  better  treated  in 
England;  it  met  with  animadversion  in  parliament,  became  the  subject  of 
satirical  parody,  while  its  unlucky  author  received,  in  certain  circles,  the 
nickname  of  "  General  Swagger." 

Having  put  forth  this  manifesto,  Burgoyne  advanced  to  Crown  Point,  the 
defenders  of  which  retired  to  Ticonderoga.  The  British  army,  advancing  up 
Lake  Champlain  in  three  divisions,  one  on  each  shore,  and  the  other  by 
water,  was  soon  before  the  walls  of  that  fortress,  which  suggested  the  dis- 
astrous recollection  of  the  ill-fated  attack  of  Abercrombie,  in  which  so  many 


A..  D.  1777, 


4:80  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  0f  their  gallant  countrymen  had  fruitlessly  perished.  The  ships  were  an- 
chored out  of  gun-shot  from  the  works,  while  the  land  defences  were  closely 
invested  on  every  side. 

As  Burgoyne's  plans  had  been  so  lately  developed,  and  great  exertions  had 
been  required  to  oppose  General  Howe  in  New  Jersey,  little  attention,  com- 
paratively, had  been  paid  to  the  northern  army,  or  to  the  defence  of  Ticon- 
deroga.  General  Schuyler,  who,  as  before  said,  had  been  superseded  by 
Gates,  had  been  restored  to  his  original  appointment,  and  taken  very  much  at 
a  disadvantage,  found  himself  almost  unable  to  bring  forward  a  force  equal 
to  stay  the  progress  of  his  formidable  adversary.  General  St.  Clair,  an 
officer  of  Scottish  birth,  who  had  served  under  Wolfe,  and  embraced  the 
cause  of  the  Americans,  was  then  within  the  walls  of  Ticonderoga,  with  a 
body  of  only  two  thousand  men.  The  New  England  militia  had  been  hastily 
summoned  to  the  rescue,  and  the  garrison  might  have  been  considerably 
increased,  but  for  the  deficiency  of  necessary  stores.  Perhaps,  in  a  military 
point  of  view,  it  would  have  been  wiser  to  have  abandoned  it  altogether,  but 
for  the  discouragement  which  such  a  measure  would  have  produced  on  the 
public  mind. 

The  position  of  Ticonderoga,  naturally  strong  both  by  land  and  water, 
had  been  carefully  increased  by  art.  Besides  the  principal  fort,  on  the  point 
of  land  commanding,  on  one  hand,  the  narrow  outlet,  which,  running  up  to 
Skenesborough,  now  Whitehall,  forms  the  termination  of  Lake  Champlain ; 
and  on  the  other,  the  narrow  space  intervening  between  this  body  of  water 
and  Lake  George  ;  there  was  also  another,  occupying  a  still  stronger  position, 
on  a  neighbouring  eminence,  called  Mount  Independence.  These  works, 
however,  were  still  overlooked  by  loftier  elevations,  rugged  and  abrupt  in 
outline,  and  covered  with  unbroken  forests.  One  of  these,  in  particular,  so 
obviously  commanded  the  fort,  that  it  had  been  proposed  by  the  besiegers  to 
occupy  it ;  but  the  garrison  was  already  too  small  to  man  the  extensive  lines, 
and  all  that  St.  Clair  could  do,  was  to  hope  that  the  difficulties  of  the  ascent 
might  deter  the  British  commander  from  attempting  to  seize  it ;  and  that  he 
would  prefer  to  attack  the  fort  in  front,  where  St.  Clair  would  be  enabled  to 
offer  a  mot e  successful  resistance. 

But,  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  July,  as  the  rising  sun  lighted  up 
the  wooded  summits  of  the  mountains,  the  scarlet  regimentals  of  the  royal 
troops  were  suddenly  descried  by  the  astounded  garrison  upon  the  summit 
of  the  peak  above ;  and  further  examination  disclosed  a  train  of  artillery, 
ready  to  open  upon  the  works,  which  the  British  so  completely  commanded, 
that  not  a  single  movement  of  the  defenders  could  escape  their  prying  scru- 
tiny. The  mountain  had  been  reconnoitred  by  Lieutenant  Twiss,  the  chief 
engineer,  and  under  his  direction,  by  the  indefatigable  labour  of  the  troops, 
a  road  had  been  cut  through  the  forests  in  a  few  hours,  and  a  battery 
established,  ready  to  thunder  destruction  on  the  fort.  To  this  hill,  whence 
they  equally  defied  the  Americans  to  dislodge  them,  or  to  evade  their  own 
attack,  the  English  gave  the  name  of  "Mount  Defiance;"  while  another 


. 


A.  D. 1777, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  431 

vantage  ground,  upon  which  General  Fraser  had  established  his  corps,  re-   chap. 
ceived  the  appellation  of  "  Mount  Hope." 

At  this  alarming  crisis,  with  the  momentary  expectation  of  attack,  General 
St.  Clair  called  a  council  of  War,  at  which  it  was  agreed,  as  the  only  means  of 
saving  the  army,  to  evacuate  the  fort  as  soon  as  nightfall  should  enable  them 
to  do  so  unperceived.  This  resolution  was  concealed  from  the  troops  until 
the  moment  for  action  should  arrive. 

At  length,  when  the  twilight  had  sufficiently  closed  in,  the  order  was  given 
to  load  two  hundred  batteaux,  in  which,  covered  by  a  convoy  of  five  armed 
galleys,  with  the  munitions  and  stores,  thus  to  be  conveyed  up  the  narrow  arm 
of  the  lake  to  Skenesborough,  while  the  main  body  of  the  troops  marched  to 
the  same  spot  by  Castleton.  A  strong  boom  and  bridge  crossed  this  outlet  of 
the  lake  to  Fort  Independence,  which  was  in  the  command  of  the  Americans, 
and  thus  they  anticipated  an  undisturbed  retreat  by  water.  Every  precaution 
was  taken  tu  conceal  their  movements,  not  a  light  was  shown,  and  a  cannon- 
ade was  artfully  kept  up  in  the  direction  of  Fraser's  encampment.  Although 
it  was  a  moonlight  night,  the  distance  of  -the  objects  and  the  absence  of  fires 
prevented  the  movements  of  the  Americans  from  being  perceived ;  and  after 
much  unavoidable  delay  and  confusion,  about  three  in  the  morning,  St.  Clair 
and  the  garrison  filed  out  of  the  gates  of  Ticonderoga,  and  crossing  the  bridge 
unnoticed,  conducted  their  steps  to  Hubbardton,  flattering  themselves  that 
before  morning  dawned  they  should  have  stolen  nearly  a  day's  march  on  the 
unconscious  enemy. 

At  this  moment,  when  all  their  operations  seemed  likely  to  be  crowned  with 
success,  a  sudden  conflagration,  kindled  either  by  accident,  or  through  the 
obstinacy  of  the  commandant,  burst  forth  on  Mount  Independence,  and  cast- 
ing its  fiery  glare  over  the  lake,  the  forf,  and  the  moantains,  aroused  the  whole 
British  camp,  revealing  at  a  glance  all  that  was  on  foot,  and  striking  confusion 
into  the  ranks  of  the  fugitive  republicans.  Panic-stricken,  they  hastily  continued 
their  retreat  to  Hubbardton,  whence  the  main  body,  under  St.  Clair,  pushed 
forward  for  Castleton.  The  rear,  under  Colonel  Warner,  covering  the  re- 
treat, and  giving  time  for  any  stragglers  to  come  up,  continued  their  hasty 
advance  during  the  whole  day,  closely  pursued  by  Fraser,  who,  at  the 
first  discovery  of  their  escape,  had  hurried  after  them,  General  Reidesel  and 
Colonel  Breyman  with  the  Germans  bringing  up  the  rear  of  the  pursuit. 
Burgoyne  himself,  on  board  one  of  the  vessels,  was  eager  to  follow  and  cap- 
ture the  retreating  batteaux,  but  was  delayed  for  some  hours,  until,  by  the 
extraordinary  efforts  of  the  seamen  and  sappers,  a  passage  was  at  length  forced 
through  the  bridge  and  boom,  when  his  flotilla  passed  through  in  full  chase 
of  the  heavy-laden  boats,  upon  which  they  rapidly  gained  ground.  At  the 
same  time  a  body  of  troops  was  landed,  in  order,  by  a  shorter  passage,  to  de- 
stroy the  enemy's  works  at  Skenesborough,  and  prevent  their  escape.  About 
three  the  British  vessels  came  up  with  the  American  barges,  captured  some, 
and  burned  others,  while,  to  prevent  the  rest  from  being  of  any  service  to  their 
enemies,  the  Americans  set  them  all  on  fire,  and  fell  back  upon  Fort  Anne, 


II. 


A.  D.  1777. 


4:32  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    further  up  the  outlet,  where  Schuyler  was  concentrating  such  militia  as  he 
could  muster  to  oppose  to  the  advancing  British. 

Meanwhile  the  latter,  vigorously  keeping  up  the  pursuit,  about  five  on 
the  morning  of  the  seventh  overtook  the  American  rear-guard,  who,  in  op- 
position to  St.  Clair's  orders,  had  lingered  behind  and  posted  themselves  on 
strong  ground  in  the  vicinity  of  Hubbardton.  Fraser's  troops  were  little  more 
than  half  the  number  opposed  to  him,  but  aware  that  Reidesel  was  close 
behind,  and  fearful  lest  his  chase  should  give  him  the  slip,  he  ordered  an  im- 
mediate attack.  Warner  opposed  a  vigorous  resistance,  but  a  large  body  of 
his  militia  retreated,  and  left  him  to  sustain  the  combat  alone,  when  the  firing 
of  Reidesel's  advanced  guard  was  heard,  and  shortly  after  his  whole  force, 
drums  beating  and  colours  flying,  emerged  from  the  shades  of  the  forest;  and 
part  of  his  troops  immediately  effected  a  junction  with  the  British  line.  Fraser 
now  gave  orders  for  a  simultaneous  advance  with  the  bayonet,  which  was 
effected  with  such  resistless  impetuosity  that  the  Americans  broke  and  fled, 
sustaining  a  very  serious  loss.  St.  Clair,  upon  hearing  the  firing,  endeavoured 
to  send  back  some  assistance,  but  the  discouraged  militia  refused  to  return, 
and  the  American  general  had  no  alternative  but  to  collect  the  wrecks  of  his 
army,  and  proceed  to  Fort  Edward  to  effect  a  junction  with  Schuyler. 

Burgoyne  lost  not  a  moment  in  following  up  his  success  at  Skenesborough, 
but  despatched  a  regiment  to  effect  the  capture  of  Fort  Anne,  defended  by  a 
small  party  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Long.  This  officer  judiciously 
posted  his  troops  in  a  narrow  ravine  through  which  his  assailants  were  com- 
pelled to  pass,  and  opened  upon  them  so  severe  a  fire  in  front,  flank,  and  rear, 
that  the  British  regiments,  nearly  surrounded,  with  difficulty  escaped  to  a 
neighbouring  hill,  where  the  Americans  attacked  them  anew  with  such  vigour 
that  they  must  have  been  utterly  defeated,  had  not  the  ammunition  of  the 
assailants  given  out  at  this  critical  moment.  No  longer  being  able  to  fight, 
Long's  troops  fell  back,  and  setting  the  fort  on  fire,  also  directed  their  retreat 
to  the  head-quarters  at  Fort  Edward. 

Thus  far  the  progress  of  Burgoyne  had  been  extraordinary,  no  campaign 
was  ever  opened  in  a  more  dashing,  brilliant,  and  successful  style.  In  a  few 
daysj  and  with  hardly  any  loss,  he  had  compelled  his  adversary  to  evacu- 
ate Ticonderoga,  had  captured  upwards  of  a  hundred  pieces  of  artillery,  de- 
stroyed great  part  of  his  provisions  and  stores,  routed  the  rear  of  his  flying 
army,  driven  the  feeble  remainder  before  him,  dispirited  and  almost  starving, 
and  struck  terror  into  the  whole  surrounding  region.  Had  he  been  able  in- 
stantly to  press  forward  across  the  sixteen  miles  of  forest  that  intervened  be  - 
tween  Skenesborough  and  the  Hudson,  before  the  panic  had  subsided,  or 
Schuyler  had  found  time  to  interpose  any  obstacles  to  his  advance,  or  any 
assistance  could  have  been  sent  by  Congress,  he  would  have  entirely  succeed- 
ed in  the  object  of  his  expedition.  But  he  was  detained  some  time  waiting 
for  his  baggage,  and  that  time  was  turned  to  momentous  account  by  Schuyler. 

That  officer,  and  General  St.  Clair,  when  the  news  of  these  disastrous 
events  reached  Congress,  were  overwhelmed  with  unmerited  reproaches.    In- 


A.D.  177*. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  433 

stead  of  attributing  the  misfortune  to  the  deficiency  of  men  and  supplies,  it  c  h  a  p. 
was  at  once  assumed  that  nothing  but  the  total  want  of  military  conduct,  and 
perhaps  treachery  into  the  bargain,  could  possibly  have  occasioned  it. 
"  We  shall  never  be  able  to  defend  a  post,"  privately  wrote  John  Adams, 
now  President  of  the  Board  of  War,  "  till  we  shoot  a  general," — a  most  unge- 
nerous hint.  Even  Washington  himself,  temperate  and  candid  in  his  judg- 
ment, was  so  painfully  affected,  that  he  confessed  himself  at  a  loss  to  compre- 
hend how  such  misfortunes  could  have  happened.  But  he  overruled  a  hasty 
resolution  of  Congress,  who  talked  of  recalling  the  northern  officers,  and  in- 
stituting an  inquiry  into  their  conduct.  Schuyler  therefore,  happily  for 
his  country,  was  allowed  to  continue  in  her  service,  but  through  the  influence 
of  the  New  England  members  in  Congress  Gates  was  a  second  time  promoted 
to  the  chief  command.  Washington,  who  had  declined  personally  to  displace 
Schuyler,  suggested  that  Arnold  should  also  be  sent  to  the  scene  of  action,  in 
the  hope  that  his  sanguine  temper  and  daring  courage  might  reanimate  the 
dispirited  army.  Two  brigades  were  also  despatched  from  the  Highlands, 
and  General  Lincoln,  a  great  favourite  with  the  New  Englanders,  whose  pre- 
judices against  Schuyler  were  inveterate,  was  sent  to  assume  their  command. 

While  thus  exposed  to  detraction  and  suspected  of  treachery,  that  officer, 
whose  magnanimity  of  character,  akin  to  Washington's,  was  proof  against  all 
attack,  was  using  every  means  to  counteract  the  influence  of  Burgoyne, 
and  to  impede  his  further  advance.  The  English  general,  taking  advantage 
of  the  triumph  of  his  arms,  had  issued  another  manifesto,  calling  upon  the 
Americans  to  return  to  their  allegiance.  Schuyler  retorted  by  a  spirited 
counter -proclamation.  But,  aware  that  the  great  object  was  to  gain  time  un- 
til assistance  could  arrive,  he  laboured  incessantly  to  render  the  short  interval 
betwixt  himself  and  his  adversary  all  but  impassable.  He  declared  his  in- 
tention "  to  dispute  every  inch  of  ground  with  General  Burgoyne,  and  retard 
his  descent  into  the  country  as  long  as  possible."  With  this  view,  extra- 
ordinary pains  were  taken  to  sink  obstructions  in  Wood  Creek,  up  which 
stream  the  English  batteaux  must  pass  to  convey  provisions  towards  the 
Hudson.  But  his  principal  efforts  were  directed  to  blockading  the  road, 
a  single  line  of  cutting  through  a  region  of  unbroken  forest.  He  destroyed 
upwards  of  fifty  bridges  over  the  torrents  and  swamps,  with  which  it  was 
provided.  Where  it  was  so  hemmed  in  by  natural  obstacles,  that  no  side 
passage  was  practicable,  he  caused  huge  trees  to  be  felled  and  thrown  across 
it  with  their  branches  interlocking,  which  must  be  removed  with  infinite  toil 
and  difficulty  before  the  enemy  could  effect  a  passage.  All  the  cattle  was 
driven  off  from  the  vicinity  of  the  route. 

To  one  who  attentively  looks  into  the  details  of  the  war,  these  impediments 
thrown  into  the  way  of  Burgoyne,  will  appear  to  be  at  the  root  of  all  his  sub- 
sequent difficulties,  and  Schuyler  may  thus  fairly  take  the  credit  of  having 
paved  the  way  for  the  success  of  Gates.  Burgoyne  has  been  blamed  for  the 
slowness  of  his  movements,  but  in  the  present  instance  it  was  evidently  com- 
pulsory.  He  was  afterwards  criticised  for  not  having  at  this  junction,  instead 

3    K 


A.  D.  1777. 


434  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  of  consuming  much  time  by  forcing  his  way  from  Skenesborough  to  Fort 
Edward,  retraced  his  steps  by  water  to  Ticonderoga  and  up  Lake  George, 
and  from  thence  directed  his  march  upon  the  Hudson.  He  appears  to  have 
well  justified  himself,  by  contending  that  a  movement  apparently  retrograde 
would  have  had  the  worst  moral  effect  in  the  height  of  success ;  and,  more- 
over, that  the  Americans  would  not  have  failed  to  have  opposed  him  on  that 
route  also,  whereas  by  his  present  movement  they  had  been  compelled  to 
give  up  Fort  George  and  to  leave  the  road  open  to  his  supplies. 

However  this  may  be,  the  progress  of  his  army,  from  Skenesborough  to 
the  Hudson,  was  excessively  slow  and  toilsome.  The  soldiers,  heavily  laden 
as  they  were,  had  to  clear  the  encumbered  road  and  to  rebuild  the  bridges ; 
a  mile  a  day  was  as  much  as  they  could  accomplish  with  their  utmost  efforts. 
It  was  not  till  the  end  of  July  that  they  emerged  from  the  forests,  and, 
with  transports  of  delight,  saw  before  them  the  beautiful  river  Hudson,  the 
term,  as  they  fondly  supposed,  of  all  their  anxieties,  and  which  they  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  descend,  driving  the  Americans  before  them,  till  Albany 
fell  into  their  hands ;  and  by  effecting  a  junction  with  Clinton,  accomplish 
the  objects  of  the  expedition. 

As  the  British  army  advanced,  increased  by  accessions  from  the  Tories, 
who  counted  upon  a  signal  triumph,  the  terrified  inhabitants  abandoned  their 
comfortable  homesteads  and  waving  harvests,  now  ripe  for  the  sickle,  and 
fled  from  the  path  of  the  invader.  Fort  Edward  being  untenable,  Schuyler, 
on  the  approach  of  his  enemy,  evacuated  it,  and  retired  down  the  Hudson 
as  far  as  Cohoes  Falls,  at  its  junction  with  the  Mohawk,  where  he  fortified 
some  islands,  and  in  this  strong  position,  with  his  head-quarters  at  Still- 
water, awaited  the  arrival  of  Burgoyne.  In  the  mean  time,  he  used  the 
most  indefatigable  exertion  to  induce  the  neighbouring  militia  to  repair  to 
his  assistance ;  his  wealth  and  private  influence  contributed  to  his  success, 
and  matters  around  him  were  beginning  to  assume  a  hopeful  aspect,  when 
there  arrived  the  news  of  fresh  misfortunes. 

There  was  a  small  fort,  named  after  himself,  Fort  Schuyler,  upon  the 
Upper  Mohawk,  a  military  out-post  in  this  direction,  and  commanding  the 
whole  valley  of  the  river,  down  to  its  junction  with  the  Fludson.  This  dis- 
trict, called  Tryon  county,  was  the  same  formerly  occupied  by  the  famous 
Sir  William  Johnson,  already  mentioned ;  and  when  the  revolution  broke  out, 
his  nephew,  Guy  Johnson,  a  stanch  royalist,  was  still  the  most  influential 
person  in  the  neighbourhood.  A  Mohawk  sachem,  called  Brant,  was  the 
fast  friend  and  ally  of  Johnson.  By  the  eventual  predominance  of  the  repub- 
lican influence,  Johnson  was  at  length  obliged  to  fly,  with  a  large  body  of  his 
partisans,  to  Canada,  where  his  men  were  formed  into  a  legiment,  called  the 
"  Johnson  Greens,"  and  destined  by  Burgoyne,  in  concert  with  a  company 
of  English  troops,  and  a  body  of  Indian  allies,  under  Brant,  to  effect  the  re- 
duction of  Fort  Schuyler,  garrisoned  at  that  time  by  seven  hundred  men, 
under  Colonel  Gansevoort,  including  a  regiment  commanded  by  Colonel 
Willett.     The  command  of  this  expedition  was   given  to  Lieutenant-Colonel 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


435 


St.  Leger,  who   after   reducing   the   place,  and   thereby  exciting    a  Tory  chap. 
insurrection,  was  to  descend  the  valley,  and  effect  a  junction  with  Bur-  ■ 

goyne. 

As  soon  as  the  English  had  invested  the  fort,  General  Herkimer  assem- 
bled the  republican  militia,  and  proceeded  to  the  relief  of  the  garrison,  who 
were  at  the  same  time  directed  to  make  a  sortie  and  throw  the  besiegers 
into  confusion,  of  which  movement  notice  was  to  be  given  by  a  signal  gun. 
Herkimer,  not  having  heard  the  signal,  and  aware  that  the  enemy  were 
in  force,  was  unwilling  to  precipitate  his  march;  but  the  militia,  eager 
to  press  forward,  began  to  reproach  their  leader  with  cowardice,  and  to 
insinuate  that  he  was  also  a  Tory.  Stung  with  these  reproaches,  and  warn- 
ing them  that  those  who  were  now  most  eager  to  fight,  would  be  the  first 
to  run  away,  he  gave  the  word  to  advance.  He  had  not  proceeded  far. 
before,  in  passing  a  hollow  ravine  near  Oriskany,  his  men  fell  into  an  am- 
buscade, consisting  of  Brant's  Indians  and  the  Johnson  Greens,  placed  there 
by  St.  Leger,  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  him  off.  The  vanguard,  as  had 
been  prophesied,  turned  and  fled,  but  the  brave  Herkimer  continued  to  main- 
tain a  desperate  resistance,  until  he  was  mortally  wounded  and  carried  off  the 
field.  The  encounter,  which  proved  to  be  peculiarly  ferocious  and  san- 
guinary, was  suspended  a  while  by  a  tremendous  storm;  this  had  no  sooner 
cleared  off,  than  the  signal  gun  was  heard,  giving  notice  of  the  sortie  by 
Willett,  which  proved  entirely  successful.  The  combat  now  raged  afresh, 
until  the  Tories  fled  the  field ;  but  the  republicans  had  suffered  too  severely 
to  realize  the  original  design  of  forcing  their  way  through  the  lines,  and  re- 
lieving the  garrison. 

St.  Leger,  now  confident  of  success,  sent  a  messenger  to  Burgoyne,  inform- 
ing him  that  the  fort  could  not  hold  out  much  longer.  He  issued  a  sum- 
mons to  surrender,  in  the  same  pompous  style  as  Burgoyne's  proclamation, 
with  precisely  similar  results.  An  officer  was  then  sent  with  a  flag,  and  blind- 
folded, through  the  works,  and  introduced,  in  a  lighted  apartment,  into  the 
presence  of  Gansevoort  and  Willett,  with  other  officers.  He  assured  them 
that  Albany  was  already  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  that  the  fort  must  ine- 
vitably be  taken,  and  hinted  that  he  already  found  it  very  difficult  to  restrain 
the  savage  ferocity  of  the  Indians.  Willett,  with  the  sanction  of  his  superior, 
replied  with  spirit,  "  You  come  from  a  British  colonel  to  the  commander  of 
the  garrison,  to  tell  him  that  if  he  does  not  deliver  it  up  into  the  hands  of 
your  colonel,  he  will  send  his  Indians  to  murder  our  women  and  children. 
You  will  please  to  reflect,  sir,  that  their  blood  will  be  upon  your  heads,  not 
upon  ours.  We  are  doing  our  duty,  this  garrison  is  committed  to  our  charge, 
and  we  will  take  care  of  it.  After  you  get  out  of  this,  you  may  turn  round 
and  look  at  its  outside,  but  never  expect  to  get  in  again  until  you  come  a 
prisoner.  I  consider  the  message  you  have  brought  a  degrading  one  for  a 
British  officer  to  send,  and  by  no  means  reputable  for  a  British  officer  to 
carry."  Thus  foile'd,  St.  Leger  sent  a  formal  summons  to  surrender,  which 
Gansevoort  met  with  a  peremptory  refusal.     As  no  direct  impression  could 

S  k  2 


436  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  "be  made  upon  the  fort,  the  besiegers  were  obliged  to  approach  by  sap— a  pro- 
— D  ]777  cess  necessarily  tedious. 

It  was  now  of  the  last  necessity  to  communicate  their  situation  to  Schuyler. 
Colonel  Willett,  accompanied  by  Lieutenant  Stockwell,  taking  advantage  of  a 
dark  and  stormy  night,  stole  out  of  the  fort  on  their  hands  and  knees,  crossed 
the  river,  and  eluding  the  patrols  of  the  British,  and  the  still  more  dangerous 
vicinity  of  the  Indians  at  length  reached  the  American  camp  in  safety,  and 
disclosed  the  perilous  situation  of  the  besieged. 

Schuyler,  aware  of  the  vast  importance  of  maintaining  this  post,  declared  his 
intention  of  sending  off  reinforcements,  but  what  was  his  chagrin  at  hearing 
it  whispered  among  his  officers,  that  he  intended,  no  doubt  with  treacherous 
views,  to  weaken  the  army,  then  almost  in  presence  of  that  of  Burgoyne. 
Suppressing  with  difficulty  his  indignation,  he  asked  which  of  the  generals 
would  undertake  the  task  of  relieving  the  fort,  and  Arnold  immediately  pre- 
sented himself.  But  that  officer,  fearing  that  the  force  which  Schuyler  would 
venture  to  detach  was  insufficient,  determined  to  resort  to  stratagem.  Among 
the  Tory  prisoners  was  one  Hon  Yost  Schuyler,  who  had  been  condemned  to 
death,  but  whom  Arnold  agreed  to  spare  on  consideration  of  his  implicitly 
carrying  out  his  plan.  Accordingly,  Hon  Yost,  having  made  several  holes  in 
his  coat  to  imitate  bullet-shots,  rushed  breathless  among  the  Indian  allies  of 
St.  Leger,  and  informed  them  that  he  had  just  escaped  in  a  battle  with  the 
Americans,  who  were  advancing  on  them  with  the  utmost  celerity.  While 
pointing  to  his  gaberdine  for  proof  of  his  statement,  a  Sachem,  also  in  the  plot, 
came  in  and  confirmed  the  intelligence.  The  Indians,  already  disgusted  and 
discontented  with  the  slow  progress  of  the  siege,  prepared  for  flight,  nor  could 
all  the  entreaties  of  St.  Leger  prevail  on  them  to  delay  an  instant.  Thus,  aban- 
doned by  his  allies,  and  with  a  mere  handful  of  men,  the  English  colonel  was 
himself  obliged  to  fly,  amidst  a  scene  of  recrimination  and  panic.  The  road 
was  almost  impassable,  all  order  was  at  an  end,  and  the  Indians  indemnified 
themselves  for  their  disgust  by  killing  and  plundering  the  stragglers,  and  it 
was  with  infinite  difficulty  that  the  remainder  succeeded  in  regaining  Canada. 
Thus,  by  this  extraordinary  "  ruse  "  of  Arnold's,  the  affair,  at  first  so  pro- 
mising to  the  English,  took  at  last  a  totally  different  turn. 

Hitherto,  notwithstanding  the  delay  to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  the 
progress  of  Burgoyne  to  the  Hudson  had  been  uninterruptedly  fortunate, 
but  now  the  scene  was  suddenly  reversed.  The  loss  of  time  had  entailed  a 
proportionable  consumption  of  provisions ;  none  could  be  drawn  from  the 
surrounding  country,  and  he  was  obliged  to  obtain  the  whole  of  his  stores 
from  Lake  George.  The  distance  was  short,  but  the  road  was  abominable, 
and  with  the  utmost  efforts  that  could  be  made,  it  was  now  nearly  the  middle 
of  August,  and  the  army  had  but  four  days'  provisions  in  advance.  This  de- 
lay, which  was  becoming  intolerable,  induced  him,  contrary  to  the  advice  of 
his  most  experienced  officers,  to  attempt  a  coup  de  main,  the  failure  of  which 
proved  the  turning  point  of  his  fortunes,  and  gave  a  disastrous  character  to 
the  rest  of  the  campaign. 


ad.  i; 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  437 

At  Bennington,  a  village  about  twenty  miles  from  the  Hudson,  the  Ameri-  chap. 
cans  had  collected  a  great  quantity  of  provisions,  cattle,  and  horses,  the  cap- 
ture of  which  would  not  only  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  his  army,  but  prove 
equally  disastrous  to  the  enemy.  Skene,  a  leading  Tory,  then  in  Burgoyne's 
camp,  with  a  considerable  number  of  his  confederates,  asserted  that  the 
neighbourhood  abounded  in  loyalists,  who,  five  to  one  of  the  republicans, 
would  not  fail  to  flock  to  his  standard,  and  do  all  in  their  power  to  in- 
sure the  success  of  the  enterprise.  Burgoyne,  therefore,  detached  Colonel 
Baum,  an  able  and  experienced  officer,  with  eight  hundred  of  General  Reid- 
esel's  dragoons  on  foot,  a  body  of  Canadian  and  Indian  allies,  and  finally, 
Skene  and  his  loyalists,  to  effect  this  important  service.  He  was  instructed 
to  mount  the  dragoons,  try  the  affections  of  the  country,  complete  the  corps  of 
loyalists,  and  send  back  large  supplies  of  cattle,  horses,  and  carriages.  He 
was  then  to  scour  the  country,  terrify  the  enemy,  and  finally  effect  a  junction 
with  the  main  army  at  Albany,  where  Burgoyne  confidently  declared  he  ex- 
pected to  eat  his  Christmas  dinner. 

Meanwhile,  the  eastern  States  had  begun  to  recover  from  the  panic  in 
which  they  were  thrown  at  first  by  the  successes  of  the  royal  army,  and  had 
taken  vigorous  measures  to  oppose  its  further  progress.  Langdon,  speaker 
of  the  New  Hampshire  assembly,  in  particular,  had  animated  the  spirits  of  his 
fellow-citizens  by  a  noble  display  of  patriotism.  "  I  have,"  he  said,  "  three 
thousand  dollars  in  hard  money ;  I  will  pledge  my  plate  for  three  thousand 
more.  I  have  seventy  hogsheads  of  Tobago  rum,  which  shall  be  sold  for  the 
most  it  will  bring.  These  are  at  the  service  of  the  State.  If  we  succeed 
in  defending  our  fire-sides  and  homes  I  may  be  remunerated ;  if  we  do  not, 
the  property  will  be  of  no  value  to  me.  Our  old  friend  Stark,  who  so 
nobly  sustained  the  honour  of  our  State  at  Bunker  Hill,  may  be  safely 
intrusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  enterprise."  This  officer,  disgusted  with 
being  superseded  by  juniors,  had  left  the  service  of  Congress ; — at  the  com- 
mand of  his  native  State,  he  now  returned  to  it,  invested  however  with  an 
independent  command.  On  repairing  to  Manchester,  twenty  miles  north  of 
Bennington,  where  Colonel  Warner  was  then  recruiting  the  regiments  that 
had  been  worsted  in  the  battle  of  Hubbardton,  Stark  fell  in  with  General 
Lincoln,  who  ordered  him  to  join  Schuyler,  which  however  he  flatly  refused 
to  do.  No  doubt  he  thus  rendered  himself  guilty  of  a  breach  of  discipline, 
which  reported  to  Congress,  elicited  an  expression  of  their  displeasure ;  but 
before  it  could  arrive,  Stark,  by  his  fortunate  insubordination,  converted 
it  into  a  vote  of  thanks. 

On  the  13th  of  August  Baum  left  the  British  camp,  and  on  the  same  day 
Stark  arrived  at  Bennington.  The  progress  of  the  German  troops,  at  first 
tolerably  prosperous,  was  soon  impeded  by  the  state  of  the  roads  and  the 
weather,  and  as  soon  as  Stark  heard  of  their  approach  he  hurried  off  expresses 
to  Warner  to  join  him,  who  set  off  in  the  course  of  the  night.  After  send- 
ing forward  Colonel  Gregg  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy,  he  advanced  to  the 
rencontre  of  Baum,  who  finding  the  country  thus  rising  around  him,  halted 


438  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ci'  \  p    and  intrenched  himself  in  a  strong  position  above  the  Walloomscoik  river,  and 

." —  sent  off  an  express  to  Burgoyne,  who  instantly  despatched  Lieutenant-Colonel 

'  Breyman  with  a  strong  reinforcement. 

During  the  fifteenth,  the  rain  prevented  any  serious  movement.  The  Ger- 
mans and  English  continued  to  labour  at  their  intrenchments,  upon  which 
they  had  mounted  two  pieces  of  artillery.  The  following  day  was  bright  and 
sunny,  and  early  in  the  morning  Stark  sent  forward  two  columns  to  storm 
the  intrenchments  at  different  points,  and  when  the  firing  had  commenced, 
threw  himself  on  horseback  and  advanced  with  the  rest  of  his  troops.  As 
soon  as  the  enemy's  columns  were  seen  forming  on  the  hill-side,  he  ex- 
claimed, "  See,  men !  there  are  the  red-coats ;  we  beat  to-day,  or  Sally 
Stark's  a  widow."  The  militia  replied  to  this  appeal  by  a  tremendous 
shout;  and,  in  fine,  such  was  the  vigour  with  which  the  dragoons,  soon 
left  to  stand  the  brunt  of  the  encounter,  were  attacked,  that  after  two  hours' 
desperate  struggle  with  a  superior  force,  during  which  the  firing,  as  Stark 
said,  "  was  one  continued  clap  of  thunder,"  they  abandoned  their  intrench- 
ments and  fled  in  disorder  towards  the  river  Hudson. 

The  sound  of  musketry  struck  upon  the  ears  of  Breyman  and  his  division, 
who  hurried  forward  to  the  assistance  of  their  countrymen.  An  hour  or  two 
earlier,  and  they  might  have  given  a  different  turn  to  the  affair,  but  the  heavy 
rain  had  delayed  their  progress.  They  met  and  rallied  the  fugitives,  and  re- 
turned to  the  field  of  battle.  Stark's  troops,  who  were  engaged  in  plunder, 
were  taken  by  surprise,  and  the  victory  might  after  all  have  been  wrested 
from  their  grasp,  but  for  the  opportune  arrival  of  Warner's  division  at  the 
critical  moment.  The  Germans,  overwhelmed  with  numbers,  at  length  aban- 
doned their  baggage  and  fled.  Colonel  Baum,  their  brave  commander,  was 
killed.  Nearly  nine  hundred  and  fifty,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  were 
lost  to  the  British  army  by  this  untoward  reverse. 

On  this  occasion  the  militia  behaved  with  extraordinary  spirit,  displaying 
the  same  courage  and  determination  in  attacking  a  post  as  at  Bunker  Hill 
they  had  evinced  in  defending  one.  The  patriotic  devotion  manifested  by 
the  people,  was  unsurpassed  by  the  brightest  examples  of  antiquity.  One  old 
man  had  five  sons  in  the  engagement,  and  on  being. told  that  one  of  them 
was  unfortunate,  exclaimed,  "  What !  has  he  misbehaved  ?  Did  he  desert  his 
post  or  shrink  from  the  charge  ?  "  "  Worse  than  that,"  replied  his  informant. 
"  He  was  slain,  but  he  was  fighting  nobly."  "  Then  I  am  satisfied,"  said  the 
old  man,  "bring  him  to  me."  When  the  body  of  his  son  was  brought  in,  the 
aged  father  wiped  the  blood  from  the  wound,  and  said,  while  a  tear  glistened 
in  his  eyes,  "  This  is  the  happiest  day  of  my  life,  to  know  that  my  five  sons 
fought  bravely  for  freedom,  though  one  has  fallen  in  the  conflict."  How  vain, 
should  tales  like  these  have  reached  the  British  ministers,  must  ha-ve  appeared 
the  attempt  to  quell  such  a  people  by  an  appeal  to  arms ! 

The  moral  effect  of  this  victory,  after  the  panic  and  depression  caused  by 
Burgoyne's  continued  successes,  was  immense.  The  militia  came  forward 
cheerfully,  and  instead  of  shrinking  from  the  idea  of  meeting  the  British,  desired 


I 


A.  D. 1777, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  439 

to  be  led  against  them.  By  this  means,  and  by  the  arrival  of  the  troops  sent  chap. 
from  the  Highlands,  the  American  army  was  increasing  every  day.  It  was 
at  this  moment,  when  the  clouds  began  to  lift,  and  a  cheering  ray  burst 
forth  on  the  hitherto  discouraged  provincials,  that  Schuyler,  whose  steady 
perseverance  had  prepared  the  change,  was  superseded  by  Gates,  who,  as 
already  stated,  had,  by  the  intrigues  of  the  New  England  delegates  in  Con- 
gress, been  unjustly  appointed  in  his  place.  The  new  commander  found 
matters  all  ready  to  his  hand.  An  army  already  outnumbering  that  of  the 
British,  was  animated  with  an  enthusiasm  created  by  recent  victory.  The  bril- 
liant, impetuous  Arnold,  was  already  at  the  camp,  after  his  recent  doings  at 
Fort  Schuyler.  On  the  following  day  arrived  Morgan,  with  his  practised 
and  daring  riflemen.  Schuyler  himself  was  also  there,  remitting  nothing  of 
his  activity,  though  removed  from  the  chief  command.  Though  feeling,  to 
the  bottom  of  his  soul,  the  bitter  indignity  by  which  his  zealous  services  had 
been  repaid  by  Congress,  he  rose  superior  to  all  selfish  considerations.  He 
therefore  received  Gates  with  perfect  courtesy,  and  said  to  him, — "  I  have  done 
all  that  could  be  done,  as  far  as  the  means  were  in  my  power,  to  inspire  confidence 
in  the  soldiers  of  our  own  army,  and  I  flatter  myself  with  some  success,  but 
the  palm  of  victory  is  denied  me,  and  it  is  left  to  you,  General,  to  reap  the 
fruits  of  my  labours.  I  will  not  fail,  however,  to  second  your  views,  and  my 
devotion  to  my  country  will  cause  me  with  alacrity  to  obey  all  your  orders." 
Almost  the  first  task  that  devolved  upon  Gates,  was  a  correspondence  with 
Burgoyne  on  the  subject  of  a  recent  incident,  which  had  struck  both  armies, 
and  all  the  country  round,  with  feelings  of  the  liveliest  horror,  and  which  was 
cited,  far  and  wide,  with  lively  indignation  at  the  British  policy  of  employing 
the  savage  Indians  as  allies.  Notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  Burgoyne  and 
his  officers  to  restrain  their  propensities,  instances  of  cruelty  had  already  oc- 
curred ;  even  the  loyalists  themselves  were  alarmed  at  the  keen  thirst  for  blood 
and  plunder  which  too  often  confounded  friend  with  foe.  The  present  occa- 
sion was  peculiarly  painful.  A  young  lady  named  Jenny  M'Crea,  who  resided 
with  her  brother,  who  was  a  republican,  near  Fort  Edward,  had  a  lover  in 
the  British  camp,  in  the  person  of  a  young  officer  named  Jones.  She  was 
awaiting  his  arrival,  as  it  was  said,  at  the  house  of  a  Mrs.  McNeil,  when  a  party 
of  Burgoyne's  Indians  burst  into  the  house,  killed  and  scalped  her,  the  other 
effecting  her  escape.  This  incident  occasioned  an  indignant  and  rather  over- 
wrought remonstrance  from  the  American  commander,  and  Burgoyne,  much 
distressed,  ordered  an  inquiry  to  be  instituted.  It  was  at  first  supposed  that 
Jones  had  sent  the  two  Indians  to  bring  the  young  lady  in  safety  to  the  Brit- 
ish camp,  fearing  lest  her  brother  should  carry  her  off,  that  they  quarrelled 
about  the  reward,  and  in  a  fit  of  fury  murdered  its  subject.  The  young  officer, 
however,  who  never  recovered  from  the  shock  occasioned  by  the  loss  of  his 
betrothed,  denied  all  knowledge  of  such  a  plan,  and  the  real  truth,  brought  to 
light  by  the  inquiries  of  the  clever  author  of  the  "  Field  Book  of  the  Revolu- 
tion,* seems  to  be  singularly  different  from  the  ordinary  version.  According 
to  his  account,  when  the  Indians  burst  into  the  house  and  carried  off  the  two 


410 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


C II  A  P. 
II. 


women,  the  alarm  was  speedily  given  by  a  runaway,  and  a  party  of  Americans 
IldTiw.  were  sent  *n  Pursuit  of  the  marauders.  They  fired,  and  shot  Miss  M'Crea ; 
and  the  savages,  unable  to  convey  her  alive  to  the  British  camp,  took  off  her 
scalp  as  an  evidence  of  their  intended  capture.  When  we  bear  in  mind  Bur- 
goyne's  express  declaration  that  he  would  punish  any  Indian  who  scalped  an 
unresisting  enemy,  this  tale,  related  by  the  surviving  fugitive  herself,  now 
a  very  old  woman,  seems  far  more  conformable  with  truth.  To  the  excited 
state  of  the  public  mind,  however,  the  darkest  version  was  the  most  congenial, 
and  being  speedily  propagated  over  the  whole  country,  inspired  the  deepest 
detestation  of  an  enemy  who  could  employ,  or  even  tolerate,  such  barbarous 
and  bloody  auxiliaries. 

While  the  ardour  of  the  Americans  was  perpetually  on  the  increase, 
the  failure  of  St.  Leger's  attack  upon  Fort  Schuyler,  and  the  defection 
of  the  Indians,  with  the  disastrous  affair  at  Bennington,  spread,  on  the  other 
hand,  like  a  cloud  over  the  spirits  of  the  British  army,  so  lately  excited 
with  the  sanguine  expectation  of  triumph.  The  slow  and  toilsome  rate 
at  which  their  stores  were  conveyed  from  Lake  George,  compelled  them  to 
remain  inactive  in  front  of  an  enemy  every  hour  increasing  in  numbers  and 
spirit.  The  Indian  allies,  disgusted  with  this  tedium,  and  with  the  restraint 
imposed  upon  them,  rapidly  fell  off,  some  of  them,  indeed,  even  joining  the 
Americans.  Many  of  the  Canadians  and  loyalists  speedily  followed  their  ex- 
ample. The  Americans  too  had  made  a  vigorous  attempt  to  cut  off  the  com- 
munication with  Canada.  General  Lincoln,  with  a  body  of  militia,  after  sur- 
prising the  posts  on  Lake  George,  had  seized  Fort  Hope  and  Fort  Defiance, 
and  endeavoured,  though  in  vain,  to  recapture  Ticonderoga.  Nothing  what- 
ever had  been  heard  of  the  intended  advance  of  Clinton  up  the  Hudson.  In 
view  of  all  these  circumstances,  there  were  not  a  few  among  the  British  officers 
who  hinted  to  their  commander  that  it  might  be  more  prudent  to  retire  upon 
the  Lakes,  or  even  upon  Canada,  than  to  advance  into  a  position  from  which 
it  would  be  ruinous,  if  not  impossible,  to  retreat. 

Though  Burgoyne  could  not  be  insensible  to  the  perils  so  obviously  thick- 
ening around  him,  both  personal  honour,  and  the  express  instructions  of 
ministers,  left  him  no  alternative  but  to  push  on.  Although  no  news  of  Clin- 
ton had  been  received,  yet,  as  the  co-operation  of  that  general  formed  part  of 
the  original  plan,  it  was  hardly  to  be  imagined  he  could  have  neglected  to  do  so, 
and  every  day  might  bring  the  welcome  intelligence  of  his  approach.  With- 
out calling,  therefore,  any  further  councils,  which  might  disturb  his  resolution 
by  their  ominous  forebodings,  Burgoyne  assumed  the  entire  responsibility  of 
his  movements,  and  having  with  great  labour  collected  a  supply  of  provisions 
for  thirty  days,  he  determined  to  advance,  and  clear  the  way  before  him  to 
Albany. 

It  was  now  past  the  middle  of  September,  the  finest  season  in  America,  and 
the  scene  of  hostilities  was  admirably  fitted  to  display  its  beauties.  The  river 
Hudson  in  this  part  of  its  course,  less  majestic  than  below,  yet  still  too  broad 
and  deep  to  be  forded,  flowed  through  a  valley  bordered  by  a  chain  of  hills, 


A.  D. 1777. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  441 

intersected  with  numerous  ravines,  and  covered  with  woods  now.  dyed  in  the  chap 
most  gorgeous  autumnal  colouring  in  the  world.  The  continuity  of  the  virgin 
forest  was  broken  by  a  few  farms,  with  their  cleared  fields,  and  a  narrow  strip 
of  meadow  land  intervened  between  the  river  and  the  hills.  By  the  advice  of 
Kosciusko,  Gates  had  formed  an  intrenched  camp  upon  these  hills  at  a  spot 
above  the  river,  called  Bemis's  Heights,  occupied  by  his  right,  under  his 
own  command.  The  flat  below,  along  which  Burgoyne's  artillery  must  pass, 
was  protected  by  a  trench  and  battery,  which  served  also  to  defend  a  floating 
bridge.  The  left,  under  Arnold,  extended  along  the  wooded  heights  about 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  back  from  the  river,  and  was  covered  by  batteries 
and  redoubts.  In  this  strong  position  the  American  commander  confidently 
awaited  the  enemy. 

As  soon  as  he  had  resolved  to  advance,  Burgoyne  threw  a  bridge  across  the 
Hudson  and  crossed  with  his  army,  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  side  of 
the  river,  along  which  lay  the  direct  road  to  Albany.  Hence  proceeding 
but  slowly,  on  account  of  the  badness  of  the  road,  he  encamped  on  the  18th 
at  Wilbur's  Basin,  about  two  miles  from  the  American  camp,  which  he  pre- 
pared to  attack  upon  the  morrow. 

The  morning  was  soft  and  brilliant,  and  at  an  early  hour  the  British 
columns  were  seen  by  the  American  pickets  forming  for  battle,  amidst  the 
irregular  openings  of  the  forest,  in  a  line  nearly  parallel  with  that  of  their 
own  army.  The  heavy  artillery,  under  Phillips  and  Reidesel,  forming  the 
left  wing,  moved  slowly  along  the  river-side,  while  Burgoyne  and  Fraser  ad- 
vanced over  the  irregular  hills  at  the  head  of  the  centre  and  right.  One  or 
two  broken  ravines  interposed  between  the  opposite  lines,  and  it  was  the 
design  of  these  officers  to  pass  them  in  separate  parties,  effect  a  junction,  and 
fall  in  concert  upon  the  American  left,  under  Arnold.  This  done,  at  a  pre- 
concerted signal,  the  artillery,  under  Phillips,  was  to  advance  along  the  flat 
and  complete  the  discomfiture  of  the  republican  army. 

It  would  appear,  at  first,  to  have  been  Gates's  intention  to  remain  on  the 
defensive  within  his  lines,  but  such  a  proceeding  ill  suited  the  impetuous 
temper  of  Arnold,  who  thought  that  the  bravest,  and  even  the  most  prudent 
course,  was  to  anticipate  the  attack  of  his  adversary.  At  his  earnest  solicita- 
tion, Morgan  was  sent  out  with  his  riflemen,  and  after  a  spirited  skirmish, 
drove  back  the  Canadians  and  Indians,  who  covered  the  main  body  of  the 
English.  Fraser,  meanwhile,  was  pushing  onward  as  fast  as  the  irregular  and 
woody  ground  would  permit,  to  turn  the  American  left,  when  he  was  suddenly 
encountered  by  Arnold,  meditating  a  similar  design  on  him.  The  latter, 
with  his  accustomed  bravery,  led  his  men  with  shouts  to  the  attack,  but  was 
at  length  driven  back  by  Fraser.  Rallying  again  and  joined  by  fresh  rein- 
forcements, he  threatened  to  cut  off  his  opponent's  division  from  the  main 
body ;  but  Fraser  parried  this  design  by  bringing  up  new  regiments,  while 
Phillips  despatched  four  pieces  of  light  artillery,  under  the  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant Jones,  to  strengthen  the  point  thus  menaced.  Thus  the  conflict  was 
for  a  while  suspended,  but  about  three  o'clock  it  raged  with  increased  fury. 

S    L 


442  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  The  British,  artillery  thundered  upon  the  enemy,  but  from  the  closeness  of 
— —  the  forest  produced  but  little  effect.     Their  troops  then  advanced  with  the 

d.D.  1777.  .  ... 

'  bayonet,  driving  the  Americans  within  the  woods,  who  again  sallied  forth 
and  renewed  the  combat  with  desperate  fury,  and  thus  each  party  alternately 
bore  back  the  other — the  British  guns  being  several  times  taken  and  re- 
taken, till  the  gallant  Jones,  who  commanded  them,  at  length  fell  dead  at  his 
post.  Terrible  execution  was  done  by  the  American  riflemen,  who  climbed 
into  trees  and  picked  off  the  British  officers  ;  Burgoyne  himself  having  a  most 
narrow  escape.  Arnold,  who  during  the  day  had  behaved  with  the  most 
daring  bravery,  earnestly  entreated  Gates,  towards  evening,  to  let  him  attack 
the  British  with  fresh  troops,  in  the  hope  of  achieving  a  complete  victory,  but 
the  commander-in-chief  refused  to  run  any  further  hazard.  And  thus  night 
closed  upon  as  obstinate  an  encounter,  as,  by  the  admission  of  the  British 
generals,  they  were  ever  engaged  in.  They  still  occupied  the  field  of  battle, 
and  claimed  the  victory,  but  as  it  was  evidently  their  intention  to  force  a  pas- 
sage, their  failure  was  practically  a  defeat,  both  in  the  elation  which  it  caused 
to  the  Americans  and  the  discouragement  to  their  own  troops,  who  slept  upon  the 
field,  ready,  if  needful,  to  renew  the  engagement  on  the  following  morning.    * 

By  his  daring  bravery  in  this  affair,  Arnold  had  acquired  general  admira- 
tion, which,  however,  was  but  coldly  looked  upon  by  Gates,  who  was  offended 
with  his  forwardness,  and  feared,  perhaps,  some  unfortunate  result  of  his  im- 
pulsive ardour.  A  dispute  which  arose,  ended  in  Gates  threatening  to  take 
away  Arnold's  command ;  and  the  latter,  maddened  by  his  treatment,  request- 
ing a  pass  to  leave  the  army.  On  reflection,  however,  he  determined  to  remain 
and  act  as  a  volunteer ;  for  on  the  arrival  of  General  Lincoln  with  fresh  troops, 
Gates  gave  up  to  that  officer  the  command  of  the  right  wing,  and  himself 
assumed  the  command  of  the  left. 

This  decisive  check  convinced  Burgoyne  that  it  was  almost  hopeless 
to  force  the  American  lines,  and  that  the  road  to  Albany  was  closed  to 
him.  His  situation  now  became  exceedingly  perilous,  he  could  neither  ad* 
vance  nor  retreat  with  safety,  and  his  chance  of  escape  entirely  depended 
on  the  speedy  appearance  of  Clinton.  Repeated  messengers  had  been  de- 
spatched, but  had  been  intercepted  by  the  vigilance  of  the  American  pickets. 
At  length,  when  impatience  was  at  its  height,  a  messenger  arrived  with  a 
letter  in  cipher  from  Clinton,  informing  Burgoyne  that  about  the  20th  of  the 
month  he  intended  to  advance  up  the  Hudson  and  attack  Fort  Montgomery, 
in  the  hope  that  this  movement  might  alarm  Gates,  and  compel  him  to  retreat 
— more  than  that,  he  regretted  to  say,  was  not  in  his  power  to  promise.  Bur- 
goyne immediately  despatched  several  emissaries  by  different  ways  to  Clinton, 
exposing  his  perilous  position,  and  stating  that  his  provisions  would  only  hold 
out  until  the  12th  of  October.  The  news  of  Clinton's  intended  movement  was 
also  conveyed  to  Gates's  camp,  where  it  excited  considerable  apprehension. 

The  day  after  the  battle,  such  was  the  scarcity  of  ammunition  in  the 
American  camp,  that  hacl  Burgoyne  been  acquainted  with  it,  he  would  not 
have  failed  to  renew  the  combat,  and  might  have  obtained  a  decisive  victory. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  443 

But  the  dangerous  secret  was  kept  safely  by  Gates,  until  fresh  supplies  had   chap. 

come  in.  His  troops  were  now  every  day  increasing,  the  whole  country  around '■ — 

rising  with  spirit,  and  hemming  in,  on  all  sides,  the  British  army,  which  by 
losses  and  desertions  was  as  rapidly  falling  away. 

Burgoyne  now  proceeded  to  throw  up  intrenchments,  extending  from  the 
river  along  the  hills,  and  defended  upon  the  extreme  right  by  a  formidable  re- 
doubt. In  this  position  the  army  passed  sixteen  miserable  days.  It  had  been 
found  necessary  already  to  reduce  the  rations,  and  the  capture  by  the  Americans 
of  a  large  convoy  of  provisions  put  the  climax  to  their  distress.  It  was  now 
the  sixth  of  October,  and  on  the  twelfth  they  must  decamp.  A  council  was 
held,  at  which  it  was  decided  to  fight  rather  than  starve,  besides  which,  by  a 
successful  stroke,  they  might,  peradventure,  break  through  the  enemy's  lines, 
and  extricate  themselves  from  their  perilous  position. 

With  the  overwhelming  force  in  front  of  him,  Burgoyne  could  not  venture 
to  withdraw  more  than  fifteen  hundred  picked  men  from  his  lines,  and  with 
these  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  he  issued  forth,  partly  to  cover  a  foraging 
party,  and  also  if  possible  to  turn  the  American  left,  which,  since  the  first  bat- 
tle, had  been  considerably  strengthened.  After  some  preliminary  skirmishing, 
about  two  o'clock  the  conflict  began  in  earnest.  The  British  right  was  under 
Earl  Balcarras,  the  left  under  Major  Acland,  and  the  artillery  under  Major 
Williams,  while  Generals  Phillips  and  Reidesel  commanded  the  centre.  To 
General  Fraser  was  confided  the  charge  of  five  hundred  picked  men,  destined, 
at  the  critical  moment,  to  fall  upon  the  American  left  flank.  Gates  perceiving 
this  design,  detached  Morgan  with  his  rifle  corps  and  other  troops,  three  times 
outnumbering  Fraser's,  to  overwhelm  that  officer  at  the  same  moment  that  a 
large  force  attacked  the  British  left. 

Such  was  the  general  position  of  the  combatants,  to  follow  their  movements 
in  detail  would  convey  but  a  confused  idea  to  the  reader.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
the  conflict  between  two  armies  of  the  same  Anglo-Saxon  blood  and  sinew,  was 
waged  with  the  desperate  resolution  that  discipline  and  despair  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  the  consciousness  that  they  were  fighting  to  expel  a 
foreign  invader,  could  inflame  the  breasts  of  the  combatants.  The  British 
artillery,  from  the  broken  and  woody  nature  of  the  ground,  could  not  be  effec- 
tively brought  into  play,  and  the  contest  had  to  be  decided  by  daring  courage 
and  dogged  tenacity  alone. 

As  the  Americans  advanced  to  attack  the  British  left  artillery,  they  were 
received  with  a  crashing  storm  of  balls,  which,  however,  from  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  for  the  most  part  fell  harmless.  They  then  rushed  to  the  as- 
sault with  fury,  but  were  confronted  with  equal  determination.  Five  times 
one  of  the  pieces  was  captured  and  recaptured.  Colonel  Cilley  leaped  upon 
a  cannon,  and,  sword  in  hand,  dedicating  it  to  "  the  American  cause,"  wheeled 
it  round  upon  the  British,  an  exploit  which  inflamed  his  men  to  the  highest 
pitch.  Yet  it  was  not  until  Major  Acland  was  wounded,  and  the  captain  of 
artillery  taken  prisoner,  that  the  British  were  compelled  to  fall  back.  Morgan 
meanwhile,  with  his  fifteen  hundred  marksmen,  had  forced  Fraser  to  give  way, 

3i2 


444 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 


c  ha  p.    and  then  assailed  the  British  right,  who  were  however  rallied,  while  the  centre 

■ —  as  yet  remained  unshaken. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  when  Arnold,  no  longer  able  to  control  his 
feelings,  leaped  on  horseback,  and  though  without  a  command,  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  some  of  his  old  regiments  and  rushed  into  the  thick  of  the  battle. 
Gates,  fearing  lest  he  should  commit  some  blunder,  sent  his  aide-de-camp  in 
chase  of  him,  but  his  movements  were  so  erratic  that  he  could  not  be  over- 
taken. Waving  high  his  sabre,  and  urging  forward  his  followers  with 
shouts,  Arnold  threw  himself  with  irresistible  fury  upon  the  British  centre, 
which  was  unable  to  support  the  shock.  The  engagement  was  now  general, 
and  raged  on  all  sides  with  desperate  fury.  Fraser,  foiled  in  his  original 
design,  became  most  conspicuous  among  the  English  leaders.  As  the  line 
was  broken  he  rallied  it,  and  with  eagle-eyed  glance  adopting  a  fresh  dispo- 
sition, successfully  parried  all  the  movements  of  the  enemy.  Splendidly 
mounted,  and  in  the  full  dress  of  a  field  officer,  he  dashed  to  and  fro  amidst 
the  din  of  conflict,  the  soul  of  the  British  ranks,  and  seemed  by  his  own  pre- 
sence and  example  alone  to  uphold  their  resistance. 

The  practice  of  picking  off  the  British  officers  had  become  a  favourite  one 
with  the  Americans  ever  since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  but  it  never 
appears  to  have  led  the  former  to  shrink  from  the  discharge  of  their  duty. 
Arnold,  it  is  said,  first  suggested  to  Morgan  the  necessity  of  cutting  off  Fraser, 
and  Morgan  calling  around  a  file  of  his  riflemen,  thus  addressed  them :  "  That 
gallant  officer  is  General  Fraser,  I  admire  and  honour  him,  but  it  is  necessary 
he  should  die ;  take  your  station  amidst  that  clump  of  bushes  and  do  your 
duty."  They  clambered  into  the  trees,  and  in  a  few  moments  a  rifle-ball  cut 
the  crupper  of  the  general's  horse,  while  another  passed  through  his  horse's 
mane.  His-aide-de  camp  warned  him  that  the  enemy  were  taking  aim 
at  him,  and  urged  him  to  defeat  their  purpose  by  removing.  The  gallant 
general  was  perfectly  aware  of  it,  but  merely  replied  to  this  pressing  solicita- 
tion, "  My  duty  forbids  me  to  fly  from  danger."  The  next  moment  he  fell 
from  his  horse  mortally  wounded,  and  was  carried  off  the  field. 

Burgoyne  now  earnestly  endeavoured  to  rally  the  discouraged  English, 
overwhelmed  at  this  critical  moment  by  three  thousand  fresh  troops.  He  had 
himself  behaved  with  distinguished  courage,  and  had  several  narrow  escapes 
from  the  fate  that  had  befallen  Fraser,  one  bullet  having  passed  through  his 
hat,  and  another  his  coat.  But  all  his  efforts  were  in  vain,  the  line  gave  way, 
and  covered  by  Phillips  and  Reidesel,  retreated  tumultuously  within  their 
intrenchments,  closely  pursued  by  the  victorious  and  exulting  Americans. 

Foremost  in  the  attack  was  Arnold,  who,  intoxicated  with  success,  and 
utterly  reckless  of  danger,  seemed  determined  at  all  events  to  carry  the  in- 
trenchments that  very  night.  Foiled  in  one  direction  by  the  obstinate  resist- 
ance of  the  English,  he  galloped  off  through  the  thick  of  the  fire,  till  meeting 
another  body  of  assailants,  he  put  himself  at  their  head  and  threw  himself 
with  fury  up6n  that  part  of  the  line  defended  by  the  Germans.  His  voice 
rose  above  the  tumult  of  battle,  and  in  the  fury  of  excitement  he  struck  one  of 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  445 

his  own  officers  with  the  sword,  to  urge  him  forward.     At  length,  having   chap. 
found  the  <?ate  of  the  intrenchments,  he  burst  within,  the  panic-struck  Ger ■ — 

A  D. 1777 

mans  retreated  with  a  parting  volley  which  arrested  his  headlong  career, 
wounding  him  in  the  same  knee  which  had  already  been  shattered  at  the  battle 
of  Quebec.  As  he  was  carried  off  the  field  he  was  encountered  by  the  aide- 
de-camp  bearing  Gates's  order  for  him  to  return  to  the  camp,  but  not  before  he 
had  achieved  for  himself  a  brilliant  reputation. 

It  was  now  getting  dark — the  Germans  abandoned  the  outworks,  and  lied 
to  the  interior  of  the  camp.  Meanwhile  another  detachment  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Brooks,  had  assaulted  the  outworks  at  a  dif- 
ferent point,  defeated  the  Germans,  killed  Breymaa  their  leader,  captured 
their  baggage  and  ammunition,  and  established  themselves  within  the  lines. 
It  was  in  vain  that  Burgoyne,  who  saw  the  imminent  peril,  endeavoured  to 
dislodge  them — the  troops  were  now  fairly  exhausted,  and  night  beheld  the 
British  foiced  within  their  camp,  part  of  which  was  already  in  the  power  of  the 
Americans,  who  only  seemed  to  await  the  daylight  to  renew  a  combat,  which, 
with  their  overwhelming  numbers,  could  hardly  have  failed  to  be  decisive. 

The  miseries  of  that  night  were  long  and  painfully  remembered  by  the 
English.  As  his  present  position  was  clearly  untenable,  Burgoyne  employed 
the  hours  of  darkness  in  skilfully  transferring  his  camp  to  some  neighbouring 
heights ;  where,  with  his  back  defended  by  the  river,  he  was  placed  above 
the  fear  of  immediate  attack.  During  this  operation,  General  Fraser  was  fast 
sinking.  He  had  been  carried  to  a  house  occupied  by  Baroness  Reidesel, 
who,  amid  the  roar  of  artillery  and  musketry,  was  expecting  the  arrival  of  her 
husband  and  Generals  Burgoyne,  Phillips,  and  Fraser  to  dinner,  when  the 
latter  was  brought  in.  Other  wounded  officers  speedily  followed,  until  the 
room  of  the  baroness  and  her  children  was  turned  into  an  hospital  for  the 
dying.  During  the  night  Fraser  often  exclaimed,  "  Oh  fatal  ambition  !  Poor 
General  Burgoyne  !  Oh  my  poor  wife  !  "  He  expressed  a  wish  to  be  buried 
at  six  next  evening,  in  the  great  redoubt.  About  eight  in  the  morning  he 
expired.  Although  a  retreat  was  now  decided  on,  and  delay  was  dangerous, 
yet  the  British  commander  could  not  but  linger  a  few  hours  to  comply  with 
the  request  of  his  gallant  companion  in  arms.  '  The  day  passed  away  in 
skirmishes  with  the  enemy,  and  in  preparations  for  departure.  At  six  in  the 
evening  the  corpse  of  the  departed  general,  wrapped  in  a  sheet,  was  brought 
out,  and  the  generals  accompanied  it  in  funeral  procession  to  the  mountain,  in 
full  sight  of  both  armies.  The  English  soldiers,  by  whom  Fraser  was  greatly 
beloved,  watched  its  progress  with  heavy  hearts,  while  the  Americans,  who 
at  first  mistook  its  import,  continued  to  throw  balls  upon  the  redoubt. 
Having  reached  its  summit,  the  funeral  procession  came  to  a  halt,  and  the 
chaplain,  while  the  sand  flew  over  him,  read  through  the  impressive  burial 
service  fairly  unto  the  end.  While  the  sky  became  dark  and  lurid,  the  can- 
nonade suddenly  ceased,  and  was  replaced  by  the  solemn  booming  of  the 
minute  gun,  plaintively  echoing  among  the  surrounding  hills ;  the  tribute 
paid  by  the  Americans  to  the  memory  of  the  gallant  chief. 


A.  D.  1777. 


446  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Scarcely  had  these  obsequies  been  performed,  than  the  soldiers,  who  had 
been  under  arms  now  for  nearly  thirty-six  hours,  were  immediately  put  in 
motion.  The  sick  and  wounded  were  abandoned  to  the  mercy  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, who  treated  them  with  great  humanity.  About  nine  o'clock  the  retreat 
began.  The  evening  sky  had  threatened  a  storm,  and  before  midnight  the 
rain  began  to  fall  in  torrents,  the  darkness  was  profound,  the  road  horrible. 
At  six  in  the  morning  the  army  came  to  a  halt ;  the  soldiers,  worn  out  as  they 
were,  fell  asleep  in  their  wet  clothes — the  officers  were  little  better  off — and 
the  ladies  accompanying  the  army  were  compelled  to  submit  to  the  same  pri- 
vations, which  they  endured  with  unflagging  cheerfulness.  The  bridge  over 
the  Fishkill  Creek  was  broken  down,  and  to  cover  the  retreat,  Burgoyne 
ordered  General  Schuyler's  house  and  mills  to  be  set  on  fire.  What  with  the 
weather  and  other  drawbacks,  the  army  did  not  reach  Saratoga,  a  distance  of 
only  six  miles,  until  evening  on  the  following  day. 

To  escape  was  now  the  one  absorbing  idea,  and  no  attempt,  however 
desperate,  was  left  untried  to  accomplish  it.  But  Gates,  anticipating  the  re- 
sult, had  sent  forward  parties  to  guard  all  the  fords  of  the  Hudson,  and  had 
formed  an  encampment  in  the  rear  of  Burgoyne,  directly  in  his  path  to  Lake 
George.  A  party  was  sent  forward  to  repair  the  bridge  at  Fort  Edward, 
across  which  the  army  might  effect  their  passage  up  the  Hudson ;  but  they 
returned  with  the  disheartening  intelligence  that  the  Americans  were  already 
in  force  upon  the  opposite  side. 

At  this  crisis  occurred  an  incident,  which  had  nearly  altered  the  whole  posi- 
tion of  affairs.  Gates,  who  had  slowly  followed  up  his  enemy,  supposing  that 
the  main  body  of  the  British  troops  had  advanced  towards  Fort  Edward,  and 
that  the  rear-guard  alone  was  before  him,  had  planned  an  attack  upon  it,  which 
Burgoyne  learning,  placed  his  forces  in  ambuscade,  and  prepared  to  over- 
whelm him  with  the  entire  army.  The  American  van  was  already  advancing, 
when  a  deserter  from  the  British  camp  came  in  and  revealed  the  plot,  only  just 
in  time  to  save  the  Americans  from  a  certain  defeat.  This  disappointment 
might  well  be  considered  by  Burgoyne  "  as  one  of  the  most  adverse  strokes 
of  fortune  during  the  campaign." 

All  avenue  to  escape  was  too  evidently  closed.  Not  a  line  had  been  received 
from  Clinton.  The  scouts  had  tried  all  the  fords  and  passages,  and  found 
them  vigilantly  guarded.  An  army  of  three  times  their  number  environed  the 
English  on  three  sides,  while  their  own,  by  deaths  and  desertions,  was  reduced 
to  half  its  original  number.  The  soldiers  were  constantly  under  arms,  and  ex- 
posed to  the  balls  of  the  enemy,  which  continually  flew  into  the  camp.  The 
women  alone,  upon  whom  the  Americans  refused  to  fire,  dared  go  down  to 
the  river  to  fetch  water ;  and  thirst,  as  well  as  hunger,  began  to  distress  the 
soldiers.  Provisions  for  three  days  alone  remained,  and  there  was  not  the 
remotest  chance  of  any  further  supply.  The  men,  although  not  a  murmur 
escaped  them,  and  they  bore  their  sufferings  with  firmness,  were  exhausted 
with  their  toils  and  privations.  The  trials  of  the  officers'  wives  were  only 
eqiialled  by  the  courage  and  constancy  with  which  they  were  endured.     "  A 


A.  D.  1777. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  447 

terrible  cannonade,"  says  the  Baroness  Reidesel,  "was  commenced  by  the  chap. 
enemy  against  the  house  in  which  I  sought  to  obtain  shelter  for  myself  and 
children,  under  the  mistaken  idea  that  all  the  generals  were  in  it.  Alas  !  it 
contained  none  but  wounded  and  women.  "We  were  at  last  obliged  to  resort 
to  the  cellar  for  refuge,  and  in  one  corner  of  this  I  remained  the  whole  day,  my 
children  sleeping  on  the  earth  with  their  heads  in  my  lap,  and  in  the  same 
situation  I  passed  a  sleepless  night.  Eleven  cannon  balls  passed  through  the 
house,  and  we  could  distinctly  hear  them  roll  away.  One  poor  soldier,  who 
was  lying  on  a  table  for  the  purpose  of  having  his  leg  amputated,  was  struck 
by  a  shot,  which  carried  away  his  other ;  his  comrades  .had  left  him,  and 
when  we  went  to  his  assistance  we  found  him  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  into 
which  he  had  crept,  more  dead  than  alive,  scarcely  breathing.  My  reflections  on 
the  danger  to  which  my  husband  was  exposed  now  agonized  me  exceedingly, 
and  the  thoughts  of  my  children,  and  the  necessity  of  struggling  for  their  pre- 
servation, alone  sustained  me."  The  cellar  was  filled  with  terrified  women  and 
wounded  officers,  upon  whom  the  baroness  attended  with  devoted  zeal,  resigning 
even  her  own  food  to  relieve  their  more  pressing  wants.  One  day  her  husband 
and  General  Phillips  came  over  to  see  her,  at  the  imminent  risk  of  their  lives ; 
the  latter  declaring  as  he  went  away, "  I  would  not  for  ten  thousand  guineas 
come  again  to  this  place,  my  heart  is  almost  broken."  In  this  forlorn  situation 
they  remained  for  several  days,  until  released  by  the  cessation  of  hostilities. 

At  length,  with  feelings  of  the  bitterest  mortification,  Burgoyne  was 
obliged  to  call  a  general  council  of  his  officers.  The  American  shot 
whistled  about  the  tent  in  which  they  held  their  deliberations,  and  a  cannon- 
ball  flew  across  the  table  at  which  the  officers  were  sitting.  The  council  was 
brief  and  sad,  for  there  could  be  but  one  opinion  on  the  subject.  In  the 
evening  a  flag  was  sent  to  General  Gates,  and  ten  o'clock  on  the  following 
morning  was  fixed  upon  to  arrange  the  terms  of  a  capitulation. 

At  ten  o'clock  next  morning  the  British  adjutant-general  proceeded  to  the 
American  quarters,  and  delivered  the  following  note  :  "  After  having  fought 
you  twice,  Lieutenant- General  Burgoyne  has  waited  some  days  in  his  present 
position,  determined  to  try  a  third  conflict  against  any  force  you  could  bring 
against  him.  He  is  apprized  of  your  superiority  of  numbers,  and  the  dispo- 
sition of  your  troops  to  impede  his  supplies,  and  render  his  retreat  a  scene  of 
carnage  on  both  sides.  In  this  situation  he  is  impelled  by  humanity,  and 
thinks  himself  justified  by  established  principles  and  precedents  of  state  and 
war,  to  spare  the  lives  of  brave  men  upon  honourable  terms.  Should  Major- 
General  Gates  be  inclined  to  treat  upon  that  idea,  General  Burgoyne  would 
propose  a  cessation  of  arms  during  the  time  necessary  to  communicate  the 
preliminary  terms,  by  which  in  any  extremity  he  and  his  army  mean  to 
abide."  In  anticipation  of  this  result,  Gates  had  already  prepared  a  statement 
of  terms,  in  which  he  required  that  the  British  army  should  surrender  as  pri- 
soners of  war,  and  deposit  their  arms  in  their  own  camp.  To  these  hard 
conditions  Burgoyne  would  not  submit,  and  Gates  was  the  less  careful  to 
insist  on  them,  that  he  well  knew  the  English  succours  were  not  far  distant, 


448 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1777. 


chap,  and  that  it  was  desirable  to  conclude  the  business  withc-at  delay.  He  re- 
mitted therefore  the  most  objectionable  clauses,  and  the  following  conven- 
tion was  at  length  agreed  upon :  That  the  army  should  march  out  of  the 
camp  with  all  the  honours  of  war,  and  its  camp  artillery,  to  a  fixed  place, 
where  they  were  to  deposit  their  arms  and  leave  the  artillery ;  to  be  allowed 
a  free^  embarkation  and  passage  to  Europe,  from  Boston,  on  condition  of  their 
not  serving  again  in  America  during  the  present  war ;  the  army  not  to  be 
separated,  particularly  the  men  from  the  officers  ;  roll-carrying  and  other 
duties  of  regularity  to  be  permitted ;  the  officers  to  be  admitted  on  parole, 
and  to  wear  their  side-arms  ;  all  private  property  to  be  retained,  and  the  pub- 
lic to  be  delivered  upon  honour ;  no  baggage  to  be  searched  or  molested  ;  all 
persons,  of  whatever  country,  appertaining  to,  or  following  the  camp,  to  be 
fully  comprehended  in  the  terms  of  capitulation,  and  the  Canadians  to  be  re- 
turned to  their  own  country,  liable  to  its  conditions. 

While  Burgoyne  had  been  anxiously  looking  for  the  arrival  of  Clinton,  the 
latter  general  had  been  as  anxiously  awaiting  at  New  York  the  arrival  of 
fresh  troops  from  England  in  order  to  co-operate  with  him.  Here  occurred 
another  of  those  delays  so  fatal  to  the  British,  so  providential  to  the  American 
cause.  The  ships,  already  long  expected,  were  three  months  on  their  passage* 
and  did  not  arrive  until  the  beginning  of  October,  when  the  army  at  Sara- 
toga were  already  in  the  greatest  straits.  Without  losing  a  moment,  Clinton 
now  prepared  to  make  a  powerful  diversion. 

Between  New  York  and  Albany  the  magnificent  Hudson  traverses  a  ro- 
mantic mountain  pass,  denominated  the  Highlands,  extending  from  near  New- 
burgh  on  the  north  to  Peekskill  on  the  south,  a  distance  of  several  miles. 
The  majestic  stream,  here  compressed  into  a  narrower  bed,  flows  in  a  sinuous 
course,  between  lofty  mountains  clothed  with  wood  to  their  very  tops.  Some- 
times, descending  abruptly  into  the  water,  they  forbid  all  progress  along  its 
edge ;  at  others,  presenting  bold  promontories  and  platforms,  offer  excellent 
positions  for  defensive  works.  As  the  pass,  by  commanding  the  Hudson  and 
its  communications,  was  most  important  in  a  military  point  of  view,  it  had 
been  at  an  early  period  carefully  fortified,  and  a  detachment  of  the  army  was 
always  left  to  guard  it.  On  the  present  occasion  it  had  been  necessary  to 
withdraw  a  considerable  portion  of  the  usual  contingent,  and  thus  when 
Clinton  ascended  the  Hudson,  General  Putnam,  the  commanding  officer  then 
stationed  at  Peekskill,  could  muster  but  about  two  thousand  men  with  which 
to  oppose  his  enemy. 

Sir  Henry  Clinton,  with  five  thousand  tj  oops,  ascended  the  river  in  barges 
within  a  few  miles  of  Peekskill,  and  landing  his  troops,  appeared  to  menace 
that  place,  where  large  stores  were  usually  collected.  While  Putnam,  de- 
ceived by  this  demonstration,  was  thinking  only  how  to  defend  himself,  Clin- 
ton, leaving  part  of  his  troops  behind,  crossed  over  in  a  fog  with  a  strong 
column,  and  piloted  by  a  Tory  over  a  lofty  mountain  called  the  Dunderberg, 
suddenly  appeared  before  Ports  Montgomery  and  Clinton.  These  forts, 
near  the  southern  entrance  of  the  Highlands  and  on  the  western  shore,  stood 


A.D.im. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  449 

close  together  on  two  bold  eminences  above  the  river,  and  with  another  called  chap. 
Fort  Independence,  a  little  lower  down  on  the  eastern  side.  A  strong  boom 
thrown  across  the  river,  and  some  frigates  and  sloops  stationed  on  the 
further  side  of  it,  completed  the  southern  defences  of  this  pass.  Further  up 
to  the  north  was  Fort  Constitution,  where  a  second  boom  crossed  the  river. 
Through  all  these  obstacles  it  was  necessary  to  force  a  passage  in  order  to 
send  help  to  Burgoyne. 

Meanwhile  the  British  advanced  rapidly,  and  Governor  Clinton,  the 
commandant  of  Fort  Montgomery,  had  but  time  to  throw  out  parties  to 
check  their  advance,  and  despatch  a  message  to  Putnam  for  succour,  when, 
after  driving  in  his  outposts,  after  a  most  spirited  resistance,  the  assail- 
ants, about  five  in  the  afternoon,  were  before  the  works,  and  summoned  the 
garrison  to  surrender.  The  American  commandant  declared  his  intention  to 
defend  the  fort  to  the  uttermost.  English  ships,  under  Commodore  Hotham, 
now  advanced  close  up  to  the  boom,  and  co-operated  with  the  attack  by  land. 
Count  Grebowski,  a  Polish  officer,  with  Lord  Rawdon,  proceeded  to  storm  the 
works.  The  former  was  mortally  wounded,  but  the  attack  proved  successful, 
and  as  night  came  on,  such  of  the  defenders  as  escaped  the  assault-  fled  into 
the  neighbouring  mountains.  As  an  adverse  wind  prevented  the  escape  of 
the  American  frigates,  their  crews  ignited  them  and  got  away  in  their  boats. 
"  The  flames,"  to  use  the  words  of  Stedman,  "  suddenly  burst  forth,  and,  as 
every  sail  was  set,  the  vessels  soon  became  magnificent  pyramids  of  fire.  The 
reflection  on  the  steep  side  of  the  opposite  mountain,  and  the  long  train  of 
muddy  light  which  shone  upon  the  waters  for  a  prodigious  distance,  had  a 
wonderful  effect ;  while  the  air  was  filled  with  the  continued  echoes  from  the 
rocky  shores,  as  the  flames  gradually  reached  the  loaded  cannons.  The  whole 
was  sublimely  terminated  by  the  explosions,  which  left  all  adfain  in  darkness. 
As  soon  as  daylight  enabled  them  to  begin,  the  fleet  set  to  work  and  destroyed 
the  boom;  Fort  Constitution  was  obliged  to  surrender,  the  Hudson  pass  was 
in  possession  of  the  British,  and  a  free  road  open  along  the  river  shore  to 
Albany.  By  this  dashing  exploit  Clinton  had  dealt  a  heavy  blow  at  the 
Americans,  who  had  collected  an  immense  quantity  of  artillery  and  stores  in 
these  Highland  strongholds. 

Thus,  on  the  sixth  of  October,  while  Burgoyne  was  counting  the  hours  in  a 
state  of  mortal  anxiety  at  Saratoga,  the  English  ships,  bearing  a  large  detach- 
ment, under  Generals  Yaughan  and  Wallace,  sailed  up  the  river  towards 
Albany.  Why,  knowing  the  perilous  predicament  of  Burgoyne,  they  did  not 
at  once  hasten  to  that  town,  seize  the  American  stores  deposited  there,  debark 
their  troops,  and,  by  menacing  Gates's  army  in  the  rear,  make  a  diversion  in 
favour  of  the  beleaguered  and  despairing  general,  must  be  allowed  to  baffle  all 
comprehension,  and  can  only  be  referred  to  a  certain  mysterious  fatality. 
Gates  afterwards  declared,  that  had  they  done  so,  he  should  have  been  obliged 
to  retire,  and  Burgoyne  must  have  escaped.  But  the  fact  is,  that  instead  of 
hurrying  forward,  they  occupied  themselves  in  burning  the  town  of  Esopus, 
and  committing  the  most  useless  and  wanton  devastation.     A  few  hours  more 

3    M 


450  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  WOuld  have  borne  them  to  the  relief  of  Burgoyne,  who,  utterly  despairing  of 
^p  m:  succour,  was  at  that  very  time  entering  into  terms  of  capitulation  with 
Gates.  Perhaps  the  British  generals  might  have  believed  it  too  late,  or 
might  have  thought  it  a  salutary,  though  severe  policy,  thus  to  strike  terror 
into  the  minds  of  the  republicans;  but  if  so,  they  were  speedily  undeceived. 
Gates  afterwards  addressed  a  severe  letter  to  Vaughan.  "Is  it  thus,"  he  in- 
dignantly inquired,  "  that  the  generals  of  the  king  expect  to  make  converts 
to  the  royal  cause?  Their  cruelties  operate  as  a  contrary  effect — independence 
is  founded  upon  the  universal  disgust  of  the  people.  The  fortune  of  war.  has 
delivered  into  my  hands  older  and  abler  generals  than  General  Vaughan  is 
reputed  to  be,  their  condition  may  one  day  become  his,  and  then  no  human 
v    power  can  save  him  from  the  just  vengeance  of  an  offended  people." 

To  return  to  the  camp  of  Saratoga.  No  sooner  were  the  articles  of  sur- 
render, although  not  signed,  yet  fully  agreed  upon,  than,  on  the  night  of  the 
16th,  Captain  Campbell,  who  had  contrived  to  steal  his  way  through  the 
American  lines,  reached  the  British  camp  with  despatches  from  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, informing  Burgoyne  of  his  capture  of  the  Highland  forts,  and  of  the  advance 
of  Vaughan  as  far  as  Esopus.  But  it  was  now  too  late.  Burgoyne,  indeed,  who 
would  have  dared  all  risks,  and  submitted  to  any  extremities,  rather  than 
force  his  proud  spirit  to  a  surrender,  called  a  council  of  his  officers,  and  asked 
whether  they  considered  that  their  word  was  pledged,  the  convention  being 
as  yet  unsigned.  All  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  affirmed,  moreover,  that 
even  were  it  otherwise,  the  soldiers  were  unable  to  sustain  another  encounter. 
Gates  had  long  known  of  the  expedition  which  had  only  just  been  communi- 
cated to  the  British  commander,  and  fearful  lest  these  new-born  hopes  should 
induce  the  latter  to  retract  from  his  word,  he  drew  up  his  troops  in  order  of 
battle,  and  sent  a  decisive  message,  requiring  immediate  signature  of  the  con- 
vention, with  which  Burgoyne  had  no  alternative  but  to  comply. 

Slowly  and  sadly,  on  the  following  morning,  the  British  soldiers  marched 
down  from  their  camp  to  the  spot  appointed  for  their  surrender.  Gates, 
with  a  feeling  of  delicacy  that  did  him  honour,  had  caused  his  entire  army  to 
retire  to  a  distance,  so  that  his  aide-de-camp  was  the  only  American  present. 
After  the  soldiers  had  deposited  their  arms,  Burgoyne  and  his  officers  ad- 
vanced to  visit  Gates,  who  came  forward  and  received  him  at  the  head  of  his 
staff.  The  British  general,  removing  his  hat,  said,  "  The  fortune  of  war, 
General  Gates,  has  made  me  your  prisoner : "  the  other  replied,  "  I  shall 
always  be  ready  to  testify  that  it  has  not  been  through  any  fault  of  your 
Excellency."  The  ice  thus  broken,  both  victors  and  vanquished  soon  mingled 
in  mutual  courtesy.  A  splendid  feast  succeeded,  but  a  cloud  hung  over  the 
spirits  of  the  captive  general.  After  dinner,  as  the  British  army  defiled  in 
lengthened  line,  between  the  American  ranks,  on  their  forlorn  march  towards 
Boston,  the  two  commanders  came  out  together,  and  gazed  upon  the  spec- 
tacle with  widely  different  feelings.  Then  drawing  his  sword,  Burgoyne 
courteously  presented  it  to  Gates,  who  bowed  and  returned  it  to  its  owner. 
With  this  formality  terminated  the  memorable  surrender  at  Saratoga. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  451 

The  Americans  had  already  displayed  the  greatest  humanity  in  their  treat-  c  hap. 
ment  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  they  now  laboured  to  soften  by  their  ~~-rzzr 
generous  courtesy  the  bitter  humiliation  of  their  enemies.  Nothing  could 
exceed  the  behaviour  of  General  Schuyler.  "  You  show  me  great  kindness, 
though  I  have  done  you  much  injury,"  said  Burgoyne  to  him,  in  allusion  to 
the  destruction  of  his  house  and  property.  "  That  was  the  fate  of  war,"  was 
the  magnanimous  reply,  "  let  us  say  no  more  about  it."  Unable  to  accom- 
pany the  captive  general  to  Albany,  he  wrote  to  his  wife  to  give  him  the  best 
reception  in  her  power;  but  it  was  like  heaping  live  coals  upon  the  head  of 
the  unhappy  Burgoyne.  The  best  apartments  in  Schuyler's  house  were  given 
up,  and  the  honours  of  the  supper  were  performed  with  such  heartfelt  kind- 
ness, that  he  could  not  refrain  his  tears,  but  bitterly  exclaimed,  "  Indeed, 
this  is  too  much  for  the  man  who  has  ravaged  their  lands  and  burned  their 
dwellings ! " 

While  these  scenes  were  passing,  "Washington,  aware  of  the  situation  of 
affairs,  was  in  a  state  of  great  anxiety,  fully  anticipating  some  decisive 
intelligence.  The  brilliant  successes  of  Gates,  contrasted  with  his  own  re- 
peated misfortunes,  had  given  strength  to  a  cabal  for  transferring  to  the  former 
the  office  of  commander-in-chief;  and  "Washington  well  knew  that  the  cap- 
ture of  Burgoyne  would  probably  be  decisive  of  his  own  fate.  It  was  on  the 
forenoon  of  Saturday,  the  18th  of  October,  that  Colonel  Pickering,  adjutant- 
general  of  the  army,  was  engaged  in  official  business  with  "Washington,  in  the 
upper  room  of  a  house  at  York,  where  Congress  was  then  in  session.  While 
sitting  there,  (to  quote  the  narrative  of  Upham,)  a  horseman  was  seen  ap- 
proaching, whose  appearance  indicated  that  he  had  travelled  long,  and  from 
far.  His  aspect,  his  saddle  bags,  and  the  manner  of  his  movement,  indicated 
that  he  was  an  express-rider.  The  attention  of  both  Washington  and  Picker- 
ing was  at  once  arrested.  They  took  it  for  granted  that  he  was  bearing 
despatches  from  the  northern  army  to  Congress,  and  were  sure  that  he  could 
inform  them  whether  the  report  of  Burgoyne's  surrender  was  well  founded. 
As  he  approached  near  them,  Colonel  Pickering  recognised  him  as  an  officer 
belonging  to  the  northern  army.  At  Washington's  request  he  ran  down  to 
the  door,  stopped  him,  and  conducted  him  up  to  the  general's  room,  with  his 
saddle-bags.  Washington  instantly  opened  them,  tore  the  envelope  off  a 
package,  spread  out  an  announcement  of  the  victory  at  Saratoga  and  Bur- 
goyne's  surrender  to  General  Gates,  and  attempted  to  read  it  aloud.  As  he 
read,  the  colour  gradually  settled  away  from  his  countenance,  his  hand  trem- 
bled, his  lip  quivered,  his  utterance  failed  him — he  dropped  the  paper,  clasped 
his  hands,  raised  them  on  high,  and  for  several  moments  was  lost  in  a  rapture 
of  adoring  gratitude.  "  While  I  gazed,"  Colonel  Pickering  used  to  say, 
"  while  I  gazed  upon  this  sublime  exhibition  of  sensibility,  I  saw  conclusive 
proof  that,  in  comparison  with  the  good  of  his  country,  self  was  absolutely 
nothing, — the  man  disappeared  from  my  view,  a;:^  the  very  image  and 
personification  of  the  patriot  stood  before  me."  This  anecdote  was  communi- 
cated to  Mr.  Upham  by  Colonel  Pickering  himself. 

3  m  2 


A.  D.  1777, 


452  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

CH,^P-  Gates  despatched  his  favourite  aide-de-camp,  Wilkinson,  to  Congress.  On 
being  introduced  into  the  hall,  he  said, "  The  whole  British  army  has  laid  down 
arms  at  Saratoga — our  own,  full  of  vigour  and  courage,  expect  your  orders ; 
it  is  for  your  wisdom  to  decide  where  the  country  may  still  have  need  of 
their  services."  This  intelligence,  in  point  of  etiquette,  ought  to  have  been 
first  sent  by  Gates  to  Washington;  but  the  pride  of  the  victor  refused  to 
acknowledge  a  superior.  Congress  immediately  voted  thanks  to  the  army 
and  its  leader,  and  decreed  that  he  should  receive  a  gold  medal ;  his  por- 
trait bearing  this  inscription,  "  Horatio  Gates,  Duci  strenuo,"  and  beneath, 
"  Comitia  Americana."  On  the  reverse,  Burgoyne  was  represented  giving 
up  his  sword  to  Gates,  with  the  two  armies  in  the  back-ground.  On  the  top 
were  these  words,  "  Salus  Regionum  Septentrion,"  and  below,  "  Hoste  ad 
Saratogam  in  deditione  accepto,  Die  XVII.  Oct.,  MDCCLXXVII."  The 
victor  of  Burgoyne  was  almost  idolized  by  the  Americans,  and  his  talents 
vaunted  by  his  partisans  as  superior  to  those  of  Washington  himself. 

Indeed  it  was  impossible  to  overrate  the  importance  of  this  victory  to  the 
American  cause.  Since  the  opening  of  the  campaign  little  else  than  disasters 
had  occurred.  The  enemy  had  taken  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and 
Congress  had  been  obliged  to  fly  into  the  interior.  Tory  influence  was 
again  in  the  ascendant,  the  advocates  of  the  patriot  cause  waxing  lukewarm 
and  fearful.  The  paper  money  was  fast  depreciating  in  value,  owing  to  the 
fear  that  Congress  would  never  be  able  to  redeem  its  promises.  Darkness 
and  discouragement  brooded  over  the  prospects  of  the  rising  republic.  The 
effect,  then,  of  such  a  brilliant  triumph,  so  far  surpassing  all  reasonable  ex- 
pectation, was  electric.  The  hands  of  Congress  were  strengthened,  the  coun- 
try looked  up  with  renewed  hope,  while  it  might  be  expected  that  the  French, 
who  were  carefully  watching  the  progress  of  events,  convinced  that  the  re- 
solution of  the  Americans  might  be  fully  depended  on,  would  no  longer 
confine  themselves  to  covertly  assisting  them,  but  would  openly  espouse 
their  cause. 

We  left  Washington  in  his  camp  on  the  Schuylkill,  watching  the  move- 
ments of  the  army  of  Howe,  part  of  which  occupied  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
while  the  remainder  lay  at  Germantown,  a  large  village  about  ten  miles  dis- 
tant. The  British  fleet  had  recently  entered  the  Delaware,  but  was  unable 
to  ascend  the  river  on  account  of  the  obstructions  placed  there  by  the  Ameri- 
cans. At  the  confluence  of  the  Schuylkill  and  Delaware  they  had  erected 
Port  Mifflin,  on  the  opposite  side  the  river,  Fort  Mercer,  while  obstructions 
had  been  sunk  in  the  river,  protected  by  floating  batteries  and  ships. 

Part  of  the  English  army  having  been  sent  to  remove  these  obstructions 
and  convoy  provisions,  Washington  made  a  well-planned  but  abortive  attempt 
to  surprise  the  camp  at  Germantown.  The  army,  divided  into  four  columns, 
marched  all  night,  and  about  sunrise  fell  upon  the  enemy,  whom  they  at  first 
threw  into  considerable  confusion.  But  Colonel  Musgrave  having  thrown 
himself  with  six  companies  into  a  large  stone  building,  known  as  the  "  Chew 
House,"  kept  up  a  destructive  fire  upon  the  Americans,  and  arrested  their 


a.  d.i; 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  453 

victorious  career.  A  thick  fog  also  came  on,  which  further  confused  the  chap. 
movements  of  the  attacking  party.  Taking  advantage  of  this,  the  British  in 
their  turn  became  the  assailants,  and  completely  routed  their  enemies,  who 
lost  twelve  hundred  men  in  this  unfortunate  attempt,  while  that  of  the  British 
was  not  above  six  hundred.  Washington  was  much  criticised  for  stopping 
to  reduce  the  "  Chew  House,"  instead  of  marching  forward,  and  the  unfor- 
tunate result  of  the  business  lent  arms  to  those  enemies,  who  were  even  then 
seeking  to  deprive  him  of  the  chief  command. 

A  vigorous  attempt  was  now  made  by  Howe  to  reduce  the  forts.  Having 
removed  the  obstructions  in  the  river,  and  taken  the  works  which  covered 
them,  some  ships  of  war  ascended  the  Delaware  to  co-operate  with  the  land 
forces.  The  fort  of  Red  Bank  was  garrisoned  by  two  Rhode  Island  regi- 
ments under  Colonel  Greene,  Fort  Mifflin  by  Colonel  Smith  of  the  Maryland 
line. 

Twelve  hundred  men,  under  the  command  of  Count  Donop,  crossed  the 
river  and  marched  down  the  opposite  bank  to  attack  Red  Bank.  Greene  re- 
tired into  the  fort,  and  received  the  assailants  with  such  a  murderous  fire  of 
musketry  and  grape,  that  they  were  compelled  to  retreat,  with  the  loss  of  four 
hundred  men  and  their  brave  leader.  Nor  was  the  assault  of  Fort  Mifflin  by 
the  British  men-of-war  more  successful,  a  sixty-four-gun  ship  being  blown  up, 
a  frigate  burned,  and  others  severely  handled. 

Baffled  in  this  first  attempt,  the*  British  took  possession  of  a  small  island  ad- 
jacent to  that  upon  which  Fort  Mifflin  was  built,  and  thence  kept  up  a  tre- 
mendous cannonade,  while  the  ships  advanced  within  a  hundred  yards,  and 
poured  their  broadsides  upon  the  works.  For  six  days  the  defenders  sustain- 
ed the  fury  of  the  assault,  repairing  by  night  the  breaches  made  during  the 
day,  and  did  not  retire  until  the  works  were  completely  untenable.  The 
whole  force  of  the  enemy  was  next  directed  upon  Red  Bank,  which  was  at 
once  evacuated,  and  thus  the  British,  by  the  command  of  the  river,  and  a  free 
communication  with  their  fleet,  were  firmly  established  in  Philadelphia. 

The  rest  of  the  year  passed  away  in  unimportant  skirmishes,  and  Washing- 
ton put  his  troops  into  winter  quarters  at  Valley  Forge,  a  deep  and  woody 
hollow  on  the  Schuylkill,  about  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia.  The  condi- 
tion of  the  army  was  truly  deplorable.  It  was  now  the  beginning  of  the  severe 
season,  and  on  their  march  the  shoeless  soldiers  had  stained  the  snow  with  their 
bleeding  feet.  On  reaching  the  cold,  bleak  spot  chosen  for  their  encampment, 
they  set  to  work  to  build  a  city  of  log  huts,  to  protect  them  from  the  frost  and 
snow.  They  were  in  a  state  of  almost  utter  destitution.  Like  FalstafFs  rag- 
ged recruits,  some  few  had  one  shirt,  some  half  a  one,  and  the  majority  none 
at  all.  There  was  scarcely  a  blanket  to  four  men,  even  straw  was  wanting, 
and  nothing  but  the  frozen  ground  to  sleep  upon.  Their  nourishment  was 
always  poor  and  insufficient,  and  they  were  often  on  the  very  brink  of  starva- 
tion. Three  thousand  men  were  reported  as  "  barefoot  and  otherwise  naked." 
Filth  and  want  produced  fever ;  the  crowded  hospital,  destitute  of  every  com- 
fort, resembled  more  a  place  for  the  dying  than  a  refuge  for  the  sick ;  and  the 


A.D.  1777. 


454  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  soldiers  preferred  perishing  unassisted  in  their  misery,  than  burying  them- 
selves alive  in  this  horrible  receptacle — the  terror  of  the  whole  army.  The 
officers,  who  shared  these  privations,  found  themselves,  by  the  depreciation  of 
the  paper,  unable  to  provide  decently  for  their  rank.  Many  had  exhausted 
their  private  resources,  others  run  into  debt,  and,  finding  their  position 
insupportable,  openly  talked  of  laying  down  their  commissions;  and  the 
soldiers,  notwithstanding  the  patriotism  which  supported  them,  were  frequently 
on  the  very  brink  of  mutiny. 

The  sufferings  of  his  army  pierced  Washington  to  the  very  soul,  and  drew 
forth  the  most  pressing  appeals  to  Congress.  It  is  but  just  to  say,  however, 
that  the  evil  arose  from  their  inexperience  rather  than  their  neglect.  The 
root  of  all  the  evil  was  the  paper  money.  Contracts  had  been  entered  into 
with  certain  clothiers  at  Boston,  as  Congress  complained,  "  at  the  rate  of  ten 
to  eighteen  hundred  per  cent.,"  and  then  only  for  ready  money, "  manifest- 
ing "  in  the  contractors  "  a  disposition  callous  to  the  feelings  of  humanity,  and 
untouched  by  the  severe  sufferings  of  their  countrymen,  exposed  to  a  winter 
campaign  in  defence  of  the  common  liberties  of  their  country."  These  exor- 
bitant prices  were,  after  all,  only  those  to  which  the  depreciation  of  the  paper 
had  forced  the  merchants  to  resort.  Where  contracts  were  concluded,  such 
was  the  difficulty  of  transport,  that  it  was  long  ere  any  supplies  could  reach 
the  soldiers,  and  many  were  scattered  and  lost  at  the  very  moment  when  they 
were  almost  perishing  for  want.  To  keep  his  troops  from  starving,  Wash- 
ington was  obliged  to  force  contributions  from  the  reluctant  farmers,  search  the 
neighbourhood  for  concealed  provisions,  and  intercept  convoys  destined  for 
the  enemy  at  Philadelphia. 

While  contending  with  these  complicated  difficulties,  he  was  well  aware 
that  the  intrigues  which  had  been  long  on  foot  to  remove  him  from  the  chief 
command,  and  to  appoint  Gates  in  his  place,  were  actively  going  forward. 
The  misfortunes  which  had  attended  his  arms,  compared  with  the  brilliant  suc- 
cesses of  the  conqueror  of  Saratoga,  suggested  a  most  unfavourable  comparison. 
Certain  officers  had  long  laboured  in  secret  to  undermine  the  confidence  of 
Congress,  especially  General  Conway,  an  active  intriguing  character,  disap- 
pointed in  the  office  of  inspector-general  to  the  army.  However  great 
was  the  patriotism  of  Congress,  it  would  have  been  more  than  mortal,  if  free 
from  party  spirit,  or  even  in  some  degree  from  selfish  interest.  Samuel  Adams, 
and  certain  of  the  New  England  members,  had  always  been  secretly  unfavour- 
able to  Washington,  his  marked  confidence  in  Greene  had  offended  many,  and 
Mifflin  was  offended  at  the  complaints  made  of  his  management  of  the  quar- 
ter-master's department.  Anonymous  letters  were  freely  circulated,  accusing 
the  commander-in-chief  of  favouritism  and  incompetence.  One  of  them,  ad- 
dressed to  Laurens,  the  president  of  Congress,  and  evidently  intended  to  be 
made  public,  was  transmitted  by  that  gentleman  to  Washington. 

The  reply  well  evinces  his  magnanimity  under  these  painful  attacks. 

"  I  cannot  sufficiently  express  the  obligation  I  feel  to  you,  for  your  friend- 
ship and  politeness  upon  an  occasion  in  which  I  am  so  deeply  interested.     I 


HISTORY    OP    AMERICA.  455 

was  not  unapprized  that  a  malignant  faction  had  been  for  some  time  forming  c  ha  p. 
to  my  prejudice;  which,  conscious  as  I  am  of  having  ever  done  all  in  my 
power  to  answer  the  important  purposes  of  the  trust  reposed  in  me,  could  not 
but  give  me  some  pain  on  a  personal  account.  But  my  chief  concern  arises 
from  an  apprehension  of  the  dangerous  consequences  which  intestine  dissen- 
sions may  produce  to  the  common  cause. 

"  As  i  nave  no  other  view  than  to  promote  the  public  good,  and  am  unam- 
bitious of  honours  not  founded  in  the  approbation  of  my  country,  I  would  not 
desire  in  the  least  degree  to  suppress  a  free  spirit  of  inquiry  into  any  part  of 
my  conduct,  that  even  faction  itself  may  deem  reprehensible.  The  ano- 
nymous paper  handed  to  you  exhibits  many  serious  charges,  and  it  is  my 
wish  that  it  should  be  submitted  to  Congress.  This  I  am  the  more  inclined 
to,  as  the  suppression  or  concealment  may  possibly  involve  you  in  embar- 
rassments hereafter,  since  it  is  uncertain  how  many,  or  who,  may  be  privy  to 
the  contents. 

"  My  enemies  take  an  ungenerous  advantage  of  me.  They  know  the  de- 
licacy of  my  situation,  and  that  motives  of  policy  deprive  me  of  the  defence  I 
might  otherwise  make  against  their  insidious  attacks.  They  know  I  can- 
not combat  their  insinuations,  however  injurious,  without  disclosing  secrets 
which  it  is  of  the  utmost  moment  to  conceal.  But  why  should  I  expect  to  be 
exempt  from  censure,  the  unfailing  lot  of  an  elevated  station?  Merit  and 
talents,  with  which  I  can  have  no  pretensions  of  rivalship,  have  ever  been 
subject  to  it.  My  heart  tells  me,  that  it  has  been  my  unremitted  aim  to  do 
the  best  that  circumstances  would  permit ;  yet  I  may  have  been  very  often 
mistaken  in  the  judgment  of  the  means,  and  may  in  many  instances  deserve 
the  imputation  of  error." 

It  is  uncertain  how  far  Gates  himself  was  concerned  in  these  proceedings, 
but  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  he  was  perfectly  well  aware  of  them. 
His  marked  disrespect  to  his  superior  officer,  in  neglecting  to  inform  him  offi- 
cially of  the  capture  of  Burgoyne,  is  significant  of  his  secret  views.  If  we  are 
to  rely  on  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Caldwell,  the  biographer  of  General  Greene, 
he  was  directly  implicated  in  the  intrigue.  "  Shortly  after  the  surrender  of 
Burgoyne,"  he  observes,  "  Gates  took  occasion  to  hold  with  Morgan  a  private 
conversation.  In  the  course  of  this  he  told  him,  confidentially,  that  the  main 
army  was  exceedingly  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  General  Washington, 
that  the  reputation  of  that  officer  was  rapidly  declining,  and  that  several 
officers,  of  great  worth,  threatened  to  resign  unless  a  change  was  produced 
in  that  department.  Colonel  Morgan,  fathoming  in  an  instant  the  views  of 
his  commanding  officer,  sternly,  and  with  honest  indignation,  replied,  '  Sir,  I 
have  one  favour  to  ask.  Never  again  mention  to  me  this  hateful  subject: 
under  no  other  man  but  General  Washington,  as  commander-in-chief,  will  I 
ever  serve.'  From  that  time  Gates  treated  Morgan  with  marked  coldness 
and  neglect." 

Washington,  aware  of  these  manoeuvres,  had  hitherto  treated  them  with 
dignified  forbearance ;  but  a  regard  to  his  own  character  now  compelled  him 


A.  D. 1778. 


456  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CIhAP"  *°  bring  them  to  light,  and  let  their  authors  know  that  he  was  acquainted 
with  what  was  going  forward.  Accordingly,  he  wrote  to  inform  Conway  that 
a  letter  from  that  officer  to  Gates  had  been  reported  to  him,  containing  the 
following  passage  :  "  Heaven  has  been  determined  to  save  your  country,  or  a 
weak  general  and  bad  counsellors  would  have  ruined  it."  The  plot  so  long 
working  in  darkness  now  exploded,  the  affair  became  noised  abroad,  and  with 
it  arose  a  general  burst  of  indignation  from  the  army  and  people.  Gates  crept 
out  of  the  business  but  very  lamely.  Conway,  who  had  been  promoted  at  last 
to  the  desired  post  of  inspector-general,  piqued  at  being  ordered  to  the  northern 
department,  offered  his  resignation;  which,  to  his  great  vexation,  was  at  once 
accepted.  Being  afterwards  wounded  in  a  duel,  and  supposing  himself  at  the 
point  of  death,  he  addressed  to  Washington  the  following  letter.  "  I  find 
myself  just  able  to  hold  the  pen  during  a  few  minutes,  and  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  my  sincere  grief  for  having  done,  written,  or  said  any- 
thing disagreeable  to  your  Excellency.  My  career  will  soon  be  over ;  there- 
fore, justice  and  truth  prompt  me  to  declare  my  last  sentiments.  You  are,  in 
my  eyes,  the  great  and  good  man.  May  you  long  enjoy  the  love,  veneration, 
and  esteem  of  these  States,  whose  liberties  you  have  asserted  by  your  virtues." 
No  wonder  that  Washington  was  almost  adored  by  his  followers.  He  felt 
for  their  embarrassments  and  privations,  and,  as  they  well  knew,  did  all  in  his 
power  to  obtain  redress.  He  was  painfully  aware  of  the  unfounded  preju- 
dices against  a  standing  army  entertained  by  Congress,  and  warmly  protested 
against  them.  "  We  should  all,"  he  said, "  Congress  and  army,  be  considered 
as*  one  people,  embarked  in  one  cause,  in  one  interest,  acting  on  the  same 
principle  and  to  the  same  end."  Such  suspicions,  he  pleaded,  were  the  more 
unjust,  "  because  no  order  of  men  in  the  Thirteen  States  had  paid  a  more  sa- 
cred regard  to  the  proceedings  of  Congress  than  the  army ;  for,  without  ar- 
rogance, or  the  smallest  deviation  from  truth,  it  might  be  said  that  no  history 
now  extant  can  furnish  an  instance  of  an  army's  suffering  such  uncommon  hard- 
ships as  ours  has  done,  and  bearing  them  with  the  same  patience  and  forti- 
tude." But  while  thus  seeking  to  obtain  justice  for  his  brave  companions  in 
arms,  Washington,  on  the  other  hand,  always  set  the  example  of  showing  the 
utmost  respect  to  constituted  authority,  and  inculcated  upon  the  army  a 
religious  dependence  upon  the  civil  power.  And  although  he  had  not  been 
without  detractors,  even  among  Congress,  yet,  such  was  their  experience  of 
his  wisdom  and  prudence,  his  purity  and  disinterestedness,  and  magnanimity, 
in  short,  his  unequalled  qualifications  for  his  post,  that  all  attempts  to  injure 
his  good  name  only  served  to  root  him  more  deeply  in  their  confidence  and 
veneration. 

Even  among  the  enemies  of  his  country,  the  lofty  character  of  Washing- 
ton inspired  a  generous  admiration.  After  the  surrender  of  Saratoga,  the 
captive  army  of  Burgoyne  marched  to  Boston,  whence,  according  to  the 
convention,  they  were  to  be  sent  back  to  England.  Congress  were  but  ill- 
satisfied  with  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  fearing  that  the  soldiers  released 
would  be  put  into  garrison  to  liberate  so  many  others  for  the  war.     They 


A.  D. 1778. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  457 

complained  that  the  cartouch-boxes  of  the  soldiers  had  not  been  surrendered ;  chap. 
but  Gates  himself  justified  their  detention.  On  the  other  hand,  Burgoyne 
complained  that  proper  accommodations  had  not  been  furnished  for  his 
army,  and  that  Congress  had  not  fulfilled  their  part  of  the  convention.  This 
afforded  a  ground  for  ordering  that  the  troops  should  not  be  allowed  to  em- 
bark until  the  government  of  Great  Britain  should  have  formally  ratified 
the  convention ;  and,  on  one  pretext  or  another,  they  were  delayed  until  the 
end  of  the  war.  In  vain  did  Burgoyne  expostulate,  the  transports  were 
ordered  away,  and  he  was  compelled  to  proceed  to  England  alone  on  parole. 
Before  his  departure  he  had  occasion  to  address  the  commander-in-chief  in 
terms  expressive  of  the  highest  respect.  The  reply  of  Washington  displays 
his  nobility  of  soul. 

"  Your  indulgent  opinion  of  my  character,  (thus  he  writes  to  the  captive 
general,)  and  the  polite  terms  in  which  you  are  pleased  to  express  it,  are 
peculiarly  flattering,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  the  opportunity  you  have  afforded 
me,  of  assuring  you,  that  far  from  suffering  the  views  of  national  opposition 
to  be  embittered  and  debased  by  personal  animosity,  I  am  ever  ready  to  do 
justice  to  the  merit  of  the  man  and  soldier.  I  can  sincerely  sympathize  with 
your  feelings  as  a  soldier,  the  unavoidable  difficulties  of  whose  situation  for- 
bade his  success ;  and  as  a  man,  whose  lot  combines  the  calamity  of  ill  health, 
the  anxieties  of  captivity,  and  the  painful  sensibility  for  a  reputation,  exposed, 
where  he  most  values  it,  to  the  assaults  of  malice  and  detraction."  Burgoyne 
shortly  afterward  returned  to  England,  and,  although  not  admitted  to  the  pre- 
sence of  George  III.,  in  an  inquiry  before  the  House,  amply  vindicated  his 
military  reputation  from  the  attacks  that  had  been  made  upon  it. 


in. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE. — LORD   NORTH'S  MEASURES   OF    CONCILIATION.— BATTLE    OF    MONMOUTH. 
— AFFAIR  OF  NEWPORT. — DESTRUCTION  OF  WYOMING,— END   OF  THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1778. 

When  news  of  Burgoyne's  surrender  reached  the  English  parliament,  it  struck  chap. 
Lord  North  and  his  ministry  with  dismay,  and  instantly  awakened  the  vehe- 
ment attacks  of  the  opposition.  On  the  3rd  of  December,  the  day  when  the 
express  arrived,  Barre*  stood  up  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and,  fixing  his 
eye  upon  the  minister,  sternly  inquired  what  had  become  of  Burgoyne  and 
his  gallant  army.  Bitter  indeed  was  the  humiliation  of  the  premier.  The 
aged  Chatham,  though  in  a  state  of  great  debility,  poured  forth  a  torrent  of 
denunciation,  especially  against  the  cruel  and  disgraceful  policy  of  en- 
gaging the  Indians  in  the  quarrel.     The  secretary  of  state,  having  ventured 

3  N 


A.  D.  1778. 


A.  D. 1778 


458  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  to  justify  the  employment  of  all  means  that  "  God  and  nature  had  put  into 
his  hands,"  ( '  I  know  not/'  he  sarcastically  retorted,  "  what  idea  that  lord  may 
entertain  of  God  and  nature,  but  I  know  that  such  abominable  principles  are 
equally  abhorrent  to  religion  and  humanity."  Overwhelmed  by  the  disaster 
and  the  attacks  it  occasioned,  the  ministers  were  glad  to  obtain  a  temporary 
respite  by  moving  an  adjournment. 

What  added  infinitely  to  the  peril  of  the  crisis,  was  the  knowledge  that 
negociation  shad  been  long  on  foot  between  the  agents  of  America  and  the 
court  of  Louis.  Franklin  and  Lee,  ever  since  their  mission,  had  been 
constantly  striving  to  induce  the  French  openly  to  espouse  their  cause. 
Well  aware  that  the  assistance  of  France  was  given  out  of  no  real  sympathy 
with  American  liberty,  but  solely  to  humble  and  weaken  the  power  of 
her  hereditary  enemy,  they  were  compelled  to  resort  to  all  the  finesse  of  di- 
plomacy. Hitherto  they  had  laboured  in  vain  to  bring  the  advisers  of  Louis 
to  the  desired  issue.  The  support  held  out  was  exactly  proportioned  to  the 
tenor  of  the  war ;  when  the  Americans  were  successful  their  promises  rose, 
when  they  were  defeated  they  fell.  This  halting  policy  arose  from  the  un- 
willingness of  the  French  to  commit  themselves  to  a  deadly  struggle  with  an 
exasperated  and  powerful  enemy,  until  fully  assured  that  the  Americans  were 
in  some  degree  able,  as  well  as  determined,  to  maintain  their  independence. 
It  was  not  until  the  capture  of  Burgoyne  that  the  French  ministry  could  be 
brought  to  terminate  their  vacillating  policy,  and  openly  prepare  to  embrace 
the  cause  they  had  long  promoted  in  secret. 

With  a  view  to  precipitate  a  decision,  after  the  surrender  at  Saratoga 
despatches  were  sent  to  England,  stating  that  the  Americans,  disgusted  with 
the  temporizing  conduct  of  the  French,  were  ready  to  conclude  a  favourable 
treaty  of  commerce  with  Great  Britain,  provided  their  independence  were  re- 
cognised. And,  in  fact,  the  British  ministers  were  really  endeavouring  to 
open  a  negociation  with  Franklin  by  means  of  secret  emissaries.  One  day  he 
received  a  letter  begging  him  to  repair  at  a  certain  hour  to  the  church  of 
Notre  Dame,  where  he  would  find  a  man  holding  in  his  hand  a  rose,  which 
he  would  drop  by  way  of  signal  as  soon  as  Franklin  made  his  appearance. 
This  invitation  was  communicated  to  the  ministry,  who  ordered  the  pre- 
fect of  police  to  send  a  spy  in  his  place.  At  the  appointed  time  this  indi- 
vidual repaired  to  the  church  and  saw  the  man  with  the  rose,  who,  after  vainly 
waiting  half  an  hour,  suddenly  left  the  building,  dived  down  a  number  of 
obscure  streets  to  his  lodging,  and  immediately  ordered  a  post-chaise.  The 
spy,  who  had  closely  tracked  him,  and  had  been  furnished  with  means  to 
keep  up  the  pursuit,  followed  him  all  the  way  to  Calais,  and  saw  him  embark 
for  the  shores  of  England. 

The  eyes  of  Lord  North  were  at  length  fully  opened  to  the  impolicy  of 
further  hostilities,  and  he  now  brought  forward  a  project  for  conciliation. 
He  declared  that  he  had  always  been  opposed  to  taxing  America,  but  that 
the  tea  tax  was  in  existence  when  he  came  into  office,  and  that  he  believed 
that  the  drawback  of  duty  which  led  to  the  exportation  and  destruction  of 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


459 


A.D.  li 


the  tea  would  be  regarded  as  an  actual  boon  by  the  colonists.  When  C*J£P. 
provoked  by  their  conduct,  he  brought  in  the  Coercion  bills,  he  had  ex- 
pected to  have  suppressed  the  insurrection.  He  had  proposed  conciliation, 
and  when  that  was  impossible,  had  sent  out  a  force  amply  sufficient,  as  he 
believed,  to  have  reduced  the  colonists  to  obedience.  He  had  been  disap- 
pointed in  his  expectations.  He  now  proposed  to  bring  in  a  bill  renouncing 
the  right  to  tax  America,  and  appointing  commissioners  to  negociate  a  return 
to  the  royal  authority.  Bitter,  if  somewhat  overstrained,  was  the  sarcasm  of 
Fox.  "  He  hoped,"  exclaimed  the  indignant  orator, "  he  hoped — and  was  dis- 
appointed; he  expected  a  great  deal,  and  found  little  to  answer  his  expectations. 
He  thought  the  Americans  would  have  submitted  to  his  laws,  and  they  resisted 
them ;  he  thought  they  would  have  submitted  to  his  armies,  and  they  were 
beaten  by  inferior  numbers.  He  made  conciliatory  propositions,  and  he 
thought  they  would  succeed,  but  they  were  rejected."  It  was  indeed  the 
fate  of  Lord  North  always  to  be  a  little  behind  the  occasion.  When  renouncing 
the  right  of  taxation  would  have  satisfied  the  Americans,  he  refused  it. 
When  at  length,  driven  irto  a  successful  rebellion,  they  were  determined  to 
assert  their  independence,  and  France  stood  ready  to  assist  them,  he  weakly 
conceded.  And  now,  with  similar  infatuation,  he  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  independence  of  America,  until  fresh  blood  and  treasure  had  been 
lavished  in  the  vain  attempt  to  prevent  it. 

As  soon  as  Lord  North  brought  in  his  bills  for  conciliation,  the  French  per- 
ceived there  was  no  further  time  to  lose,  and  shortly  after  a  treaty  was  formally 
ratified,  on  the  part  of  France  by  M.  Gerard,  and  for  the  United  States  by 
Franklin,  Deane,  and  Lee.  The  ministers  of  Louis,  foreseeing  that  they 
should  probably  enter  upon  a  war  with.  Great  Britain,  agreed  not  only  to 
acknowledge,  but  support  with  all  their  forces,  the  independence  of  the  United 
States,  plainly  expecting  on  their  part  that  they  would  never  renounce  their 
independence,  nor  resume  the  yoke  of  British  domination.  Official  notice  of 
this  treaty  was  shortly  furnished  to  the  ministry  at  London,  couched  in  phrase- 
ology at  once  full  of  diplomatic  formality  and  secret  sarcasm.  "  In  making  this 
communication  to  the  court  of  London,  the  king  is  firmly  persuaded  that  it 
will  find  in  it  fresh  proofs  of  his  Majesty's  constant  and  sincere  dispositions  for 
peace,  and  that  his  Britannic  Majesty,  animated  by  the  same  sentiments,  will 
equally  avoid  every  thing  that  may  interrupt  good  harmony,  and  that  he  will 
take  in  particular  effectual  measures  to  hinder  the  commerce  of  his  Majesty's 
subjects  of  the  United  States  of  America  from  being  disturbed.  In  this  just 
confidence,  the  under-written  ambassador  might  think  it  superfluous  to  apprize 
the  British  ministry,  that  the  king  his  master,  being  determined  effectually  to 
protect  the  lawful  freedom  of  the  commerce  of  his  subjects,  and  to  sustain  the 
honour  of  his  flag,  his  Majesty  has  taken  in  consequence  eventual  measures, 
in  concert  with  the  United  States  of  North  America."  "  It  was  one  of  those 
shrewd  turns,"  says  Botta,  "  which  are  not  unusual  among  princes  in  their 
reciprocal  intercourse ;  it  was  also  one  of  those,  which  they  are  not  accustomed 
to  forgive." 

3  n  2 


460  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

CIJn  p*  At  this  momentous  crisis,  when  the  field  of  hostilities  was  widening,  and 
A  D  m7  the  nation  seemed  about  to  enter  single-handed  upon  a  struggle  of  which  no 
one  could  foresee  the  issue,  two  opposite  courses,  the  one  suggested  by  pride, 
the  other  by  prudence,  divided  the  opinions  of  the  legislature.  The  advocates 
for  acknowledging  the  independence  of  America,  dwelt  upon  the  folly  and 
madness  of  protracting  a  struggle,  already  so  disastrous,  now  that  France  had 
thrown  the  weight  of  her  power  and  influence  into  the  opposite  scale.  But  it 
was  this  very  consideration  that  inflamed  the  animosity  of  the  British  nation, 
and  determined  them  never,  at  the  intervention  of  a  hated  rival,  to  surrender 
the  point  in  dispute.  "  Shall  France  then  find  us  so  tame,"  said  the  minister  of 
war,  "  to  abandon  our  possessions,  and  yield  up  to  her  all  our  ancient  glory, 
— we,  who  have  the  time  still  fresh  in  memory,  when,  after  having  by  victory 
upon  victory  trampled  upon  her  pride,  and  prostrated  her  power,- we  triumph- 
antly scoured  the  seas  and  the  continent  of  America  ?  "  Such  too  were  the 
sentiments  of  Lord  Chatham,  now  sinking  into  the  grave  under  the  weight  of 
seventy  eventful  years.  From  the  first  he  had  been  the  advocate  of  concession, 
and  had  often  lifted  up,  though  in  vain,  a  warning  voice  against  the  infatua- 
tion of  the  ministry ;  but  now  that  it  was  proposed  to  concede  independence  to 
the  colonists,  he  dragged  himself  to  his  place  in  parliament,  and  spent  his  last 
strength  in  protesting  against  what  he  considered  to  be  so  disgraceful  and  so 
dishonourable  a  surrender. 

"  I  have  made  an  effort,"  said  the  sinking  patriot, "  almost  beyond  the  powers 
of  my  constitution,  to  come  down  to  the  House  on  this  day  to  express  the  in- 
dignation I  feel  at  an  idea,  which  I  understand  has  been  proposed  to  you,  of 
yielding  up  the  sovereignty  of  America.  My  Lords,  I  rejoice  that  the  grave 
has  not  closed  upon  me, — that  I  am  still  alive  to  lift  up  my  voice  against  the 
dismemberment  of  this  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy  !  Pressed  down,  as 
I  am,  by  the  hand  of  infirmity,  I  am  little  able  to  assist  my  country  in  this 
most  perilous  conjuncture ;  but,  my  Lords,  while  I  have  sense  and  memory, 
I  will  never  consent  to  deprive  the  royal  offspring  of  the  house  of  Brunswick, 
the  heirs  of  the  Princess  Sophia,  of  their  /aire  fit  inheritance. 

"  Where  is  the  man  that  will  dare  to  advise  such  a  measure  ?  His  Majesty 
succeeded  to  an  empire  as  great  in  extent  as  its  reputation  was  unsullied. 
Shall  we  tarnish  the  lustre  of  this  nation  by  an  ignominious  surrender  of  its 
rights  and  fairest  possessions  ?  Shall  this  great  kingdom,  that  has  survived, 
whole  and  entire,  the  Danish  depredations,  the  Scottish  inroads,  and  the  Nor- 
man conquest,  that  has  stood  the  threatened  invasion  of  the  Spanish  armada, 
now  fall  prostrate  before  the  house  of  Bourbon  ?  Surely,  my  Lords,  this  na- 
tion is  no  longer  what  it  was  !  Shall  a  people  that,  seventeen  years  ago,  was 
the  terror  of  the  world,  now  stoop  so  low  as  to  tell  its  ancient  inveterate 
enemy,  Take  all  we  have,  only  give  us  peace !  It  is  impossible.  In  God's 
name,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  declare  either  for  peace  or  war,  and  if  the 
former  cannot  be  preserved  with  honour,  why  is  not  the  latter  commenced 
without  hesitation  ?  I  am  not,  I  confess,  well  informed  of  the  resources  of 
this  kingdom;  but  I  trust  it  is  sufficient  to  maintain  its  just  rights.     But,  my 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  461 

Lords,  any  state  is  better  than  despair.     Let  us  at  least  make  one  effort;  and   chap. 
if  we  must  fall,  let  us  fall  like  men !  "  ■ — 

Such  were  the  last  words  ever  uttered  in  parliament  by  this  illustrious 
patriot.  He  listened  impatiently  to  the  reply  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and 
burned  to  continue  the  discussion;  but  the  excitement  had  exhausted  his 
feeble  frame,  he  attempted  several  times  to  arise,  but  in  vain,  and  at  length 
staggered  and  swooned  upon  his  seat.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  several 
other  members  rushed  forward,  and  conveyed  him  into  a  neighbouring 
room.  Amidst  the  confusion  and  grief  occasioned?  by  this  painful  incident, 
the  House  adjourned.  The  veteran  statesman,  who  may  be  said  to  have  died 
at  his  post;  since  his  remaining  strength  was  exhausted  by  this  final  effort, 
expired  four  days  afterwards,  amidst  the  general  grief  of  parliament  and  the 
whole  people. 

The  king,  loudly  protesting  against  the  perfidy  and  insolence  of  France, 
threw  himself  upon  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  which  was  not  slow  to  answer  the 
summons.  Urgent  preparations  were  made  to  meet  this  new  foe.  Mortified 
by  their  ill  success  with  the  Americans,  the  English  indemnified  themselves 
by  the  hope  of  wreaking  vengeance  upon  their  ancient  rivals.  Indescribable, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  news  of  the  treaty  with 
France  was  received  in  America.  Forgetting  hereditary  animosities,  the  name 
of  King  Louis  was  in  everybody's  mouth.  With  the  powerful  aid  now  pro- 
mised, independence  seemed  already  within  their  grasp.  By  none  was  the 
news  more  warmly  welcomed  than  by  the  army  of  Washington,  still  encamped 
at  Valley  Forge,  where  by  his  strenuous  labours  their  condition  was  by  this 
time  much  ameliorated.  To  quote  the  words  of  an  eye-witness — "  Wednesday- 
was  set  apart  as  a  day  of  general  rejoicing,  when  we  had  a  feu  de  joie,  con- 
ducted, with  the  greatest  order  and  regularity.  The  army  made  a  most  bril- 
liant appearance.  After  which  his  Excellency  dined  in  public,  with  all  the 
officers  of  his  army,  attended  with  a  band  of  music.  I  never  was  present  when 
there  was  such  unfeigned  and  perfect  joy,  as  was  discovered  in  every  coun- 
tenance. The  entertainment  was  concluded  with  a  number  of  patriotic  toasts, 
attended  with  huzzas.  When  the  general  took  his  leave,  there  was  a  uni- 
versal clap,  with  loud  huzzas,  which  continued  till  he  had  proceeded  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile,  during  which  time  there  were  a  thousand  hats  tossed  in  the  air. 
His  Excellency  turned  round  with  his  retinue,  and  huzzaed  several  times." 
Amidst  the  intoxication  of  joy,  the  army  lost  sight  of  the  toils  and  sufferings 
that  yet  awaited  them. 

The  situation  of  the  British  army,  shut  up  in  Philadelphia,  had  now  be- 
come exceedingly  precarious,  as  the  arrival  of  a  French  fleet  might  shortly 
be  expected  in  the  Delaware.  Sir  William  Howe,  disgusted  at  the  want  of 
efficient  co-operation  from  ministers,  had  returned  to  England,  and  the 
office  of  chief  command  now  devolved  upon  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  Unable 
to  find  transports  to  convey  his  entire  army,  he  was  compelled  to  march  by 
land  to  New  York,  which  he  had  chosen  as  a  more  defensible  position. 
Washington  now  called  a  council  of  his  officers,  at  which  it  was  debated 


A.  D.  1778. 


462  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  whether  they  should  confine  their  operations  to  harassing  and  impeding  his 
retreat,  or  venture  upon  a  general  action.  The  subject  was  still  under  dis- 
cussion, when  news  arrived,  on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  June,  that  Howe 
had  evacuated  the  city. 

Having  crossed  the  Delaware,  the  English  army,  encumbered  with  an  im- 
mense convoy  of  baggage,  pushed  on  for  the  high  grounds  of  Middletown. 
Washington  resolved  to  intercept  it  before  it  could  get  there,  and  ordered 
Lee,  who  had  the  command  of  the  vanguard,  to  commence  an  attack,  "  unless 
he  should  see  strong  reason  to  the  contrary,"  promising  to  come  up  and  sup- 
port it  with  the  rest  of  the  army.  Clinton,  seeing  himself  thus  menaced, 
judiciously  transferred  his  baggage  to  the  front,  and  to  cover  its  march,  took 
post  in  the  rear,  with  the  principal  part  of  his  troops. 

The  weather  was  intolerably  close  and  sultry,  the  country  sandy  and  almost 
destitute  of  water,  and  the  march  of  both  armies  under  a  burning  sun  was  so 
distressing  that  many  of  the  horses  were  killed  ;  and  during  the  ensuing  action, 
nearly  sixty  British  soldiers  and  many  Americans  perished  from  the  combined 
effects  of  heat  and  fatigue  alone.  On  the  morning  of  the  28th  of  June,  Lee 
prepared  to  attack  the  British,  who  had  encamped  at  Monmouth  Court 
House,  when  in  order  to  give  time  for  the  latter  to  get  beyond  his  jreach, 
Clinton  suddenly  faced  about  upon  his  pursuer.  Disconcerted  by  this  unex- 
pected move,  with  little  confidence  in  his  American  troops,  and  finding  his 
ground  unfavourable  for  defence,  Lee  was  in  the  act  of  falling  back  with  his 
troops  upon  a  better  position,  when  Washington  came  up  tc  his  support. 
Exasperated  at  this  apparent  flight,  he  addressed  himself  very  warmly  to  Lee, 
and  immediately  exerted  himself  to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the  day.  The 
whole  American  rear  coming  up,  a  warm  but  indecisive  action  followed.  The 
English  occupied  a  strong  position,  covered  by  marshes  and  ravines,  and 
night  came  on  before  Washington  was  able  to  dislodge  them ;  he  kept  the 
soldiers  under  arms,  and  slept  in  his  cloak  upon  the  field,  intending  to  renew 
the  attack  at  daylight.  But  Clinton  had  already  effected  his  object — his 
convoy  was  already  out  of  reach,  and  carrying  off  his  wounded,  during 
the  night  he  stole  off  as  silent  as  the  grave.  Next  morning  he  rejoined  his 
baggage  on  the  heights  of  Middletown,  beyond  the  danger  of  further 
pursuit.  Though  he  had  lost  but  about  three  hundred  men  in  this  battle, 
upwards  of  a  thousand,  who  had  married  in  Philadelphia,  deserted  during 
the  march.  Clinton  now  marched  his  army  to  Sandy  Hook,  and  embarking 
on  board  the  fleet  of  Admiral  Howe,  was  carried  to  New  York.  Only  a  few 
days  after  he  had  thus  effected  his  retreat,  a  French  fleet,  under  D'Estaing, 
with  a  body  of  four  thousand  troops,  and  bearing  M.  Gerard,  ambassador  to 
the  United  States,  arrived  off  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware.  Had  not  this 
armament  been  an  unusual  length  of  time  on  the  passage,  it  is  hardly  to  be 
doubted  that  Clinton's  army,  hemmed  in  at  once  by  the  French  and  Ameri- 
cans, must  have  surrendered  like  that  of  Burgoyne. 

Finding  that  the  English  had  escaped,  D'Estaing  now  sailed  after  them, 
but  on  reaching  Sandy  Hook,  the  pilots  refused  to  take  his  heavier  ships 


A.  D. 1778. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  463 

across  the  bar.  This  circumstance  disconcerted  a  projected  attack  against  chap 
New  York  by  the  French  forces  and  those  of  Washington,  who,  after  the 
battle  of  Monmouth,  had  crossed  the  Hudson  to  White  Plains.  Unable  to 
effect  his  designs,  D'Estaing  transferred  the  scene  of  hostilities  to  Newport, 
in  Rhode  Island,  then  occupied  by  four  thousand  English  troops.  A  few 
days  after  his  departure,  four  British  men-of-war  appeared  off  the  Hook, 
which,  had  he  remained,  must  have  fallen  into  his  hands.  Thus  seasonably 
reinforced,  Admiral  Howe  sailed  to  Newport,  in  pursuit  of  the  French  fleet. 

The  day  after  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  Lee,  who  could  ill  brook  the  point- 
ed rebuke  of  Washington,  wrote  to  him  in  high  terms  to  demand  an  explanation. 
The  tone  of  Washington's  reply  increased  his  irritation,  and  he  retorted 
in  terms  of  greater  exasperation.  He  was  soon  after  tried  by  court-martial 
for  disobedience  of  orders,  for  making  a  shameful  retreat,  and  for  disrespect 
to  his  commanding  officer.  He  defended  himself  with  much  skill,  and 
opinions  were  much  divided  as  to  his  liability  to  blame.  He  was,  however, 
condemned  upon  all  the  charges  excepting  only  the  term  shameful,  and  sus- 
pended for  one  year,  though  it  was  not  without  hesitation  that  Congress  rati- 
fied the  decision.  He  appears  to  have  considered  himself  an  ill-used  man,  and 
afterwards  giving  way  to  irritation  in  a  correspondence  with  Congress,  was 
finally  dismissed  the  American  service,  his  connexion  with  which  seems  to 
have  been  unfortunate  from  the  beginning. 

To  co-operate  with  the  attack  on  the  English  in  Rhode  Island,  a  call  had 
been  made  upon  that  State,  as  well  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  for  five 
thousand  fresh  militia.  The  appeal  was  responded  to  with  great  spirit,  and 
John  Hancock  marched  at  the  head  of  the  Massachusetts  recruits.  On  the 
29th  of  July  D'Estaing  appeared  with  his  fleet,  and  was  received  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  by  the  combined  American  and  French  troops.  An  at- 
tack was  immediately  projected  upon  General  Pigot,  who  withdrew  into  a 
strong  position  near  Newport.  Several  days  however  were  lost  in  waiting  for 
the  militia,  and  an  incident  now  occurred,  which  caused  the  whole  project  to 
prove  abortive. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  9th  of  August,  Howe  appeared  with  his  squadron 
off  the  harbour,  and  on  the  following  morning  D'Estaing  sailed  out  of  it  to 
encounter  him,  carrying  off  the  troops  who  were  to  have  co-operated  in  the 
attack.  A  desperate  sea-fight  was  now  imminent,  and  the  whole  day  was  spent 
in  preliminary  manoeuvres.  But  at  night  there  came  on  a  violent  hurricane, 
still  remembered  as  the  "  great  storm,"  which  lasted  for  forty-eight  hours,  and 
scattered  the  hostile  fleets.  The  French  admiral's  flag-ship  was  rudderless 
and  dismasted,  when  she  was  attacked  by  a  British  frigate,  and  nearly  cap- 
tured. Other  partial  encounters  took  place  during  the  fury  of  the  tempest, 
which  however  too  effectually  crippled  both  fleets  to  enable  them  to  carry  out 
their  hostile  design.  Howe  regained  New  York  to  refit,  while  D'Estaing  re- 
appeared with  his  shattered  vessels  at  Newport,  where  the  Americans  were 
anxiously  expecting  his  arrival.  They  now  urged  him  to  refit  his  ships  in 
their  harbour,  and  to  co-operate  in  their  attack  upon  the  English.     But  his 


A.D.  17T8. 


464  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C?if P*  omcers  so  strenuously  dwelt  upon  the  tenor  of  his  instructions,  which  were, 
in  case  of  injury,  to  refit  at  Boston,  that  in  spite  of  all  remonstrances,  he  insisted 
on  repairing  to  that  port.  The  Americans  were  deeply  chagrined,  that  their 
French  allies  should  have  thus  forsaken  them  at  the  pinch,  and  Sullivan  sarcas- 
tically said,  in  his  general  orders,  that  he  "  could  by  no  means  suppose  the 
army  or  any  part  of  it  endangered  by  this  movement."  He  was  however 
soon  compelled  to  retreat,  and  take  post  on  some  hills  at  the  northern  extre- 
mity of  the  island,  when,  after  sustaining  a  warm  engagement  with  the  Brit- 
ish, he  skilfully  evacuated  the  island.  He  was  only  just  in  time.  The  very 
next  day  Admiral  Howe,  who  had  vainly  endeavoured  to  cut  the  French  ships 
out  of  Boston,  returned  with  a  reinforcement  of  four  thousand  troops  under 
Sir  Henry  Clinton. 

New  York  was  now  the  only  strong  post  in  the  possession  of  the  English ; 
and  thus,  to  use  the  words  of  "Washington,  "  after  two  years'  manoeuvring, 
and  undergoing  the  strangest  vicissitudes  that  perhaps  ever  attended  any  one 
contest  since  the  creation,  both  armies  are  brought  back  to  the  very  point 
they  set  out  from,  and  the  offending  party  in  the  beginning  is  now  reduced 
to  the  use  of  the  spade  and  pickaxe  for  defence.  The  hand  of  Providence 
has  been  so  conspicuous  in  all  this,  that  he  must  be  worse  than  an  infidel  that 
lacks  faith,  and  more  wicked,  that  has  not  gratitude  enough  to  acknowledge 
his  obligations." 

During  the  progress  of  the  campaign,  Lord  Carlisle,  Eden,  and  Johnstone, 
the  commissioners  sent  by  Lord  North,  to  effect,  if  possible,  a  pacification, 
had  been  actively,  but  vainly,  engaged  in  their  office.  On  their  arrival  at 
Philadelphia  on  the  9th  of  June,  General  Clinton  asked  Washington  for  a 
passport  for  Doctor  Ferguson,  their  secretary,  in  order  that  he  might  person- 
ally deliver  his  despatches  to  Congress.  This,  however,  "Washington  prudently 
declined  to  grant,  and  the  despatches  of  the  commissioners  were  sent  by  post. 
They  desired  a  suspension  of  hostilities  while  a  final  settlement  was  effected, 
on  the  basis  that  no  military  force  should  be  kept  in  the  colonies  without  their 
consent,  that  the  right  of  taxation  should  be  given  up,  and  that  a  representation 
of  America  should  be  made  in  parliament.  They  promised  to  sustain,  and 
finally  pay  off  the  paper  money.  Every  inducement,  short  of  the  recognition 
of  independence,  was  held  out,  to  induce  the  colonists  to  return  their  allegi- 
ance. But  if,  when  relying  upon  their  own  strength  alone,  they  had  refused 
to  listen  to  such  overtures,  they  were  not  likely  to  do  so  when  they  were  assured 
of  the  support  of  France.  They  returned  the  same  answer  as  before,  that 
the  recognition  of  independence  was  the  only  ground  on  which  they  could  treat 
with  Great  Britain.  In  vain  did  the  commissioners  endeavour  to  argue  the 
case,  the  resolution  of  Congress  was  unshaken.  They  could  not  however  but 
look  with  great  uneasiness  upon  the  presence  and  manoeuvres  of  the  British 
agents.  For  three  months  the  latter  continued  to  exhaust  every  artifice  to  under- 
mine the  decision  of  Congress,  and  to  engage  influential  individuals  in  their 
cause.  Johnstone,  who  had  all  along  opposed  the  policy  of  ministers,  professed 
the  greatest  admiration  for  the  leaders  of  the  revolution,  and  in  certain  letters 


A.D.I  778. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  465 

to  Morris,  Reed,  and  Dana,  suggested  that  those  who  should  bring  about  a  recon-  chap. 
ciliation,  would  justly  be  regarded  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind,  hinting,  - 
moreover,  that  ample  rewards  would  not  fail  to  be  showered  upon  them.  General 
Reed  also  declared  that  an  offer  had  privately  been  made  to  him,  on  the  part 
of  Johnstone,  of  £10,000,  and  any  office  he  might  choose  in  the  colonies,  if  he 
would  make  use  of  his  influence  in  the  cause ;  to  which  proposal  he  replied, 
"  that  he  was  not  worth  purchasing,  but,  such  as  he  was,  the  king  of  England  was 
not  rich  enough  to  buy  him."  Hereupon  Congress  passed  resolutions  refusing 
to  hold  any  further  communication  with  the  commissioners.  The  latter  now 
used  every  effort  to  promote  dissension  among  the  republicans,  and  offered  the 
same  terms  to  the  separate  States  that  they  had  already  proposed  to  Congress, 
disseminating  through  the  country  publications  reflecting  upon  the  conduct 
of  that  body,  which  were  vigorously  replied  to  by  the  ablest  writers  on  the 
popular  side.  At  length,  throwing  the  guilt  of  further  hostilities  upon  Con- 
gress, they  threatened,  if  submission  were  not  made  within  forty  days,  that  the 
war  should  henceforth  assume  a  sanguinary  and  desolating  character.  But 
artifice  and  menace  were  alike  employed  in  vain,  and  at  the  expiration  of  the 
appointed  term  the  baffled  commissioners  returned  to  England. 

Their  threats,  however,  were  not,  unhappily,  idle,  and  regarding  the  ob- 
stinacy of  the  rebels  as  putting  them  in  the  position  of  outlaws,  the  royal 
officers  henceforth  behaved  to  them  with  unmerciful  severity.  New  Bedford, 
and  Fairhaven,  and  other  places,  which  had  become  shelters  for  American 
privateers,  were  burned,  and  the  neighbourhood  ravaged.  Baylor's  regiment 
of  cavalry,  while  asleep  in  a  barn  at  Tappan,  were  surprised,  no  quarter  given, 
and  ruthlessly  put  to  death  with  the  bayonet.  To  these  severities  of  the 
English  troops,  were  shortly  added  the  darker  atrocities  of  their  Indian  allies. 

The  Tory  corps  under  Johnson  and  Butler,  and  the  Indians  under  Brant, 
hung  upon  the  western  frontiers  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  ready  to 
fall  upon  the  first  place  exposed  to  their  depredations.  Among  these, 
hemmed  in  with  extensive  forests,  was  the  lovely  valley  of  Wyoming,  on  the 
Susquehanna,  which  has  derived  a  classic  interest  from  the  muse  of  Camp- 
bell. This  district  had  furnished  a  large  contingent  to  the  continental  army, 
and  was  thus  almost  unprotected,  when  it  was  menaced  with  a  terrible  visita- 
tion. Early  in  the  spring,  about  eight  hundred  men,  composed  of  British 
regulars,  Tories,  and  Brant  with  four  hundred  of  his  Indians,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Butler,  suddenly  made  their  appearance  in  the  valley.  The 
republicans,  inferior  in  number,  were  placed  in  a  most  distressing  alternative. 
Should  they  await  an  attack,  it  was  contended  that  their  enemies,  who  were 
increasing  in  number,  would  ravage  the  settlement  and  carry  off  the  harvest, 
upon  which  their  existence  depended ;  while,  should  they  venture  to  attack 
them  with  inferior  forces,  a  defeat  would  produce  certain  destruction  to  the 
settlement,  death  to  themselves,  and  captivity,  perhaps  torture,  to  their  wives 
and  children.  The  most  desperate  counsel  at  length  prevailed,  and  they 
marched  out  to  attack  the  enemy,  but  were  routed  with  great  slaughter.  A 
few,  who  had  thrown  themselves  into  a  fort,  were  obliged  to  capitulate,  on 

3  o 


CHAP. 
III. 


A.  D.  1778. 


466  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

honourable  terms ;  but  no  sooner  had  Colonel  Butler  retired  with  his  troops, 
than  the  Indians,  unrestrained,  committed  the  most  atrocious  barbarities. 
The  village  of  Wilksbarre  was  burnt,  men  and  their  wives  separated  and  car- 
ried into  captivity,  and  the  settlement  given  up  to  devastation.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  inhabitants  were  driven  from  the  valley,  and  compelled  to 
proceed  on  foot  sixty  miles  through  a  swampy  forest,  almost  without  food  or 
clothing.  Great  numbers  perished  in  the  journey,  chiefly  of  women  and  chil- 
dren ;  some  died  of  their  wounds ;  others  wandered  from  the  path  in  search 
of  food,  and  were  lost ;  and  those  who  survived,  called  the  wilderness,  through 
which  they  passed,  the  "  Shades  of  Death,"  an  appellation  which  it  has  ever 
since  retained. 

The  "  History  of  Wyoming,"  from  which  we  gather  these  details,  gives  the 
following  hideous  anecdote.  "  A  considerable  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  different  settlements  on  the  Susquehanna,  who,  from  their  attachment  to 
the  British  cause,  were  denominated  Tories,  joined  the  British  and  the  savage 
troops  previous  to  the  battle,  and  exhibited  instances  of  the  most  savage  bar- 
barity in  the  manner  in  which  they  carried  on  the  war  against  their  former 
neighbours  and  friends.  One  instance  may  serve  to  show  the  desperate  feel- 
ings which  those  times  produced.  A  short  distance  below  the  battle-ground, 
there  is  a  large  island  in  the  river,  called  '  Monockonock  Island.'  Several 
of  the  settlers,  while  the  battle  and  pursuit  continued,  succeeded  in  swimming 
to  this  island,  where  they  concealed  themselves  among  the  logs  and  brush- 
wood upon  it.  Their  arms  had  been  thrown  away  in  their  flight,  so  that  they 
were  in  a  manner  defenceless.  Two  of  them  in  particular  were  concealed 
near  and  in  sight  of  each  other.  While  in  this  situation,  they  observed 
several  of  the  enemy,  who  had  pursued  and  fired  at  them  while  they  were 
swimming  the  river,  preparing  to  follow  them  to  the  island  with  their  guns. 
On  reaching  the  island,  they  immediately  wiped  their  guns  and  loaded  them. 
One  of  them,  with  his  loaded  gun,  soon  passed  close  by  one  of  these  men,  who 
lay  concealed  from  his  view,  and  was  immediately  recognised  by  him  to  be 
the  brother  of  his  companion  who  was  concealed  near  him,  but  who,  being 
a  Tory,  had  joined  the  enemy.  He  passed  slowly  along,  carefully  examining 
every  covert,  and  directly  perceived  his  brother  in  his  place  of  concealment. 
He  suddenly  stopped  and  said,  '  So  it  is  you,  is  it?'  His  brother  finding 
that  he  was  discovered,  immediately  came  forwards  a  few  steps,  and  falling  on 
his  knees,  begged  him  to  spare  his  life,  promising  to  live  with  him  and  serve 
him,  and  even  be  his  slave  as  long  he  lived,  if  he  would  only  spare  his  life. 
'All  tit  is  is  mighty  good,''  replied  the  savage-hearted  brother  of  the  suppli- 
cating man,  '  but  you  are  a  d d  rebel ;  *  and  deliberately  presenting  his 

rifle,  shot  him  dead  upon  the  spot.  The  other  settler  made  his  escape  from 
the  island,  and  having  related  this  fact,  the  Tory  brother  thought  it  prudent 
to  accompany  the  British  troops  on  their  return  to  Canada." 

A  Pennsylvania  regiment  avenged  the  fall  of  Wyoming,  by  the  destruction 
of  Unadilla,  a  village  belonging  to  Indians  and  refugees.  The  loyalists  re- 
torted, by  destroying  Cherry  Valley.     About  the  same  time,  Clarke,  a  back- 


A.  D. 1778. 


HISTORY  OF    AMERICA.  467 

■woodsman  of  Kentucky,  assisted  by  the  State  of  Virginia,  undertook  a  daring  chap. 

and  successful  enterprise  against  the  western  Indians.     Having  enlisted  two ■ 

hundred  men,  he  descended  the  Ohio,  and  joined  by  some  Kentuckians, 
penetrated  the  wilderness  and  surprised  Kaskasia,  one  of  the  old  French  set- 
tlements on  the  Mississippi,  which  the  English  agents  were  attempting  to 
stimulate  to  hostilities.  The  conquered  territory  was  erected  by  the  Vir- 
ginians into  the  county  of  Illinois. 

The  rest  of  the  season  wore  away  without  any  incidents  of  importance. 
Hitherto  the  co-operation  of  their  French  allies  had  effected  little  for  the  Ame- 
ricans, unless  by  operating  as  a  check  upon  the  movements  of  the  English. 
Disgust  at  D'Estaing's  retreat  fronTNewport  had  led  to  a  revival  of  the  old 
slumbering  antipathy,  and  quarrels  broke  out  between  the  French  and  Ame- 
rican sailors  at  Boston  and  Charleston.  The  alliance  also  had  the  effect 
of  discouraging  public  and  private  enterprise.  Considering  by  this  means 
the  final  success  of  their  cause  to  be  fully  assured,  and  exhausted  with  a 
long-protracted  struggle,  the  Americans  began  to  languish,  grow  weary, 
and  shrink  from  the  sacrifices  required  of  them.  The  recruiting  of  the 
army  proceeded  but  slowly,  and  the  greatest  difficulty  was  experienced  in 
providing  for  its  wants.  The  dire  necessity  that  existed  for  fresh  emissions  of 
paper  money  had  led  to  a  train  of  deplorable  consequences.  All  attempts  to 
sustain  its  value  had  proved  abortive,  a  single  dollar  in  cash  was  worth  eight, 
and  sometimes  twenty,  of  the  colonial  bills,  and  the  mischief  was  still  further 
increased  by  the  immense  quantity  of  forged  notes  introduced  by  the  loyalists. 
Prices,  as  a  matter  of  course,  rose  enormously,  and  a  wide  field  was  open  to  the 
operations  of  speculators  and  contractors,  a  body  of  whom  had  grown  up  and 
enriched  themselves  amidst  the  distresses  of  their  country.  None  were  greater 
sufferers  than  the  army  by  this  state  of  things  ;  supplies  were  so  high  that  in 
Carolina  a  single  pair  of  shoes  cost  700  paper  dollars,  and  the  pay  of  privates 
and  officers  was  insufficient  for  more  than  bare  necessaries.  "  I  would  to  God," 
said  Washington,  speaking  of  the  speculators,  "  that  some  one  of  the  more 
atrocious  in  each  State  was  hung  in  gibbets  upon  a  gallows  five  times  as  high 
as  the  one  prepared  for  Haman.  No  punishment,  in  my  opinion,  is  too  severe 
for  the  man  who  can  build  his  greatness  upon  his  country's  ruin.,, 

Congress  too  was  at  this  time  divided  by  party  spirit,  and  inflamed  with 
disputes  respecting  their  diplomatic  agents  abroad.  A  general  languor  and 
indifference  prevailed.  No  decisive  operations  had  been  performed  during 
the  year.  The  British  had  gained  no  ground,  and  the  French  and  Americans 
had  been  unable  to  expel  them. 

One  object  of  importance  was  however  accomplished.  The  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, which  had  been  agreed  on  by  Congress,  and  submitted  to  the  legis- 
latures of  the  separate  States,  were  now  ratified  by  all  the  States  except  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  which  withheld  their  consent  until  1781, 
when  certain  modifications  had  been  effected. 


3  o  2 


468 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1779. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


CAMP>IGN  OP  1779. — REDUCTION  OF  GEORGIA. — STATE  OP  THE  SOUTH. — STORMING  OP  STONY 
POINT. — IMPULSE  OF  D'ESTAING  AT  SAVANNAH. — AFFAIRS  IN  CONGRESS. — PAUL  JONES. — EN- 
CAMPMENT  IN   THE   HIGHLANDS. 

chap.  Having,  with,  a  vast  expenditure  of  men  and  money,  utterly  failed  to  sub- 
due the  northern  or  middle  colonies,  the  British  generals  now  turned  their 
attention  to  the  south ;  being  chiefly  encouraged  to  do  so,  by  the  far 
greater  want  of  union  and  predominance  of  Tory  influence  among  the 
population. 

The  first  blow  was  struck  in  Georgia.  On  the  28th  of  December,  Colonel 
Campbell,  sent  from  New  York  with  three  thousand  British  troops,  appeared 
before  Savannah,  which  could  only  be  approached  by  a  long  causeway,  leading 
across  a  deep  and  impassable  morass.  General  Howe,  with  a  feeble  corps  of 
eight  hundred  Americans,  placed  himself  between  the  morass  and  city,  and 
prepared  to  make  a  gallant  defence.  But  a  negro  having  informed  Campbell 
of  a  by-path,  by  which  he  could  gain  the  rear  of  the  Americans,  he  was  thus 
enabled  to  attack  them  on  both  sides  at  once,  make  prisoners  of  half  the  detach- 
ment, and  obtain  possession  of  the  city.  General  Prevost,  then  placed  over  the 
British  troops  in  East  Florida,  having  been  ordered  to  assume  the  command, 
hastened  to  Savannah,  having  on  his  way  reduced  the  post  of  Sunbury. 
Augusta  was  also  captured,  and  thus  the  whole  of  Georgia  fell  at  one  stroke 
into  the  power  of  the  invaders. 

The  success  of  the  British  now  emboldened  their  partisans  to  come  forward. 
Seven  hundred  North  Carolina  royalists  were  marching  across  the  country, 
when  they  were  attacked  by  a  body  of  republican  militia,  and  a  fierce  en- 
counter ensued.  As  hostilities  proceeded,  the  state  of  the  country  became 
fearful.  When  parties  of  Whigs  and  Tories  met  in  civil  conflict,  "they 
seemed,"  to  quote  the  vivid  language  of  Caldwell,  "  to  fight  for  extermina- 
tion, rather  than  victory.  This  was  the  case,  at  least,  in  small  partisan  affairs, 
which,  from  the  nature  of  the  contest,  were  more  numerous  in  the  southern 
than  in  the  northern  States.  Another  circumstance,  which  added  much  to 
the  bloodshed  and  desolation  of  the  times,  was,  that  the  population  of  those 
States  was  more  equally  divided  than  elsewhere  between  royalists  and  ad- 
herents to  the  cause  of  freedom,  or,  as  they  were  commonly  called,  Whigs  and 
Tories.  From  this  were  engendered,  in  their  most  terrific  form,  that  mutual 
animosity  and  deadly  hate,  which  always  characterize  civil  wars,  and  usually 
convert  them  into  systematized  scenes  of  assassination  and  rapine."  Much  as 
the  northern  colonies  had  suffered,  and  still  had  to  endure,  from  the  miseries 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  469 

of  civil  conflict,  it  was  in  the  southern  States  that  they  were  to  be  experi-   chap. 
enced  in  their  fellest  and  most  deadly  extreme.  • 

A,  D. 1779. 

General  Lincoln,  having  been  sent  to  supersede  Howe,  took  post  with 
fourteen  hundred  men  opposite  Augusta,  compelled  the  British  to  evacuate 
that  place,  and  pursued  them  as  far  as  Brier  Creek.  Here,  however,  his  suc- 
cess was  fatally  reversed.  Prevost,  by  making  a  wide  circuit,  suddenly  threw 
himself  upon  his  rear,  killed  or  wounded  four  hundred  Americans,  and  cap- 
tured his  cannon  and  baggage,  with  a  loss  of  only  about  half  a  dozen  of  his 
own  men.  Lincoln,  however,  still  kept  the  field,  and  retired  towards  Augusta, 
leaving  a  thousand  men  to  guard  the  Lower  Savannah.  Prevost  drove  all 
before  him,  and,  encouraged  by  Tory  support,  even  ventured  to  march  upon 
Charleston ;  but  when  Lincoln  returned  to  its  defence,  was  compelled  to  fall 
back  to  Savannah,  burning  and  ravaging,  on  his  way,  the  houses  and  property 
of  the  leading  republicans. 

True  to  their  threat,  that  the  war  should  henceforth  assume  a  severer 
character,  the  British  despatched  a  marauding  expedition  into  Virginia. 
General  Matthews,  with  a  squadron  and  army,  ascended  the  Chesapeake,  took 
Portsmouth  and  Norfolk,  captured  or  burned  a  hundred  and  thirty  merchant 
vessels  and  several  unfinished  ships  of  war,  and  carried  off  an  enormous 
booty.  The  damage  inflicted  by  this  expedition  was  estimated  at  not  less 
than  two  millions  of  dollars.  "  What  sort  of  war  is  this  ? "  asked  the  Vir- 
ginians of  the  British.  "  It  is  thus,"  was  the  reply,  "  we  are  commanded  to 
treat  all,  who  refuse  to  obey  the  king." 

Another  similar  expedition  was  undertaken  by  Try  on  and  Garth  against 
the  sea-coast  of  Connecticut,  the  ports  of  which  had  sent  forth  a  large  num- 
ber of  privateers,  cutting  off  the  British  merchantmen,  and  intercepting  sup- 
plies from  reaching  the  British  at  New  York.  On  landing,  the  royal  com- 
manders issued  an  address,  setting  forth  the  lenity  which  the  people  had 
experienced  from  his  Majesty's  officers,  and  the  ungrateful  return  made  for  it, 
adding,  that  "  the  existence  of  a  single  house  on  their  coast,  ought  to  be  a 
constant  proof  of  their  ingratitude,  that  they  who  lay  so  much  in  the  British 
power,  afforded  a  striking  monument  of  their  mercy,  and  ought  therefore  to 
set  the  first  example  of  returning  to  their  allegiance."  However  justifiable, 
in  a  military  sense,  such  an  expedition  might  have  been,  nothing  could  ex- 
cuse the  ruthless  barbarity  with  which  it  was  carried  out.  As,  far  from  sub- 
mitting, the  militia  offered  what  resistance  was  in  their  power,  Newhaven 
was  ravaged  and  plundered,  Fairfield  and  Norwalk  set  on  fire,  and  the  de- 
struction of  nearly  two  hundred  buildings  and  five  churches,  with  mills  and 
shipping,  marked  the  devastating  path  of  the  invaders.  To  inspire  a  feeling 
of  terror,  by  striking  examples  of  severity,  and  by  inflicting  upon  the  obstinate 
republicans  all  the  miseries  of  civil  war,  had  now  become  the  vindictive 
policy  of  the  British  government. 

While  these  affairs  were  proceeding,  Clinton  ascended  the  river  with  a 
strong  force,  and  took  the  forts  at  Verplanck's  Point  and  Stony  Point.  As 
the  works   in   the   Highlands  were   now   seriously   menaced,  Washington 


470  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

cl\v  P"  planned  an  expedition  to  recover   Stony  Point,  which  was  executed  with 
(TdTt™  &reat  gallantry,  by  General  "Wayne,  on  the  night  of  July  15th,  and  was  indeed 
one  of  the  most  dashing  exploits  of  the  revolutionary  war. 

Stony  Point,  as  its  name  implies,  is  a  rocky  promontory,  washed  on  three 
sides  by  the  Hudson,  and  accessible  on  the  other  only  across  a  morass,  de- 
fended by  two  lines  of  abattis  and  outworks.  Stealing  with  the  utmost 
secrecy  through  the  woods,  the  party  near  midnight  reached  the  edge  of  the 
morass,  where  Wayne  divided  his  forces  into  two  columns,  who  were  to  as- 
sault the  works  at  as  many  different  points.  A  forlorn  hope,  under  Lieu- 
tenants Gibbon  and  Knox,  preceded  them  to  remove  the  obstructions.  The 
men  were  ordered  to  make  use  of  the  bayonet  alone.  They  were  not  discovered 
until  within  pistol-shot,  when  the  alarm  was  given,  the  drum  beat  to  arms,  and 
amidst  the  darkness  and  confusion  a  heavy  fire  immediately  opened  on  the 
assailants.  Nearly  all  the  forlorn  hope  perished,  but  in  spite  of  resistance 
the  Americans  broke  through  the  barriers  and  carried  all  before  them.  "Wayne 
was  struck  down  on  his  knees  by  a  ball,  and  believing  himself  mortally 
wounded,  exclaimed,  as  his  aide-de-camp  assisted  him  to  rise,  "  March  on ! 
carry  me  into  the  fort,  for  I  will  die  at  the  head  of  my  column ; " — he  was,  how- 
ever, enabled  to  proceed  with  his  men.  The  two  columns  gained  the  centre 
of  the  works  at  the  same  moment,  with  loud  huzzas  of  triumph,  and  the  gar- 
rison were  compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion.  "Wayne's  brief  note  to 
"Washington  is  characteristic.  "  The  fort  and  garrison,  with  Colonel  Johnson, 
are  ours.  Our  officers  and  men  behaved  like  men  who  are  determined  to  be 
free."  In  memory  of  this  brilliant  exploit,  Congress  voted  medals  to  General 
Wayne,  Captain  de  Fleury,  and  Major  Stewart.  To  maintain  the  post  long 
was,  however,  impossible,  and  after  the  destruction  of  the  works,  the  cannon 
was  put  on  board  a  galley  to  be  removed  to  West  Point,  but  was  sunk  by  an 
unlucky  shot  from  the  enemy's  batteries  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream. 

Another  action  of  great  spirit  was  the  surprise  of  Paulus  Hook,  opposite 
New  York,  by  Colonel  Lee,  and  the  capture  of  the  garrison,  thus  carried  off 
almost  within  sight  of  the  head-quarters  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  These  suc- 
cesses, although  in  themselves  of  little  importance,  served  to  keep  up  the 
spirits  of  the  American  army  and  people,  and  to  check  aggressive  operations 
on  the  part  of  the  British  troops. 

The  war  now  embraced  both  hemispheres,  and  the  ocean  that  separated 
them ;  and  the  operations  on  the  soil  of  America  were  comparatively  insig- 
nificant. The  islands  of  the  West  Indies  became  the  theatre  of  conflict, 
and  the  prize  for  which  the  navies  of  France  and  England  contended.  Before 
D'Estaing  reached  those  waters  with  his  fleet,  Dominica  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  French,  commanded  by  the  Marquis  de  Bouille,  while  the  Eng- 
lish had  taken  St.  Lucie.  Having  in  vain  sought  to  bring  D'Estaing  to  a 
general  action,  Byron  sailed  to  convoy  home  the  West  Indiamen,  during 
which  interval  D'Estaing,  reinforced  by  several  ships,  made  the  conquest  of 
Grenada.  Scarcely  was  this  effected,  when  the  English  ships  returned,  and  a 
warm  but  partial  engagement  took  place,  which,  as  his  opponent  was  com- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  471 

pelled  to  retire,  D'Estaing  considered  a  victory.  According  to  the  tenor  CH1^P- 
of  his  orders,  he  ought  now  to  have  returned  home  with  the  principal  part  of  A  p  iJjg- 
his  fleet,  but  having  received  the  most  pressing  letters  from  America,  com- 
plaining of  the  abortive  issue  of  the  attack  on  Newport,  and  urging  him  not 
to  retire  until  he  had  assisted  in  expelling  the  enemy  from  Georgia,  he  de- 
termined to  comply  with  this  request.  On  the  1st  of  September,  he  appeared 
off  Savannah,  and  having  sent  word  of  his  arrival  to  General  Lincoln  at 
Charleston,  a  combined  American  and  French  force  soon  afterward  prepared 
to  invest  the  city. 

D'Estaing  now  imperiously  summoned  Prevost  to  surrender,  in  the  name  of 
the  King  of  France.  The  English  general,  anxious  to  gain  time,  artfully 
protracted  the  negociation  till  Colonel  Maitland  had  returned,  with  the  rest  of 
his  troops,  when  he  set  the  besiegers  at  defiance.  He  had  laboured  so  inces- 
santly to  strengthen  the  fortifications,  that  regular  approaches  became  neces- 
sary, and  the  works  were  pushed  on  till  the  third  of  October,  when  the  place 
was  bombaided  with  the  utmost  fury.  Prevost  begged  that  an  asylum  might 
be  granted  to  the  suffering  women  and  children,  on  board  a  French  ship,  till 
the  issue  of  the  siege  was  decided,  but  this  request  was  rudely  refused.  .  No 
impression  whatever  was  made  upon  the  works,  and  D'Estaing,  with  his  fleet 
exposed  on  the  coast  during  the  stormy  season,  and  liable  to  be  attacked  at 
disadvantage  by  the  English,  felt  unwilling  to  remain  until  the  approaches 
could  be  carried  to  completion,  and  was  compelled  to  hazard  an  assault.  The 
French  and  American  columns,  headed  by  D'Estaing  and  Lincoln,  advanced 
to  the  attack  with  mutual  emulation,  but  so  desperate  was  the  resistance  of  the 
besieged,  and  so  well  served  their  artillery,  that  after  a  terrible  slaughter, 
amidst  which  Count  Pulaski  met  his  fate,  the  assailants  were  compelled  to  re- 
tire, and  precipitately  abandon  the  siege.  The  unfortunate  issue  of  this  affair 
deepened  the  disgust  already  inspired  by  the  abortive  attack  on  Newport. 

Another  deplorable  reverse  was  experienced  this  season  by  the  State  of 
Massachusetts.  A  small  British  force  having  established  themselves  on  the 
Penobscot,  an  armament  of  nineteen  ships,  carrying  a  body  of  fifteen  hundred 
militia,  were  sent  to  dislodge  them,  under  the  command  of  General  Lovell. 
Finding  that  the  enemies'  works  were  too  strong  to  be  taken  by  the  force  at  his 
command,  Lovell  sent  back  for  reinforcements.  While  waiting  for  them  he 
was  surprised  by  five  British  men  of  war,  which  burned  the  vessels,  and  scat- 
tered the  troops,  who  had  to  make  their  way  in  small  parties  through  a  path- 
less wilderness,  before  they  reached  the  confines  of  civilization. 

During  these  unfortunate  operations  Congress  was  distracted  by  a  variety 
of  anxious  business.  When  the  treaty  with  France  was  concluded,  the  right 
had  been  reserved  for  Spain  to  become  a  party  to  it,  by  virtue  of  a  family  com- 
pact between  the  Bourbon  princes.  It  was  but  reluctantly  that  the  Spanish 
monarch  embraced  the  quarrel.  Although  participating  the  desire  of  the  French 
king  for  the  humiliation  of  their  common  enemy,  Great  Britain,  he  witnessed 
with  anxiety  the  spread  of  republican  principles  upon  the  American  continent, 
which,  if  finally  victorious,  might  prove  a  contagious  example  for  his  own 


472  HISTORY   OF  AMERICA. 

c  *fy  p*  colonies.  Having  however,  determined  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  France,  it  next 
A  D  1779  became  his  object  to  extort  the  best  terms  from  the  necessities  of  the  Ameri- 
cans. The  French  ambassador,  M.  Gerard,  vaunted  the  advantages  of  this 
new  connexion,  which  could  not  fail  to  give  an  overwhelming  weight  to  the 
American  scale.  In  return  for  the  joint  assistance  of  France  and  Spain,  he 
endeavoured  to  obtain  for  the  latter  the  concession  of  the  Floridas,  a  large 
tract,  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  exclusive  right  to  navigate  that  river. 
For  his  own  court,  he  sought  to  induce  Congress  to  give  up  the  fisheries 
of  Newfoundland.  He  argued  also,  that  it  would  be  expecting  too  much  of 
the  pride  of  Great  Britain,  formally  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  her 
revolted  colonies,  and  that  the  Americans  ought,  like  the  Swiss  and  Dutch, 
to  be  content  with  a  tacit  and  indirect  admission  of  it.  These  unreasonable 
terms,  militating,  as  they  did,  against  the  interest  of  the  separate  States,  oc- 
casioned a  lengthened,  and  often  an  angry  discussion.  What  one  was  disposed 
to  concede  as  indifferent,  another  was  determined  to  retain  as  vital.  Massa- 
chusetts could  not  surrender  the  northern  fisheries,  Virginia  required  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  Eventually  the  claims  were  compromised; 
Florida  was  given  up  to  Spain,  the  other  matters  left  undecided ;  but  upon 
one  point  the  Americans  were  inflexible — that  the  war  should  be  maintained 
until  their  independence  was  formally  acknowledged  and  ratified. 

Bitter  disputes  had  also  arisen  concerning  the  conduct  of  the  foreign 
agents.  Silas  Deane,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  originally  sent  out  in 
the  character  of  a  private  merchant,  to  open  negotiations  with  France,  and 
through  whose  hands  almost  all  the  business  of  the  commissioners  .had  after- 
wards passed,  had  lately  returned  on  board  the  French  squadron.  Accused, 
as  it  would  seem  unjustly,  of  malversation,  by  Arthur  Lee,  formerly  agent  at 
London,  he  was  as  warmly  defended  by  Morris,  the  principal  financier,  and 
others.  Congress  was  divided  into  opposite  factions,  and  recriminatory 
writings  inflamed  the  dispute.  In  one  of  these,  by  Thomas  Paine,  allusion 
was  made  to  the  secret  arrangement  between  Beaumarchais  and  Lee,  by 
which,  under  the  guise  of  commercial  transactions,  munitions  of  war  had  been 
sent  from  the  French  arsenals  to  assist  the  Americans.  The  French  ambas- 
sador complained  of  this  statement  as  affecting  the  honour  of  his  court,  though 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  statement  was,  at  least,  partially  true,  and 
in  consequence  an  express  disavowal  was  put  forth  by  Congress.  Amidst 
the  complexity  of  transactions,  some  of  them  secret,  much  confusion  of  ac- 
counts had  arisen,  by  which  Deane,  against  whom  no  charges  could  be  estab- 
lished, and  who  seems  to  have  involved  his  own  fortune,  was  ultimately  the 
sufferer.  Unable  to  obtain  the  verification  or  discharge  of  a  debt  due  to  him 
by  Congress,  he  sunk  into  great  distress,  and  was  overwhelmed  with  un- 
merited obloquy,  an  example  of  the  fate  that  often  befalls  one  sustaining  a 
critical  and  delicate  office  in  unsettled  and  trying  times. 

As  a  plausible  pretext  for  hostilities,  Spain  now  proposed  to  mediate  be- 
tween the  contending  parties,  offering  terms,  which,  as  she  was  well  assured 
they  would  be,  were  rejected  by  Great  Britain.     Having  completed  her 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA..  473 

naval  preparations,  she  then  put  forth  a  long  list  of  alleged  grievances,  and   chap. 

openly  declared  war.     Galvez,  the  Spanish  governor  of  New  Orleans,  imme — 

diately  invaded  Florida,  and  with  an  overwhelming  force  speedily  reduced 
all  the  British  posts,  with  the  exception  of  Pensacola. 

To  check  incursions  on  the  part  of  the  Tories  and  their  Indian  allies, 
General  Sullivan  was  sent  with  a  considerable  force  against  Fort  Niagara, 
their  head-quarters.  Ascending  the  Upper  Susquehanna,  and  routing  on  the 
way  a  force,  under  Brant,  the  Butlers,  and  Johnson,  he  penetrated  the 
forests  into  the  valley  of  the  Genesee,  hitherto  unvisited,  but  exhibiting  a  far 
higher  degree  of  civilization  than  it  was  supposed  the  Indians  had  then  at- 
tained. Orchards  of  ancient  growth,  corn-fields,  and  well-built  timber-houses, 
attested  a  long  and  quiet  occupation  of  the  soil.  This  smiling  scene  was  con- 
verted into  a  wilderness  by  the  invaders,  in  the  hope  that  starvation  would 
compel  the  Indians  to  retire  to  a  greater  distance.  It  was,  however,  found 
impossible  to  reach  Niagara,  and  Sullivan  returned  with  his  brigade  to 
Easton,  in  Pennsylvania.  No  permanent  relief  was  produced  by  this  inroad, 
the  Indians  soon  returned  with  increased  fury,  and  the  frontier  was  kept  in  a 
state  of  excitement  until  the  termination  of  the  war. 

The  coasts  of  Great  Britain,  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  been  menaced  with  the 
same  calamities  which  she  was  inflicting  on  those  of  America.  A  formidable 
fleet  of  French  and  Spanish  ships  appeared  in  the  British  Channel,  to  humble 
that  overgrown  naval  power,  become  the  object  of  their  hatred  and  their 
fears.  But  this  second  Armada,  dispersed  by  tempests,  and  dispirited  by 
sickness,  proved  as  unfortunate  as  the  first,  and  was  obliged  to  return  home 
without  having  accomplished  its  intended  purpose. 

The  dauntless  spirit  of  the  English  rose  with  the  perils  that  threatened  to 
overwhelm  them.  Their  cruisers  had  greatly  crippled  the  infant  American 
navy,  and  diminished  the  number  of  privateers.  Some  few  hardy  spirits, 
however,  not  only  kept  the  sea,  but  ventured  to  affront  the  enemy,  even 
within  his  own  waters.  Of  these  men,  the  most  remarkable  was  Paul  Jones, 
a  native  of  Scotland,  and  originally  brought  up  to  the  sea,  which  profession 
he  relinquished,  in  order  to  settle  in  Virginia.  When  the  war  broke  out, 
he  obtained  a  commission,  and  in  command  of  the  Ranger,  infested  the 
English  coasts,  making  sudden  descents  on  the  land,  cutting  out  vessels, 
taking  prizes,  and  spreading  a  general  consternation.  His  exploits  obtained 
him  the  command  of  a  small  squadron,  fitted  out  in  France,  consisting  of 
the  "  Bonhomme  Richard,"  a  forty-two  gun  ship,  the  "  Alliance  "  and  "  Pallas  " 
frigates,  and  other  smaller  vessels.  With  this  armament,  he  ventured  into 
Leith  roads,  in  chase  of  a  ship  of  war,  but  was  driven  out  to  sea  by  a  gale, 
and  continued  his  cruise  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Britain.  On  the  23rd  of 
September,  when  off  Flamborough  Head,  the  Baltic  fleet  of  merchantmen 
hove  in  sight,  convoyed  by  the  "  Serapis  "  of  forty-four  guns,  under  Captain 
Pearson,  and  "  Countess  of  Scarborough"  of  twenty  guns.  The  two  heavy 
frigates  immediately  prepared  to  engage,  while  the  merchantmen  endeavoured 
to  make  good  their  retreat  to  the  coast. 

3  P 


IV 

A.  D. 1779 


474  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       About  seven  in  the  evening,  when  quite  dark,  the  two  ships  began  the 
conflict  with  a  furious  cannonade.      Almost  at  the  outset,  some  of  Jones's 
heavy  guns  burst  and  killed  the  men  who  served  them ;  his  sailors  refused  to 
work  the  others,  and  thus  he  was  reduced  to  his  smaller  artillery  alone.     A 
pause  taking  place  in  consequence,  Pearson  hailed  to  ask  if  his  adversary  had 
struck,  to  which  Jozies  replied,  that  he  had  not  yet  begun  to  fight.     Find- 
ing, in  fact,  that  in  his  crippled  state  he  stood  no  chance  against  the  heavier 
metal  of  the  "  Serapis,"  he  adopted  the  sole,  but  desperate,  expedient  open  to 
him,  of  falling  on  board  his  more  powerful  adversary.     As  the  failure  of  a 
manoeuvre  brought  the  ships  together,  Jones,  with  his  own  hand,  lashed  them 
fast,  and  commenced  the  deadly  grapple  for  victory  or  death.     The  British 
attempting  to  board,  were  repulsed,  but  their  lower  guns,  pointed  against  the 
main  deck  of  the  "  Richard,"  did  fearful  execution,  tearing  away  the  whole  in- 
side of  the  ship,  and  driving  the  men  above.     Unable  to  maintain  the  conflict 
below,  the  American  crew  ascended   into  the  tops,  and  thence  kept  up  a 
deadly  fire  upon  the  deck  of  the  "  Serapis."    A  grenade  thrown  from  the  end 
of  the  main-yard,  lighting  upon  some  combustibles,  occasioned  a  fearful  ex- 
plosion, by  which  nearly  sixty  of  the  English  sailors  were  killed  or  disabled, 
and  the  rest  driven  down  into  the  hold.    At  this  moment  the  "  Alliance"  came 
to  assist  her  consort,  but  in  the  darkness  and  confusion,  fired  into  her  by  mis- 
take.    The  American  ship,  thus  riddled  through  by  the  balls  of  both  friends 
and  enemies,  was  supposed  to  be  sinking ;  the  prisoners  were  released,  and 
one  of  them  made  his  way  on  board  the  "  Serapis,"  and  declared  that  the 
"  Richard"  could  no  longer  maintain  the  combat.    In  fact,  the  gunner  actually 
went  to  haul  down  the  colours,  but  they  had  been  accidentally  shot  away. 
Both  ships  were  on  fire,  and  in  the  darkness  o£the  night  presented  a  spectacle 
of  awful  sublimity.     A  second  time  did  Pearson  demand  if  the  "  Richard  " 
had  surrendered.    Jones  sternly  replied ,  No  !  but  the  English  captain,  not 
having  heard  him,  supposed  the  combat  was  ended,  called  off  his  boarders,  and 
prepared  to  take  possession  of  his  prize.     Jones,  however,  continued  to  fight 
desperately  on  ;*  until  the  main-mast  of  the  "Serapis"  being  shot  away,  her 
men  driven  below,  and  the  "  Alliance  "  also  preparing  to  attack  him ;  the 
gallant  Pearson,  who,  during  the  action,  had  never  quitted  the  deck,  was  com- 
pelled to  haul  down  his  colours.     But  the  triumph  of  Jones  was  of  short 
duration,  his  own  ship  was  rapidly  filling,  and  shortly  afterwards  went  down. 
The  "  Countess  of  Scarborough"  was  captured  by  the  two  American  frigates. 
Jones,  in  the  dismasted  "  Serapis,"  was  driven  about  in  the  North  Sea,  at  the 
mercy  of  wind  and  tempest,  till  he  succeeded  in  gaining  the  Texel  with  his 
prizes.     Thus  terminated  one  of  the  most  singular  and  desperate  conflicts 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  naval  warfare. 

During  the  campaign,  Washington  remained  with  his  troops  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Highlands,  where  the  new  fortifications  of  West  Point  were 
being  rapidly  carried  to  completion.  His  position  and  force  were  too  strong 
to  enable  Sir  Henry  Clinton  to  attack  him,  his  own  too  weak  to  hazard  an  at- 
tack upon  New  York,  and  he  wisely  avoided  all  attempts  to  draw  on  a  general 


V. 


A.  D. 1779. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  475 

engagement.  Yet,  although  prevented  from  mingling  in  active  operations,  chap. 
he  was  still  the  directing  soul  of  distant  movements,  and  continually  engaged 
in  correspondence.  Some  of  his  most  interesting  letters,  at  this  period,  are 
to  Lafayette,  who  had  returned  to  France,  in  order  to  obtain  fresh  succours 
for  the  Americans.  An  extract  from  one  of  these  will  exhibit  the  general 
position  of  affairs.  "  We  are  happy,"  thus  it  runs,  "  in  the  repeated  assurances 
and  proofs  of  the  friendship  of  our  great  and  good  ally.  We  also  natter  our- 
selves, that  before  this  period  the  kings  of  Spain  and  the  two  Sicilies  may 
be  greeted  as  allies  of  the  United  States ;  and  we  are  not  a  little  pleased  to 
find,  from  good  authority,  that  the  solicitations  and  offers  of  the  court  of 
Great  Britain  to  the  empress  of  Russia  have  been  rejected;  nor  are  we  to 
be  displeased,  that  overtures  from  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  for  entering  into  a 
commercial  connexion  with  us,  have  been  made  in  such  open  and  pointed 
terms.  Such  favourable  sentiments,  in  so  many  powerful  princes  and  states, 
cannot  but  be  considered  in  a  very  honourable,  interesting,  and  pleasing  point 
of  view,  by  all  those  who  have  struggled  with  difficulties  and  misfortunes,  to 
maintain  the  rights  and  secure  the  liberties  of  their  country.  But,  notwith- 
standing these  flattering  appearances,  the  British  king  and  his  ministers  con- 
tinue to  threaten  us  with  war  and  deooiation.  A  few  months,  however,  must 
decide  whether  these  or  peace  is  to  take  place.  For  both  we  will  prepare ; 
and,  should  the  former  be  continued,  I  shall  not  despair  of  sharing  fresh  toils 
and  dangers  with  you  in  America ;  but,  if  the  latter  succeeds,  I  can  entertain 
little  hopes  that  the  rural  amusements  of  an  infant  world,  or  the  contracted 
stage  of  an  American  theatre,  can  withdraw  your  attention  and  services  from 
the  gaieties  of  a  court,  and  the  active  part  you  will  more  than  probably  be 
called  upon  to  share  in  the  administration  of  your  government.  The  soldier 
will  then  be  transformed  into  the  statesman,  and  your  employment  in  this  new 
walk  of  life  will  afford  you  no  time  to  revisit  this  continent,  or  think  of 
friends  who  lament  your  absence."  Amidst  the  tiresome  detail  of  battles  and 
sieges,  it  may  be  a  relief  to  turn  to  the  head-quarters  at  West  Point,  and  by 
quoting  a  letter  from  Washington  to  Dr.  Cochran,  show  the  style  in  which 
the  great  man  lived,  and  in  which  he  could  sometimes  unbend  from  his 
oppressive  anxieties. 

"  16th  August. 

"Dear  Doctor, 

I  have  asked  Mrs.  Cochran  and  Mrs.  Livingston  to  dine  with  me 
to-morrow,  but  am  I  not  in  honour  bound  to  apprize  them  of  their  fare  ? 
As  I  hate  deception,  even  where  the  imagination  only  is  concerned,  I  will. 
It  is  needless  to  premise  that  my  table  is  large  enough  to  hold  the  ladies. 
Of  this  they  had  ocular  proof  yesterday.  To  say  how  it  is  usually  covered, 
is  rather  more  essential,  and  this  shall  be  the  purport  of  my  letter. 

"  Since  our  arrival  at  this  happy  spot,  we  have  had  a  ham,  sometimes  a 
shoulder  of  bacon,  to  grace  the  head  of  the  table,  a  piece  of  roast  beef  adorns 
the  foot,  and  a  dish  of  beans,  or  greens,  almost  imperceptible,  decorates  the 
centre.     When  the  cook  has  a  mind  to  cut  a  figure,  which  I  presume  will  be 

2p2 


476  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

c  fA p-  the  case  to-morrow,  we  have  two  beef-steak  pies,  or  dishes  of  crabs,  in  addi- 
A  D  ir79  tion,  one  on  each  side  of  the  centre  dish,  dividing  the  space,  and  reducing  the 
distance  between  dish  and  dish  to  about  six  feet,  which  without  them  would 
be  nearly  twelve  feet  apart.  Of  late  he  has  had  the  surprising  sagacity  to 
discover  that  apples  will  make  pies,  and  it  is  a  question,  if,  in  the  violence  of 
his  efforts,  we  do  not  get  one  of  apples,  instead  of  having  both  of  beef-steaks. 
If  the  ladies  can  put  up  with  such  entertainment,  and  will  submit  to  partake 
of  it  on  plates,  once  tin,  but  now  iron,  (not  become  so  by  the  labour  of  scour- 
ing,) I  shall  be  happy  to  see  them,  and  am,  dear  Doctor, 

Yours." 

This  forced  inaction  was  far  from  being  agreeable  to  "Washington,  and  in 
the  hope  that  Count  D'Estaing  would  return  to  the  north,  after  his  abortive 
visit  to  Newport,  the  French  ambassador  had  repaired  to  head-quarters,  to 
concert  an  attack  upon  New  York,  by  the  combined  French  and  American 
forces.  The  season,  however,  wore  away  without  the  appearance  of  D'Estaing, 
and  the  failure  of  his  attack  on  Savannah  put  an  end  to  this  plan,  which 
always  remained  a  favourite  one  with  Washington. 

The  state  of  the  army  had  been  muoli  improved  since  the  last  winter,  by 
the  strenuous  labours  of  General  Greene,  who  had  reluctantly  undertaken 
the  important,  but  ungrateful,  office  of  quarter-master-general.  Loud  com- 
plaints were,  nevertheless,  made  of  the  enormous  expense  of  his  department, 
and  it  was  with  difficulty  he  was  prevailed  on  to  serve  a  little  longer.  By 
the  depreciation  of  the  paper  money,  prices  were  now  nominally  enormous. 
The  first  issues  made  by  Congress  had  never  been  redeemed,  and  they  had 
now  put  into  circulation  notes  to  the  amount  of  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  Forty  of  these  paper  dollars  were,  at  this  time,  worth  but  one  in 
specie.  The  attempt  to  regulate  prices  was  abortive,  a  serious  riot  taking 
place  upon  this  ground  in  Philadelphia.  To  bolster  up  the  credit  of  the 
paper,  it  was  made  legal  tender  for  debts  contracted  at  specie  prices ;  the 
fraudulent  and  embarrassed  took  this  means  of  paying  their  debts,  and  "Wash- 
ington himself  suffered  from  this  species  of  legal  swindling.  Owing  to  these 
causes,  and  to  the  early  approach  of  winter,  the  army  began  to  experience  the 
distresses  of  the  last.  "  For  a  fortnight  past,"  said  Washington,  in  his  letter 
to  the  magistrates  of  New  Jersey,  "  both  officers  and  men  have  been  almost 
perishing  for  want.  They  have  been  alternately  without  bread  or  meat  the 
whole  time,  with  a  very  scanty  allowance  of  either,  and  frequently  destitute 
of  both.  They  have  borne  their  sufferings  with  a  patience  that  merits  the 
approbation,  and  ought  to  excite  the  sympathy,  of  their  countrymen."  Such 
was  the  distress,  that  Washington  was  obliged,  for  a  while,  to  call  upon  the 
States  to  furnish  specific  supplies  of  grain  and  cattle  for  his  suffering  troops. 

As  far  as  the  north  was  concerned,  the  results  of  the  year  are  well  summed 
up  in  a  letter  from  Washington  to  his  friend  Lafayette,  who  had  returned  for 
a  while  to  France.  "  The  operations  of  the  enemy,  this  campaign,  have  been 
confined  to  the  establishment  of  works  of  defence,  taking  a  post  at  King's 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


477 


Ferry,  and  burning  the  defenceless  towns  of  New  Haven,  Fairfield,  and 
Norwalk  on  the  Sound,  within  reach  of  their  shipping,  where  little  else  was, 
or  could  be  opposed  to  them,  than  the  cries  of  distressed  women  and  chil- 
dren, but  these  were  offered  in  vain.  Since  these  notable  exploits,  they  have 
never  stepped  out  of  their  works,  or  beyond  their  lines.  How  a  conduct  of 
this  kind  is  to  effect  the  conquest  of  America,  the  wisdom  of  a  North,  a 
Germaine,  or  a  Sandwich,  can  best  decide.  It  is  too  deep  and  refined  for 
the  comprehension  of  common  understandings,  and  the  general  run  of  po- 
liticians." 


CHAP. 
IV. 


A.D.  1770. 


CHAPTER  V. 


A.  D. 1780. 


CAMPAIGN  OP  1780.— CAPTURE  OF  CHARLESTON.— STATE  OP  THE  SOUTHERN  PROVINCES.— HATT1B 
OP  CAMDEN. — ARRIVAL  OF  THE  FRENCH  UNDER  ROCHAMBEAU. — TREASON  OP  ARNOLD  AND  EX- 
ECUTION   OP   ANDRE.— FRANKLIN   AT   PARIS. — ARMED   NEUTRALITY. 


As  soon  as  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  assured  that  D'Estaing  had  departed  with  chap. 
his  fleet,  he  recalled  the  troops  in  occupation  of  Newport,  and  leaving  a  body 
in  New  York  more  than  sufficient  to  keep  Washington  in  check,  embarked 
with  the  rest  of  his  forces  for  Savannah,  carrying  with  him  a  corps  of  cavalry, 
which  it  was  judged  could  operate  to  advantage  in  the  level  plains  of  the 
south.  His  passage  was  very  tempestuous ;  the  fleet  dispersed,  one  of  his 
ships  foundered,  another  was  captured,  and  the  horses  were  lost.  At  length 
the  scattered  armament  assembled  on  the  shores  of  Georgia. 

Clinton  had  hoped  to  strike  a  blow  at  Charleston  before  time  could  be 
gained  for  its  defence,  but  his  design  was  discovered  by  the  prisoners  on 
board  the  captured  ship,  and  the  delay  occasioned  by  refitting  his  damaged 
vessels  enabled  the  Carolinians  to  prepare  for  defence.  To  stimulate  them 
to  the  utmost,  Congress  promised  a  large  reinforcement,  but  with  the  utmost 
exertions  could  detach  a  mere  handful  to  their  assistance.  It  was  proposed  to 
raise  and  arm  a  regiment  of  slaves,  but  to  this  plan  the  planters  had  an  in- 
superable objection ;  six  hundred  negroes,  however,  directed  by  French 
engineers,  were  made  to  labour  upon  the  fortifications,  which  were  rendered 
extensive  and  formidable.  The  militia  were  summoned,  on  pain  of  forfeiting 
their  property,  but,  as  the  small-pox  was  known  to  be  raging  in  the  city,  only 
two  hundred  ventured  to  come  forward.  The  whole  force,  of  all  sorts,  at  the 
command  of  General  Lincoln,  was  far  from  adequate  to  defend  so  extensive  a 
place.  The  assembly,  under  the  urgency  of  the  circumstances,  had  invested 
Governor  Rutledge  with  "  the  power  to  do  every  thing  necessary  for  the 


CHAP. 
V. 


A.  D.  1780. 


478  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

public  good,  except  taking  away  the  life  of  a  citizen/'  and  the  most  inde- 
fatigable efforts  were  made  by  him  to  put  the  city  into  a  posture  of  defence. 

Advancing  along  the  coast,  Clinton  invested  the  city  by  land,  and  on  the 
first  of  April  began  to  form  regular  approaches.  Four  American  and  two 
French  frigates,  with  some  smaller  vessels,  defended  the  harbour,  but  the 
English  ships  ran  past  Fort  Moultrie  with  very  trifling  loss,  and  stationed 
themselves  within  cannon-shot  of  the  city,  which  was  thus  menaced  by  sea  and 
land  at  once. 

The  only  communication  of  the  town  with  the  country  was  kept  up  by  two 
regiments  of  horse  under  the  command  of  General  Huger  and  Colonel  Wash- 
ington, stationed  in  a  strong  position  at  Monks'  Corner,  defended  by  a  morass 
and  causeway.  Clinton  detached  Lieutenant-Colonel  Webster,  one  of  his 
best  officers,  to  surprise  this  important  post.  He  was  accompanied  by  Fergu- 
son and  Tarleton,  the  latter  a  brilliant  cavalry  officer,  as  rapid,  impetuous,  and 
dashing  in  his  enterprises,  as  he  was  ruthless  and  implacable  in  the  treatment 
of  his  enemies.  Conducted  by  a  negro,  whom  they  had  captured,  about  three 
in  the  morning  the  English  came  suddenly  on  the  Americans,  cutting  them 
to  pieces  with  great  slaughter,  Huger  and  Washington  with  difficulty  effect- 
ing their  escape.  The  besieged  were  thus  entirely  enclosed,  and  the  sur- 
rounding country  overrun  by  the  English. 

Soon  after  Fort  Moultrie,  so  celebrated  in  the  former  abortive  attack  by 
the  British,  invested  on  all  sides,  was  compelled  to  surrender  without  firing  a 
shot.  Clinton,  having  completed  his  third  parallel,  bombarded  the  city,  and 
a  second  time  summoned  Lincoln,  in  order  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  an  assault. 
The  American  general  had  been  desirous  of  evacuating  the  city,  but  this  de- 
sign proved  impracticable  ;  he  had  next,  finding  his  position  untenable, 
offered  to  capitulate  on  terms  which  Clinton  had  refused,  and  he  was  now,  at 
the  request  of  the  citizens,  compelled  to  surrender,  on  condition  that  his  troops 
should  become  prisoners  of  war,  and  the  militia  retire  unmolested  on  the 
promise  to  take  no  further  share  in  the  quarrel.  Thus  Charleston,  after 
a  siege  of  forty-two  days,  fell  into  the  power  of  the  English.  Lincoln  was 
much  blamed  for  allowing  himself  to  be  enclosed  in  the  city,  and  not  extri- 
cating himself  when  resistance  became  hopeless.  But  he  justly  replied,  that 
it  was  intended  to  defend  the  place,  and  that  the  assistance  promised  by  Con- 
gress had  never  been  forthcoming. 

Scarcely  had  Clinton  taken  Charleston,  than  he  vigorously  prepared  to 
quench  the  dying  embers  of  opposition  to  the  royal  cause,  and  encourage  its 
friends  to  come  forward.  He  sent  off  three  expeditions,  one  towards  Au- 
gusta, another  towards  Camden,  and  a  third  under  Tarleton  against  a  Vir- 
ginian regiment  led  by  Colonel  Buford,  who  on  learning  the  fall  of  Charles- 
ton, and  of  the  force  sent  against  him,  commenced  a  rapid  retreat.  He  had 
already  gained  so  much  time,  that  pursuit  seemed  hopeless,  but  the  fiery 
Tarleton  promised  to  reach  him.  Many  of  his  horses  dropped  dead 
with  fatigue,  but  by  pressing  others,  after  a  forced  march  of  a  hundred 
and  five  miles  in  fifty-four  hours,  on  the  29th  of  May,  at  a  place  called 


A.D.  1780. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  479 

the  Waxhaws,  he  suddenly  appeared  before  the  panic-stricken  fugitives,  chap. 
Though  taken  by  surprise,  Buford  refused  to  surrender,  and  hurriedly 
threw  his  men  into  line,  desiring  them  to  reserve  their  fire  till  the  enemy 
were  Close  upon  them.  A  few  men  were  brought  down,  and  Tarleton 
had  his  horse  shot  under  him,  but  the  cavalry  burst  upon  the  republicans 
with  such  impetuosity,  that  they  were  instantly  broken,  and  a  terrible  car- 
nage commenced.  Deaf  to  their  cries  for  mercy,  and  fancying  their  leader 
slain,  the  infuriated  horsemen  cut  down  the  unresisting  Americans  ;  a  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  were  butchered  on  the  spot,  and  of  two  hundred  prisoners 
the  greater  part  were  desperately  wounded,  though  the  English  colonel  de- 
clared that  the  survivors  were  humanely  attended  to.  This  ruthless  treat- 
ment obtained  among  the  republicans  the  proverbial  appellation  of  Tarleton' 's 
quarter.  The  other  detachments  found  nothing  to  oppose  their  progress,  and 
thus  the  whole  of  South  Carolina  was  reduced  to  the  royal  sway. 

The  province  being  thus  subdued,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  published  an  amnesty, 
offering  full  pardon  to  all  who  should  return  to  their  duty,  except "  only  those 
who  had  imbrued  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their  fellow- citizens."  But  it 
was  not  his  intention  to  allow  the  inhabitants  to  observe  a  peaceful  neutrality. 
Not  content  with  a  mere  nominal  submission,  he  compelled  all  parties  openly 
to  espouse  the  royal  cause,  and  arm  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  "  driving," 
as  he  chose  to  call  them,  "  their  rebel  oppressors,  and  all  the  miseries  of  the 
war,  far  from  the  province."  Moreover,  releasing  the  American  prisoners 
from  their  parole,  he  now  required  them  to  take  up  arms  against  the  cause 
they  had  so  lately  defended.  Deep  was  the  indignation  of  the  Carolinians, 
but  exposed  to  be  treated  as  rebels  if  they  refused,  the  majority  were  obliged 
to  dissimulate,  and  comply  with  the  bitter  requisitions  of  their  conqueror. 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  having  thus  established  a  hollow  and  treacherous  tran- 
quillity, returned  to  New  York  with  a  part  of  his  forces,  leaving  behind  four 
thousand  men  under  Lord  Cornwallis,  the  most  able  and  enterprising 
officer  in  the  royal  service  in  America. 

This  policy  of  the  British,  by  compelling  the  neutral  to  choose  sides,  ex- 
citing the  hopes  of  the  Tories,  and  exasperating  the  fury  of  the  Whigs,  car- 
ried to  its  height  the  party  spirit  with  which  the  southern  States  were  already 
divided.  The  wealthy  planters  were  mostly  ardent  republicans,  as  were  the 
Scotch,  Irish,  and  backwoodsmen.  The  Highlanders  and  Regulators  were 
Tories,  while  the  Quakers,  Dutch,  and  Germans  were  disposed  to  be  quiet 
and  peaceably  submit  to  the  invaders.  A  fearful  picture  of  their  dissensions 
is  given  by  the  biographer  of  Greene. 

"  With  dispositions  as  fell  and  vindictive  as  all  the  sanguinary  passions 
could  render  them,  neighbour  was  reciprocally  arrayed  against  neighbour, 
brother  against  brother,  and  even  father  against  son.  Neither  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night,  the  enclosures  of  dwelling-houses,  the  depths  of  forests, 
nor  the  entanglements  of  the  swamps  and  morasses  of  the  country,  was 
security  to  be  found.  Places  of  secrecy  and  retreat,  being  known  alike  to 
both  parties,  afforded  no  asylum ;  but  were  oftentimes  marked  with  the  most 


V 

A.  D.  1780 


480  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  shocking  barbarities.  The  murderer  in  his  ambush,  and  the  warriors  in  their 
ambuscade,  being  thus  in  the  daily  perpetration  of  deeds  of  violence  and 
blood,  travelling  became  almost  as  dangerous  as  battle.  Strangers,  of  whom 
nothing  was  known,  and  who  appeared  to  be  quietly  pursuing  their  journey, 
were  oftentimes  shot  down,  or  otherwise  assassinated,  in  the  public  road. 
Whole  districts  of  country  resembled  our  frontier  settlements  during  the 
prevalence  of  an  Indian  war.  Even  when  engaged  in  their  common  con- 
cerns, the  inhabitants  wore  arms,  prepared  alike  for  attack  or  defence. 

"  But  this  was  not  all.  The  period  was  marked  with  another  source  of 
slaughter,  which  added  not  a  little  to  its  fatal  character.  Participating  in 
the  murderous  spirit  of  the  times,  slaves,  that  were  in  many  places  numerous 
and  powerful,  rose  against  their  masters,  armed  with  whatever  weapon  of  de- 
struction accident  or  secret  preparation  might  supply.  In  these  scenes  of 
horror,  the  knife,  the  hatchet,  and  the  poisoned  cup  were  indiscriminately 
employed.  Some  whole  families  were  strangled  by  their  slaves,  while,  by 
the  same  hands,  others  were  consumed  amid  the  blaze  of  their  dwellings  in 
the  dead  of  night. 

"These  dispositions  in  the  population  generally,  inflamed  by  the* ardour 
and  urged  by  the  force  of  southern  passions,  were  sublimed  to  a  pitch,  to 
which  the  more  temperate  people  of  the  north  were  strangers." 

Many  anecdotes  might  be  multiplied  to  exemplify  this  horrid  spirit,  which 
the  policy  of  the  British  was  fanning  into  fiercer  activity,  but  the  following  one 
may  well  suffice.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  republicans  too  often  drew  down 
upon  themselves  severe  reprisals  for  their  intolerant  cruelty  to  the  royalists. 
In  the  hour  of  festivity  one  Brown  had  indulged  himself  in  indiscriminate 
censure  of  the  revolutionary  party.  He  had  done  worse — he  had  ridiculed 
them.  He  was  pursued,  brought  back  to  Augusta,  tried  before  a  committee 
of  surveillance,  and  sentenced  to  be  tarred  and  feathered  and  carted,  unless 
he  recanted  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  required  by  the  administration  of 
Georgia.  Brown  was  a  firm  man,  and  resisted  with  a  pertinacity  which 
should  have  commanded  the  respect  of  his  persecutors.  But  the  motions  of 
a  mob  are  too  precipitate  to  admit  of  the  intrusion  of  generous  feeling. 
After  undergoing  the  painful  and  mortifying  penance  prescribed  by  the  com- 
mittee without  yielding,  it  is  too  true  that  he  was  doomed  to  have  his  naked 
feet  exposed  to  a  large  fire,  to  subdue  his  stubborn  spirit ;  but  in  vain,  and  he 
was  at  length  turned  loose  by  a  group  of  men,  who  never  deemed  that  the 
simple  Indian  trader  would  soon  reappear,  an  armed  and  implacable  enemy. 
He  first  visited  the  loyalists  of  Ninety-six,  concerted  his  measures  with  them, 
then  made  his  way  to  St.  Augustine,  received  a  colonel's  commission,  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  desperate  refugees,  and  accompanied  Prevost 
in  his  irruption  into  Georgia.  His  thirst  for  revenge  appeared  afterward  in- 
satiable, and  besides  wantonly  hanging  many  of  his  prisoners,  he  subjected 
the  families  of  the  Whigs  who  were  out  in  service  to  accumulated  sufferings 
and  distresses.  It  was  not  long  after  he  was  left  in  command  at  Augusta  by 
the  British  general,  that  Colonel  Clarke,  with  a  determined  party  of  the 


A.  D. 1780. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  481 

militia,  whose  families  he  had  persecuted,  aimed  a  well-directed  blow  at  his  chap. 
post.  But  Brown  proved  himself  a  man  of  bravery  and  conduct,  and  he  well 
knew  that  at  all  times  he  was  fighting  for  his  life.  After  a  severe  and  par- 
tially successful  contest,  the  approach  of  a  party  of  Indians  obliged  Clarke 
to  retreat  and  leave  his  wounded  behind  him,  with  a  letter  addressed  to 
Brown,  requesting  that  he  would  parole  them  to  their  plantations.  But 
Brown's  thirst  for  revenge  knew  no  bounds.  It  had  been  irritated  in  this 
instance  by  a  wound  that  confined  him  to  his  bed.  The  unhappy  prisoners, 
twenty-eight  in  number,  were  all  hung ;  thirteen  of  them  were  suspended  to  the 
railing  of  the  staircase,  that  he  might  feast  his  eyes  with  their  dying  agonies." 

The  war  in  the  south,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  battles,  consisted  of 
a  series  of  skirmishes,  surprises,  and  partisan  encounters,  carried  on  with  an 
inconsiderable  force  on  both  sides,  over  a  wide  extent  of  unhealthy  country, 
intersected  with  rivers  and  marshes,  and  with  a  sultry,  scorching  climate,  but 
displaying  as  much  gallantry,  skill,  and  adventure  on  both  sides,  as  the  oper- 
ations of  a  larger  army  on  a  more  conspicuous  field  of  action.  In  these 
"  terrible  campaigns,"  as  the  British  officers  called  them,  both  armies  suffered 
the  extremity  of  heat,  fatigue,  and  destitution.  The  patriots,  unable  to  grapple 
with  the  superior  forces  of  their  enemy,  retired  into  the  impenetrable  recesses 
of  the  swamps  and  pine  barrens,  under  the  leadership  of  a  few  heroic  spirits 
called  forth  by  the  dreadful  emergency.  Such  men  were  Generals  Marion  and 
Sumpter  ;  the  former  a  native  of  South  Carolina.  He  was  of  small  stature 
and  attenuated  frame,  but  capable  of  almost  superhuman  endurance,  famed 
for  his  feats  of  horsemanship,  and,  like  Claverhouse,  he  rode  a  fleet  and  power- 
ful charger,  so  that  in  pursuit  nothing  could  escape,  and  when  retreating 
nothing  overtake  him.  "  For  stratagems,"  says  Caldwell,  "  unlooked-for  en- 
terprises against  the  enemy,  and  devices  for  concealing  his  own  positions  and 
movements,  he  had  no  rival.  The  tract  of  country  over  which  he  reigned, 
the  trust  and  safeguard  of  his  friends,  the  terror  of  his  foes,  and  the  astonish- 
ment of  every  one,  abounded  in  thickets,  morasses,  and  swamps.  To  those 
deep  and  dreary  solitudes  he  was  often  obliged  to  retreat  for  safety  when 
severely  pressed  by  an  overwhelming  force.  On  these  occasions,  to  pursue 
him  into  his  fastnesses  was  as  useless  as  it  was  dangerous.  Never,  in  a  single 
instance,  was  he  overtaken  or  discovered  in  his  hiding-place,  unless  he  volun- 
tarily faced  his  pursuers,  in  which  case,  such  was  his  selection  of  time  and 
position,  as  to  make  victory  certain.  Even  some  of  his  own  party,  anxious 
for  his  safety,  and  well  acquainted  with  many  of  the  places  of  his  retreat, 
have  sought  for  him  whole  days  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood,  without 
finding  him.  Suddenly  and  unexpectedly,  on  some  distant  point,  he  would 
again  appear,  pouncing  on  his  enemy  like  the  falcon  on  his  quarry." 

Paulding  narrates,  that  "  on  one  occasion  a  British  officer  with  a  flag,  pro- 
posing an  exchange  of  prisoners,  was  brought  blindfold  into  his  camp.  The 
exploits  of  Marion  had  made  his  name  now  greatly  known,  and  the  officer  felt 
no  little  curiosity  to  look  at  this  invisible  warrior,  who  was  so  often  felt,  but 
never  seen.     On  removing  the  bandage  from  his  eyes,  he  was  presented  to  a 

3  a 


A.  D. ] 780. 


482  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  man  rather  below  the  middle  size,  very  thin  in  his  person,  of  a  dark  com- 
plexion, and  withered  look.  He  was  dressed  in  a  homespun  coat  that  bore 
evidence  of  flood  and  field,  and  the  rest  of  his  garments  were  much  the  worse 
for  wear. 

"  1 1  came,'  said  the  officer,  *  with  a  message  for  General  Marion.'  'I  am 
he,'  said  Marion,  '  and  these  are  my  soldiers.' 

"  The  officer  looked  round,  and  saw  a  parcel  of  rough,  half-clothed  fellows, 
some  roasting  sweet  potatoes,  others  resting  on  their  dark  muskets,  and  others 
asleep  with  logs  for  their  pillows. 

"  The  business  being  settled,  the  officer  was  about  to  depart,  when  he  was 
rather  ceremoniously  invited  by  Marion  to  stay  and  dine.  Not  seeing  any 
symptoms  of  dinner,  he  was  inclined  to  take  the  invitation  in  jest ;  but  on 
being  again  pressed,  curiosity  as  well  as  hunger  prompted  him  to  accept.  The 
general  then  ordered  his  servant  to  set  the  table  and  serve  up  dinner ;  upon 
which  the  man  placed  a  clean  piece  of  pine  bark  on  the  ground,  and  raking 
the  ashes  uncovered  a  quantity  of  sweet  potatoes.  These  constituted  Mari- 
on's breakfasts,  dinners,  and  suppers,  for  many  a  time  that  he  watched  the 
flame  of  liberty  in  the  swamps  of  South  Carolina. 

"  The  soldier  of  Britain  returned  to  his  commander  with  a  serious,  nay, 
sorrowful  countenance ;  and  on  being  questioned  as  to  the  cause,  made  this 
remarkable  answer — 

" '  Sir,  I  have  seen  an  American  general,  his  officers  and  soldiers  serving 
without  pay,  without  shelter,  without  clothing,  without  any  other  food  than 
roots  and  water — and  they  are  enduring  all  these  for  liberty  !  What  chance 
have  we  of  subduing  a  country  with  such  men  for  her  defenders  ?'  It  is  said 
he  soon  after  threw  up  his  commission  and  retired  from  the  service,  either 
in  consequence  of  a  change  in  his  feelings,  or  of  hopelessness  in  the  success 
of  the  cause  in  which  he  had  engaged." 

The  loyalists  of  North  Carolina  were  anxious  to  join  the  victorious  English, 
but  Cornwallis  urged  them  to  gather  their  crops  and  remain  quiet  until  the 
autumn,  when  he  would  march  to  their  assistance.  Unwilling  to  wait,  two 
large  bodies  put  themselves  in  motion,  but  one  only  succeeded  in  its  design, 
the  other  being  attacked  and  routed.  Meanwhile,  such  forces  as  Washington 
could  venture  to  detach  were  on  their  way  to  the  south  under  the  command 
of  Baron  de  Kalb.  Their  progress  was  toilsome  and  difficult,  and  they  could 
only  subsist  by  stray  cattle  caught  in  the  woods,  and  Indian  corn  from  the  fields, 
on  their  line  of  march.  At  length  they  came  to  a  halt  on  Deep  river,  where 
General  Gates  soon  afterward  arrived  to  assume  the  command.  The  name  of 
the  conqueror  of  Saratoga,  it  was  justly  supposed,  would  tend  to  raise  the 
dejected  spirits  of  the  Carolinians.  Joined  by  various  bodies  of  militia,  he 
proceeded  across  a  barren  country,  where  the  soldiers  had  to  subsist  on  un- 
ripe peaches  and  green  corn,  towards  Camden,  where  Cornwallis  had  placed 
magazines  with  a  force  under  the  command  of  Lord  Rawdon,  who  finding 
matters  assuming  a  serious  aspect,  drew  in  his  outposts  and  sent  notice  of  his 
situation  to  Charleston.     At  the  approach  of  the  American  army  the  activity 


A.  D. 1780. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  483 

of  the  partisan-chiefs  redoubled.  Sumpter  surprised  the  British  detachments  chap. 
at  Rocky  Mount  and  Hanging  Rock,  while  Marion  harassed  their  outposts. 
Gates's  army  had  now  increased  to  six  thousand  men,  of  whom  but  a  fourth, 
however,  were  regular  troops,  and  with  this  inferior  force  he  prepared  to 
assume  hostilities.  The  hopes  of  the  patriots  were  excited  with  sanguine 
expectations  of  triumph,  destined,  however,  to  be  speedily  and  bitterly  over- 
thrown. 

At  the  news  of  Gates's  approach,  Cornwallis,  who  had  with  him  but  two 
thousand  men,  hastened  from  Charleston.  As  he  could  not  retreat  without 
surrendering  the  recent  conquests,  and  was  confident  in  the  superiority  of  his 
troops  over  the  militia  of  Gates,  with  his  characteristic  decision  he  determined 
not  to  await,  but  anticipate  his  attack. 

On  the  same  night  Gates  and  Cornwallis  both  left  their  encampment,  the 
former  intending  to  take  up  a  strong  offensive  position  near  Camden,  the 
latter  to  surprise  the  Americans  ;  and,  about  two  in  the  morning  of  the 
6th  of  August,  the  two  armies  unexpectedly  encountered  each  other  in 
the  woods.  After  a  sharp  skirmish  the  British  drove  in  the  Americans,  but 
darkness  suspended  the  combat  for  a  while.  At  dawn,  the  line  having  been 
formed,  the  battle  was  renewed.  At  the  first  shock  the  Virginian  militia, 
composing  the  American  left,  broke  and  fled,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  Gates 
to  rally  them,  and  left  the  brunt  of  the  attack  to  be  sustained  by  the  small 
body  of  regulars  under  the  brave  De  Kalb,  who,  after  receiving  eleven  wounds, 
fell,  mortally  wounded.  Tarleton  now  dashed  in  with  his  cavalry,  and  com- 
pleted the  discomfiture.  For  nearly  thirty  miles  he  pursued  and  cut  down 
the  fugitives  with  unrelenting  fury,  and  the  road  was  strewn  with  the  traces  of 
the  routed  army.  Nine  hundred  men  were  killed  and  as  many  taken  prison- 
ers, the  rest  scattered  as  they  were  able  into  the  woods ;  baggage  and  artillery 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors.  The  army  of  the  south  was  utterly 
broken  up,  except  the  detachment  under  Sumpter,  who  had  intercepted  a  con- 
voy and  made  two  hundred  prisoners,  but  on  hearing  of  the  disaster  retreated 
with  the  utmost  speed.  Supposing  himself  out  of  danger,  Sumpter  halted  to 
recruit  his  tired  troops,  when  Tarleton  burst  into  the  camp,  having  carried  on 
the  pursuit  with  such  fearful  rapidity  that  half  his  men  broke  down  upon  the 
road.  The  convoy  and  prisoners  were  recovered ;  a  large  number  of  the  Ame- 
ricans were  slaughtered  or  captured ;  a  few,  among  whom  was  Sumpter  him- 
self, were  fortunate  enough  to  escape  into  the  woods. 

Indescribable  was  the  panic  occasioned  by  this  deplorable  rout.  The  cry 
of  "  Gates  is  defeated  "  ran  like  wild-fire  through  the  country,  and  at  the 
sight  of  his  broken  and  fugitive  legions  consternation  was  depicted  upon  every 
countenance.  The  discomfited  general  did  all  in  his  power  to  retrieve  a  loss 
so  fatal  to  his  own  reputation;  and  retreating  to  Salisbury,  and  thence  to 
Hillsborough,  gradually  re-organized  his  shattered  ranks,  and,  reinforced  by 
small  bodies  of  regulars  and  militia,  again  advanced  to  the  south,  and  took 
post  at  Charlotte  with  the  nucleus  of  another  army.  But,  by  a  single  reverse, 
he  was  unjustly  deprived  of  the  confidence  of  Congress,  who  ordered  an 

3  Q  2 


V. 


A.D.  171 


484  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  inquiry  into  his  conduct,  and  required  Washington  to  name  his  successor. 
Without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  appointed  General  Greene,  an  officer 
in  whose  abilities,  fortitude,  and  integrity,  from  an  intimate  experience  of 
them,  he  had  the  most  entire  confidence,  to  this  important  and  responsible 
command.  On  his  way  to  the  camp,  Greene  concerted  with  the  governors  of 
the  several  States  the  best  measures  for  furnishing  their  quotas  of  troops  and 
supplies,  and  on  the  2nd  of  December  arrived  at  the  head-quarters  of  the 
army.  Gates  received  his  successor  with  the  greatest  magnanimity,  frankly 
communicated  all  the  information  in  his  power,  and  then  set  out  for  the  north, 
never  again  to  appear  in  the  field.  "  His  long  and  dreary  journey,"  says 
Johnson,  "  was  a  true  picture  of  lost  favour  and  fallen  greatness.  No  eye 
beamed  on  him  with  a  cordial  welcome,  no  tongue  saluted  him  in  accents  of 
kindness.  He  was  every  where  met  with  frowns  or  indifference,  neglectful  si- 
lence or  murmured  censure.  All  recollected  in  him  the  fugitive  from  Camden  ; 
no  one  recognised  the  victor  of  Saratoga."  Yet  his  wounded  feelings  were 
somewhat  soothed  by  an  address  from  the  Virginia  legislature,  assuring  him 
"  that  the  remembrance  of  his  former  glorious  services  could  not  be  obliterated 
by  any  reverse  of  fortune." 

Cornwallis,  immediately  after  his  victory  at  Camden,  would  willingly  have 
profited  by  the  terror  of  his  arms  to  carry  the  war  into  North  Carolina,  but 
the  oppressive  heat  of  the  season  and  his  want  of  adequate  supplies  compelled 
him  reluctantly  to  return  to  Charleston.  Here  he  followed  up  his  victory  by 
measures  calculated  to  strike  terror  into  the  ranks  of  the  republicans.  Such  of 
the  militia  as,  having  once  submitted,  were  again  found  in  arms  were  hanged 
without  mercy,  and  the  property  of  those  who  had  a  second  time  been 
found  assisting  the  rebels  was  confiscated.  Several  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
of  Charleston,  accused  of  violating  the  parole  given  at  the  surrender  by  cor- 
responding with  the  enemy,  were  sent  prisoners  to  St.  Augustine.  Such  pro- 
ceedings might  indeed  for  a  while  quell  the  spirit  of  active  revolt,  but  only  by 
deepening  the  detestation  of  the  conquered,  and  inspiring  them  with  the 
determination  to  rise  and  turn  upon  their  oppressors  at  the  first  propitious 
moment. 

Having,  by  the  beginning  of  October,  completed  his  preparations  for 
marching  into  North  Carolina,  Cornwallis  advanced  with  his  main  army 
towards  Charlotte,  detaching  Tarleton  with  his  cavalry  up  the  west  bank  of 
the  Catawba,  and  Major  Ferguson,  an  able  and  resolute  officer,  by  a  more 
westerly  route,  along  the  eastern  foot  of  the  mountains.  A  principal  object  of 
this  detachment  was  to  organize  the  loyalists  in  that  quarter,  who,  on  joining 
the  British  standard,  committed  the  most  atrocious  outrages  upon  the  repub- 
licans. A  terrible  retribution  awaited  them.  A  large  body  of  backwoodsmen 
from  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  all  daring  and  determined  men,  mounted  and 
armed  with  rifles,  which  they  handled  with  unerring  precision,  proceeded 
in  quest  of  Ferguson.  Carrying  their  provisions  and  blankets  on  their 
backs,  they  kept  up  the  chase  with  such  vigour  that  in  thirty-six  hours 
they  dismounted  but  twice.     On  the  9th  of  October  they  overtook  Ferguson, 


V. 


a  i).  1; 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  485 

who  had  retired  to  the  top  of  a  bold  and  woody  eminence  called  King's  chap. 
mountain.  Forming  in  several  columns  they  climbed  the  rugged  ascent, 
and  posting  themselves  behind  rocks  and  trees,  kept  up  a  galling  fire  upon 
the  royalists.  Whenever  they  ventured  to  advance  they  were  fiercely 
driven  back  by  the  bayonet,  but  only  to  renew  the  deadly  conflict  from 
behind  their  covert.  At  length  Ferguson,  who  had  in  vain  been  sum- 
moned to  surrender,  fell,  sword  in  hand,  mortally  wounded,  and  the  re- 
mainder, their  spirit  broken,  were  compelled  to  throw  down  their  arms. 
Ten  of  the  more  obnoxious  loyalists  were  hung  on  the  spot  in  retalia- 
tion for  their  recent  outrages,  adding  to  that  spirit  of  mutual  revenge 
which,  as  Greene  said  in  his  despatches,  "  threatened  to  depopulate  the 
country." 

This  affair,  which  greatly  raised  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  patriots,  proved 
also  an  important  check  to  Cornwallis,  who,  deprived  of  the  co-operation  of 
Ferguson,  was  compelled  to  make  a  retrograde  move.  It  had  also  the  effect 
of  paralysing  the  movements  of  an  auxiliary  force  of  three  thousand  men 
under  General  Leslie,  which  had  entered  the  Elizabeth  river  and  taken  post 
at  Portsmouth,  in  order  to  co-operate  in  the  attack  against  North  Carolina. 
Considering  himself  now  unsafe,  Leslie  returned  to  Charleston  to  effect  a  junc- 
tion with  Cornwallis.  Marion  and  Sumpter  also  redoubled  their  activity,  but 
were  kept  in  check  by  Tarleton  and  his  cavalry.  With  his  usual  celerity  he 
pursued  Sumpter  to  a  strong  position  at  Blackstock-Hill,  and  attacked  him 
with  great  impetuosity,  but  was  repulsed  with  considerable  loss.  Sumpter, 
severely  wounded  and  unable  to  resume  the  command,  was  carried  by  his 
faithful  followers  into  a  secure  retreat. 

With  these  operations  in  South  Carolina  came  to  a  close  the  year  seventeen 
hundred  and  eighty.  The  royal  generals  had  displayed  consummate  ability 
and  vigour,  all  the  strongholds  of  the  country  were  in  their  hands,  and  they 
had  a  force  at  their  disposal  sufficient  to  maintain  these  conquests.  But  no- 
thing could  be  more  precarious  than  a  military  occupation  of  this  sort ; — a 
country  may  be  indeed  overrun,  but  cannot  be  long  held,  where  the  spirit  of 
freedom  is  intrenched  in  the  hearts  of  its  citizens.  Depressed  and  exhausted 
by  the  bloody  struggle,  the  embers  of  resistance  were  not  quenched.  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina  were  sending  such  assistance  as  they  were  able  to-* 
spare,  and  the  master-mind  of  Greene,  unappalled  at  the  greatness  of  his 
task,  was  occupied  in  organizing  a  new  army,  and  meditating  upon  the  best 
tactics  to  protract  the  struggle  and  weary  out  a  powerful  and  victorious 
adversary. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness,  we  have  narrated  continuously  those  events 
in  the  south,  which  were  spread  over  the  entire  course  of  the  year. 
We  must  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  northern  States,  where,  during 
this  interval,  occurrences  of  the  most  momentous  interest  had  also  taken 
place. 

At  the  opening  of  the  season  Washington's  forces,  at  Middlebrook  and 
the  Highlands,  were  still  occupied  in  watching  those  of  the  enemy  at  New 


486 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


citap.  York.  The  condition  of  the  army,  in  spite  of  every  effort,  still  continued  to 
A  D  1780t  be  deplorable.  It  was  now  that  the  distresses,  which  all  the  exertions  of 
Congress  failed  to  relieve,  called  forth  the  patriotic  exertions  of  the  ladies  of 
Philadelphia.  All  ranks  and  classes  took  a  share  in  this  good  work.  Mrs. 
Reed,  the  wife  of  General  Reed,  became  the  head  of  an  association  for  sup- 
plying the  poor  soldiers  with  a  stock  of  raiment.  Mrs.  Bache,  the  daughter 
of  Dr.  Franklin,  took  also  a  zealous  part  in  this  labour  of  love  and  mercy. 
La  Fayette,  in  the  name  of  his  wife,  presented  the  society  with  a  hundred 
guineas  in  specie,  and  the  Countess  de  Luzerne  also  subscribed  generously. 
Many  disposed  of  their  trinkets  and  ornaments,  and  those  who  had  no  money 
to  spare  exerted  themselves  no  less  effectively  by  cutting  out  and  making  up 
linen  for  the  ragged  and  shivering  defenders  of  their  country.  Twenty-two 
hundred  shirts  were  thus  forwarded  to  Washington's  camp,  an  offering  which 
not  only  greatly  mitigated  the  sufferings  of  the  troops,  but  by  convincing  them 
that  they  were  not  forgotten  by  their  grateful  countrywomen,  tended  to  comfort 
and  sustain  them  under  the  privations  to  which  they  were  inevitably  exposed. 
Before  the  end  of  April  La  Fayette  arrived  from  France,  with  the  joyful 
intelligence  that  the  French  government  had  fitted  out  an  armament,  the  ar- 
rival of  which  might  shortly  be  expected.  So  urgent  was  the  enthusiastic 
marquis,  that  he  had  prevailed  on  the  king  to  send  over  a  body  of  land  forces 
to  act  in  concert  with  the  republican  troops.  Such  was  his  importunity,  that 
the  French  minister  said  one  day  in  council,  "  It  is  fortunate  for  the  king  that 
Lafayette  does  not  take  it  into  his  head  to  strip  Versailles  of  his  furniture  to 
send  to  his  dear  Americans,  as  his  Majesty  would  be  unable  to  refuse  it."  Not 
content  with  these  public  succours,  he  generously  expended  large  sums  of  his 
private  fortune  in  providing  swords  and  appointments  for  the  corps  placed 
under  his  command.' 

While  the  French  troops  were  anxiously  expected,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  re- 
turned from  his  successful  attack  on  Charleston,  and  General  Knyphausen 
was  sent  on  an  expedition  into  the  Jerseys,  its  object  being,  as  was  sup- 
posed, to  withdraw  Washington  from  his  encampment  in  that  direction, 
while  a  strong  body  was  sent  up  the  Hudson  to  besiege  West  Point  and  the 
other  posts  on  the  Highlands.  If  such  was  indeed  its  purpose,  it  proved  un- 
successful, and  the  militia  of  the  country  coming  forward  with  spirit,  the  in- 
vaders were  soon  compelled  to  retire.  Thus  harassed  and  repelled,  the 
British  and  Hessian  troops  committed  the  same  ravages  which  had  signalized 
the  incursion  of  Tryon.  At  Connecticut  Farms  they  burned  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  village.  Too  often,  during  this  unhappy 
struggle,  the  American  women  had  to  bear  their  full  share  of  the  miseries  of  civil 
war,  and  by  their  heroic  endurance  sustained  the  courage  of  their  husbands, 
sons,  and  brothers.  "  The  traditions  of  our  revolution,"  to  use  the  words  of 
Paulding,  "  abound  in  the  most  affecting  instances  of  female  courage  and 
patriotism,  such  as  posterity  will  do  well  to  imitate,  should  the  time  ever 
again  arrive  for  such  sacrifices.  Often  did  they  suffer  their  houses  to  be 
burnt  over  their  heads,  their  persons  to  be  insulted,  and  their  lives  to  hang 


A.  D. 1780. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  487 

by  a  single  hair  on  the  ferocious  mercy  of  a  drunken  soldier,  rather  than  be-  chap. 
tray  the  haunts  of  their  defenders,  or  give  the  least  item  of  information  that 
might  be  serviceable  to  the  enemy."  On  this  occasion  a  tragedy  occurred 
which  inspired  the  deepest  indignation  all  over  the  States.  Mrs.  Caldwell, 
wife  of  a  clergyman  well  known  for  his  enthusiastic  devotion  to  his  country's 
cause,  had  retired  with  her  children  into  a  room  with  only  one  window,  to 
avoid  any  chance  shots  in  case  a  skirmish  should  happen.  No  engagement 
however  took  place,  and  the  unfortunate  lady,  unsuspicious  of  danger,  was 
seated  on  a  bed  with  her  little  child  by  the  hand,  and  her  nurse  with  an  in- 
fant by  her  side,  when  a  soldier  stole  round  to  the  window,  and  deliberately 
levelling  his  piece,  killed  her  at  a  single  shot.  By  acts  like  these  the  British 
and  their  confederates  destroyed  even  the  faintest  chance  of  the  restoration  of 
the  royal  authority,  and  excited  in  the  minds  of  the  people  an  unconquerable 
resolution  never  to  lay  down  their  arms  till  the  detested  invaders  were  ex- 
pelled the  soil. 

On  the  10th  of  July  a  French  fleet  arrived  at  Newport,  commanded  by  the 
Chevalier  de  Ternay,  and  the  troops  by  the  Count  de  Rochambeau.  As  ex- 
perience had  shown  that  much  jealousy  existed  between  the  French  and 
Americans,  it  had  been  wisely  decided  that  the  whole  army  should  be  placed 
under  the  orders  of  "Washington,  and  that  the  American  officers  should  take 
precedence  of  the  French  when  of  equal  rank, — an  arrangement  which  obvi- 
ated the  heart-burnings  and  contentions  that  would  otherwise  have  inevitably 
occurred.  It  was  now  the  first  wish  of  Washington  to  carry  out  his  long- 
cherished  idea  of  an  attack  upon  New  York  by  the  combined  forces,  and  a 
plan  to  that  effect  was  drawn  up  and  conveyed  by  La  Fayette  to  the  French 
commander.  The  French  troops  were  to  march  from  Newport  to  Washing- 
ton's old  quarters  at  Morrisiana,  where  the  Americans  would  form  a  junction 
with  them.  This  arrangement,  however,  supposed  the  superiority  of  the 
French  naval  force  over  that  of  the  British,  and  this  was  entirely  disconcerted 
by  the  speedy  arrival  of  Admiral  Graves  with  reinforcements  for  the  English 
fleet.  The  latter,  now  superior  in  force,  blockaded  the  French  in  Newport, 
while  Sir  Henry  Clinton  left  New  York  with  a  large  force  to  attack  the 
French  and  Americans.  Finding,  however,  that  their  force  was  largely  in- 
creased by  the  neighbouring  militia,  and  fearing  lest  Washington  might  fall 
upon  New  York  during  his  absence,  he  speedily  returned  to  that  city.  _  Thus 
was  the  co-operation  of  the  French  and  Americans  again  destined  to  become, 
for  the  present,  abortive.  Nothing  could  be  done  until  the  arrival  of 
Count  de  Guichen  from  the  West  Indies  with  his  fleet,  or  that  of  a  fleet  pre- 
paring to  set  out  from  Brest.  The  former,  however,  returned  to  France  with- 
out visiting  the  anxious  Americans,  and  the  latter,  blockaded  by  a  British 
squadron,  was  unable  to  repair  to  their  assistance. 

The  gloom  and  disappointment  thus  occasioned  was  infinitely  deepened  by 
the  discovery  of  an  act  of  treachery,  which,  had  it  proved  successful,  as,  but 
for  circumstances  apparently  trivial,  it  would  have  done,  would  have  struck  a 
deadly,  perhaps  a  fatal,  blow  at  the  cause  for  which  America  was  struggling. 


488  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  The  works  at  West  Point  had  now  been  carried  to  completion,  and  it  was 
A<D.1780.  regarded  as  the  most  important  fortress  in  the  country.  Not  only  did  it  form 
the  centre  of  communication  between  the  eastern  and  middle  States,  but 
was  the  principal  deposit  for  the  stores  and  munitions  of  the  army.  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  had  long  been  anxious  to  obtain  possession  of  this  stronghold, 
and  what  he  could  vainly  hope  to  obtain  by  force,  an  act  of  unparalleled  base- 
ness now  seemed  ready  to  place  within  his  grasp. 

For  daring,  impetuous  valour,  Arnold  was  justly  regarded  as  the  most  bril- 
liant officer  in  the  American  service.  His  romantic  expedition  to  Canada,  his 
naval  battle  on  Lake  Champlain,  and  especially  his  desperate  bravery  at  the 
battles  of  Behmus  Heights,  had  covered  him  with  military  glory.  Disabled 
from  active  service' by  a  wound  received  on  this  last  occasion,  he  had  been 
appointed  to  the  command  of  the  troops  in  Philadelphia.  Here,  as  one  of  the 
leading  men  in  the  city,  and  being  vain  and  fond  of  display,  he  launched  out 
into  a  style  of  living  very  far  beyond  his  means.  He  had  married  a  beautiful 
and  accomplished  girl  much  younger  than  himself,  the  daughter  of  a  Mr. 
Shippen,  one  of  the  leading  Tories,  who  had  been  an  object  of  great  attrac- 
tion to  the  British  officers  during  their  occupation  of  Philadelphia,  and  had 
kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Major  Andre,  adjutant-general  of  the  army, 
and  a  great  favourite  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton. 

Pressed  by  increasing  expenses,  Arnold's  position  soon  became  desper- 
ate, and  in  order  to  relieve  his  embarrassments,  he  was  tempted  to  abuse  his 
office  to  unworthy  purposes.  The  council  of  Pennsylvania  brought  certain 
accusations  against  him,  which,  after  some  delay,  were  submitted  to  a  military 
tribunal.  Acquitted  of  the  more  serious  charge,  he  was  nevertheless  sen- 
tenced to  a  reprimand  from  the  commander-in-chief.  Washington  admin- 
istered the  rebuke  with  the  greatest  delicacy  and  feeling.  "  Our  service,"  he 
observed  to  him,  "  is  the  chastest  of  all.  Even  the  shadow  of  a  fault  tarnishes 
the  lustre  of  our  finest  achievements.  The  least  inadvertence  may  rob  us  of 
the  public  favour,  so  hard  to  be  acquired.  I  reprimand  you  for  having  for- 
gotten, that  in  proportion  as  you  had  rendered  yourself  formidable  to  our 
enemies,  you  should  have  been  guarded  and  temperate  in  your  deportment 
toward  your  fellow- citizens.  Exhibit  anew  those  noble  qualities  which  have 
placed  you  on  the  list  of  our  most  valued  commanders.  I  will  myself  furnish 
you,  as  far  as  it  may  be  in  my  power,  with  opportunities  of  gaining  the  esteem 
of  your  country."  How  must  Arnold's  cheek  have  been  suffused  with  shame/ 
and  his  heart  filled  with  rage  and  remorse,  conscious  that  at  that  very  moment 
he  had  already  been  eight  months  in  secret,  if  not  treasonable,  correspond- 
ence with  the  enemy. 

Overwhelmed  with  debt,  and  having  resigned  his  command,  Arnold  now 
tried  to  obtain  a  loan  from  the  French  minister,  who,  much  as  he  admired  the 
soldier,  could  not  but  despise  the  man,  and  while  he  refused  his  request,  ad- 
ministered to  him  a  delicate  but  cutting  reproof.  "  You  desire  of  me  a 
service,"  he  said,  "  which  it  would  be  easy  for  me  to  render,  but  which  would 
degrade  us  both.     When  the  envoy  of  a  foreign  power  gives,  or,  if  you  will, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  489 

lends  money,  it  is  ordinarily  to  corrupt  those  who  receive  it,  and  to  make  chap. 
them  the  creatures  of  the  sovereign  whom  he  serves."      Driven  to  despera-  ■ ■ 

A.D    1780 

tion,  insulted  by  the  populace,  and  galled  by  the  malignant  satisfaction  of  his 
enemies,  Arnold  now  meditated  the  blackest  treason,  disguising  it  to  his  own 
mind  under  the  plea  of  what  he  chose  to  consider  his  country's  ingratitude. 
Through  the  medium  of  his  wife  he  opened  a  secret  correspondence  in  a 
feigned  hand  and  name  with  Major  Andre,  promising,  if  duly  rewarded,  to 
render  a  service  as  important  to  the  royalist,  as  it  would  be  ruinous  to  the  re- 
publican cause.  Whether  his  wife  was  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  corre- 
spondence, or,  as  many  suppose,  the  original  tempter  to  the  crime,  is  a  question 
that  would  seem  never  to  have  been  satisfactorily  ascertained. 

Arnold's  next  step  was  to  obtain  the  command  of  West  Point,  readily 
granted  him  by  the  unsuspecting  Washington.  No  sooner  had  he  done  so, 
than  he  proposed,  for  a  certain  sum,  to  betray  it  into  the  hands  of  Clinton. 

To  be  sure  that  he  was  not  duped,  a  conference  was  required  by  the 
British  general  with  his  hidden  correspondent,  and  both  by  Arnold  and 
Clinton  Major  Andre  was  fixed  upon  to  negociate  the  bribe,  and  concert  the 
necessary  arrangements  for  the  delivery  of  the  fortress.  That  officer,  what- 
ever may  have  been  his  secret  dislike  to  the  office,  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  in  the 
interest  of  his  country's  service,  to  offer  no  opposition  to  the  wish  of  his  chief. 
He  therefore  accepted  the  unpleasant  task,  being  specially  instructed  by 
Clinton  not  to  change  his  dress,  nor,  by  venturing  within  the  American 
lines,  lay  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  being  a  spy. 

To  facilitate  the  design,  the  Vulture  sloop  of  war,  having  Major  Andre 
on  board,  ascended  the  Hudson  river,  as  far  as  Teller's  Point.  Arnold's  diffi- 
culty was  now  to  get  Andre  on  shore.  The  traitor  himself  was  then  occupy- 
ing the  house  of  one  Smith,  either  his  accomplice  or  dupe,  whom  he  persuaded 
to  go  off  and  fetch  him.  At  midnight  on  the  21st  of  September  Smith 
rowed  off  to  the  Vulture.  Andre  descended  into  the  boat,  and  both  landed 
at  the  foot  of  a  lofty  wooded  mountain,  where  Arnold,  concealed  among  the 
trees,  was  anxiously  awaiting  his  arrival.  The  remaining  hours  of  night  were 
too  brief  to  settle  all  the  details  of  their  conference  ;  the  dawn  was  approach- 
ing ;  Smith,  full  of  alarm,  entreated  them  to  break  it  off.  Arnold  urgently 
pressed  Andre  to  accompany  him  as  far  as  Smith's  house,  assuring  him  he 
might  do  so  without  the  slightest  danger.  In  an  evil  hour  he  complied  with 
this  request.  Mounting  a  horse  brought  by  a  servant,  he  passed  with 
Arnold  the  American  lines  at  Haver  straw,  and  having  reached  Smith's 
house,  the  forenoon  was  spent  in  concerting  the  details  of  the  surrender. 
Arnold  furnished  him  with  an  exact  account  of  the  force  at  West  Point,  which 
he  desired  him  to  conceal  in  his  stockings,  gave  him  a  pass,  in  the  name  of 
Anderson,  to  cross  the  lines,  and  then  returned  to  his  head-quarters  at  Robin- 
son's house,  opposite  West  Point. 

Meanwhile,  sensible  that  he  had  come  on  shore  without  a  flag,  Andre 
began  to  be  seriously  uneasy.  He  had  intended  to  return  on  board  the 
Vulture,  but  in  the  interim,  the  commander  of  a  battery  had  opened  a  can- 

3  B 


A.  D. 1780. 


490  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  nonade  on  that  ship,  for  which  he  was  reprimanded,  as  an  idle  waste  of  powder 
and  shot.  That  discharge  decided  the  fate  of  Andre,  and,  perhaps,  the 
destinies  of  America.  The  Vulture  was  obliged  to  retire  some  distance  lower 
down  the  river,  and  Smith,  afraid  to  pass  the  guard  boats,  now  positively 
refused  to  take  Andre  on  board,  but  offered  to  accompany  him  on  horseback 
beyond  the  American  lines,  whence  he  could  return  to  New  York  by  land. 
Having  no  alternative,  Andre  reluctantly  complied,  having,  at  Arnold's  sug- 
gestion, exchanged  his  regimentals  for  an  ordinary  dress.  They  set  out  a 
little  before  sunset,  crossed  the  river  at  King's  Ferry  to  Verplank's  Point, 
and  it  being  now  dark,  took  the  road  towards  New  York.  At  the  outposts  they 
were  challenged  by  a  sentinel.  Andre's  pass  was  closely  scrutinized  by  the 
officer  on  duty,  and  many  and  close  inquiries  addressed  to  him.  At  length, 
to  his  infinite  satisfaction,  he  was  released  with  an  apology,  and  advised  to 
remain  all  night,  on  account  of  the  marauders  with  which  the  neutral  ground 
was  infested.  It  was  only  after  great  persuasion  on  the  part  of  Smith,  that 
Andre  consented  to  do  so,  and  the  former  afterwards  declared  that  he 
passed  the  night  in  great  restlessness  and  uneasiness.  At  the  dawn  of  day 
they  were  again  in  the  saddle  ;  and  now,  considering  himself  beyond  the  reach 
of  danger,  the  spirits  of  the  young  officer,  which  had  hitherto  been  depressed 
by  the  sense  of  danger,  recovered  their  natural  elasticity.  After  breakfast- 
ing on  the  road  they  parted,  and  Andre  continued  his  road  towards  New 
York  alone. 

The  tract  upon  which  he  now  entered  was  called  "  the  Neutral  Ground," 
extending  thirty  miles  along  the  Hudson,  between  the  English  and  American 
lines.  It  was  infested  by  two  gangs  of  marauders,  the  offspring  of  civil 
commotion,  respectively  denominated  Cow-boys  and  Skinners.  The  former 
were  mostly  refugees  attached  to  the  British  side,  who  made  it  their  vocation 
to  drive  off  cattle  to  the  army  at  New  York.  The  Skinners  were  professed 
patriots,  but  were  detested  even  more  than  the  Cow-boys  by  their  own  coun- 
trymen, between  whom  and  the  enemy  they  made  but  small  distinction  in  their 
predatory  expeditions.  The  unhappy  inhabitants,  if  they  embraced  the 
American  cause,  were  robbed  by  the  Cow-boys  ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  they 
espoused  that  of  the  English,  the  Skinners  would  seize  their  goods,  and  have 
their  property  confiscated.  To  use  the  language  of  an  eye-witness, — "  Exposed 
to  the  depredations  of  both  parties,  they  were  often  actually  plundered,  and 
always  were  liable  to  this  calamity.  They  feared  every  body  whom  they  saw, 
and  loved  nobody.  To  every  question  they  gave  such  an  answer  as  would 
please  the  inquirer  ;  or,  if  they  despaired  of  pleasing,  such  a  one  as  would  not 
provoke  him.  Fear  was,  apparently,  the  only  passion  by  which  they  were  ani- 
mated. The  power  of  volition  seemed  to  have  deserted  them.  They  were  not 
civil,  but  obsequious ;  not  obliging,  but  subservient.  They  yielded  with  a 
kind  of  apathy,  and  very  quietly,  what  you  asked,  and  what  they  supposed  it 
impossible  for  them  to  retain.  If  you  treated  them  kindly,  they  received  it 
coldly ;  not  as  a  kindness,  but  as  a  compensation  for  injuries  done  them  by 
others.  When  you  spoke  to  them,  they  answered  you  without  either  good  or  ill 


A.  D. 1780. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  491 

nature,  and  without  any  appearance  of  reluctance  or  hesitation ;  but  they  sub-  chap. 
joine'd  neither  questions  nor  remarks  of  their  own;  proving  to  your  full  con- 
viction that  they  felt  no  interest  either  in  the  conversation  or  yourself.  Both 
their  countenances  and  their  motions  had  lost  every  trace  of  animation  and  of 
feeling.  Their  features  were  smoothed,  not  into  serenity,  but  apathy;  and,  in- 
stead of  being  settled  in  the  attitude  of  quiet  thinking,  strongly  indicated,  that 
all  thought,  beyond  what  was  merely  instinctive,  had  fled  their  minds  for  ever. 

"  Their  houses,  meantime,  were,  in  a  great  measure,  scenes  of  desolation. 
Their  furniture  was  extensively  plundered,  or  broken  to  pieces.  The  walls, 
floors,  and  windows  were  injured  both  by  violence  and  decay,  and  were  not 
repaired,  because  they  had  not  the  means  to  repair  them,  and  because  they 
were  exposed  to  the  repetition  of  the  same  injuries.  Their  cattle  were  gone. 
Their  enclosures  were  burnt,  where  they  were  capable  of  becoming  fuel; 
and  in  many  cases  thrown  down,  where  they  were  not.  Their  fields  were  co- 
vered with  a  rank  growth  of  weeds  and  wild  grass. 

"  Amid  all  this  appearance  of  desolation,  nothing  struck  the  eye  more  forci- 
bly than  the  sight  of  the  high  road.  Where  there  had  heretofore  been  a 
continual  succession  of  horses  and  carriages,  life  and  bustle  lending  a  spright- 
liness  to  all  the  environing  objects,  not  a  single,  solitary  traveller  was  seen, 
from  week  to  week,  or  from  month  to  month.  The  world  was  motionless  and 
silent,  except  when  one  of  these  unhappy  people  ventured  upon  a  rare  and 
lonely  excursion  to  the  house  of  a  neighbour  no  less  unhappy,  or  a  scouting 
party,  traversing  the  country  in  quest  of  enemies,  alarmed  the  inhabitants 
with  expectations  of  new  injuries  and  sufferings.  The  very  tracks  of  the  car- 
riages were  grown  over  and  obliterated;  and,  where  they  were  discernible, 
resembled  the  faint  impressions  of  chariot-wheels,  said  to  be  left  on  the  pave- 
ments of  Herculaneum.  The  grass  was  of  full  height  for  the  scythe,  and 
strongly  realized  the  proper  import  of  that  picturesque  declaration  in  the  Song 
of  Deborah :  '  In  the  days  of  Shamgar,  the  son  of  Anath,  in  the  days  of  Jael, 
the  high-ways  were  unoccupied,  and  the  travellers  walked  through  by-paths. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  villages  ceased:  they  ceased  in  Israel.'  " 

Both  Cow-boys  and  Skinners  had  a  general  licence  to  arrest  suspicious  per- 
sons, which  they  often  abused  for  purposes  of  plunder.  It  happened  that  on 
the  morning  a  party,  consisting  of  John  Paulding  and  two  associates,  had 
concealed  themselves  by  the  road,  on  the  look-out  for  cattle  or  travellers. 
Paulding,  it  is  said,  had  escaped  from  prison  in  New  York  only  three  days 
before,  in  the  disguise  of  a  German  yager,  which  he  then  wore.  Seeing  a 
gentleman  approach,  he  sprung  out  and  seized  his  bridle,  and  presenting  his 
firelock,  demanded  of  him  where  he  was  going.  Andre,  deceived  by  the 
dress,  exclaimed,  "  Thank  God,  I  am  once  more  among  friends  ! "  and  address- 
ing the  men,  said, (f  I  hope  you  belong  to  our  party."  "  What  party?"  ex- 
claimed his  captors.  "  The  Lower  (or  British)  party,"  was  his  reply — upon 
which,  they  rejoined  that  they  did.  Andre,  thus  deceived,  imprudently 
avowed  himself  a  British  officer  bound  upon  urgent  business.  They  now 
caused  him  to  dismount,  and  conducted  him  into  a  thicket,  cut  his  saddle  and 

8  B  2 


492 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


CHAP. 
V. 


D.1! 


cloak  lining,  as  Andre  himself  declared,  in  quest  of  money,  and  not  finding 
it,  said,  "  He  may  have  it  in  his  boots  ;"  which,  with  his  stockings,  they 
caused  him  to  pull  off.  The  papers  which  Arnold  had  given  him  at  parting 
were  thus  discovered.  Their  suspicions  were  now  aroused,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  offers  of  Andre  to  give  them  what  he  had,  which,  however,  was 
but  a  small  sum  in  paper,  and  send  them  any  amount  they  might  desire, 
Paulding  and  his  companions,  prompted  by  patriotic  motives,  refused  his 
most  tempting  offers,  and  persisted  in  conducting  him  to  North  Castle,  the 
nearest  military  post,  where  he  was  delivered  up  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Jame- 
son, the  officer  in  command. 

Jameson,  having  looked  over  the  papers,  was  in  a  state  of  great  perplexity, 
never  entertaining  the  most  distant  suspicion  of  Arnold.  He  decided  at 
length  on  forwarding  his  prisoner  to  that  general,  informing  him  that  he  had 
sent  the  papers,  found  in  Andre's  boots,  to  Washington,  as  being  of  "  a  very 
dangerous  tendency."  Andre  accordingly  was  on  his  way  to  West  Point,  with 
a  guard,  when  Major  Tallmadge,  next  in  command  to  Jameson,  stated  his  sus- 
picions of  treachery,  and  earnestly  begged  that  the  prisoner  might  be  recalled. 
With  some  reluctance  his  request  was  granted,  the  letter  to  Arnold  was  sent 
forward,  and  Andre,  who  might  otherwise  have  escaped  with  Arnold,  was 
brought  back  again.  Finding  his  papers  had  been  sent  to  Washington,  he 
now  wrote  him  a  letter,  explaining  his  name  and  rank,  and  giving  a  clear  and 
candid  account  of  the  circumstances  under  which  he  had  been  betrayed  within 
the  American  lines.  This  letter  he  handed  to  Tallmadge,  who,  though  he  had 
suspected  that  his  captive  was  a  military  man,  now  found,  to  his  surprise,  that 
he  was  adjutant-general  to  the  British  army. 

Meanwhile  Washington,  who,  on  his  return  from  Hartford,  had  passed  the 
night  at  Fishkill,  set  off  with  his  suite  before  dawn,  with  the  intention  of 
breakfasting  with  Arnold  at  Robinson's  house.  When  nearly  opposite  West 
Point  he  turned  his  horse  down  a  lane,  when  La  Fayette  reminded  him  that  he 
was  taking  the  wrong  road,  and  that  Mrs.  Arnold  was,  no  doubt,  waiting  break- 
fast for  them.  "  Ah,"  replied  Washington,  jokingly,  "  I  know  you  young  men 
are  all  in  love  with  Mrs.  Arnold,  and  wish  to  get  where  she  is  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. You  may  go  and  take  your  breakfast  with  her,  and  tell  her  not  to  wait 
for  me,  for  I  must  ride  down  and  examine  the  redoubts  on  this  side  the  river, 
and  will  be  there  in  a  short  time."  His  officers,  however,  declined  to  leave 
him,  and  two  of  his  aides-de-camp  were  sent  forward  to  explain  the  cause  of 
the  delay. 

On  learning  that  Washington  and  his  suite  would  not  be  there  for  some  time, 
Arnold  and  his  family  sat  down  to  breakfast  with  the  aides.  While  they  were 
yet  at  table,  Lieutenant  Allen  came  in,  and  presented  the  letter  from  Jameson, 
informing  Arnold  that  "  Major  Andre,  of  the  British  army,  was  a  prisoner  in 
his  custody."  Controlling  his  agitation,  he  arose,  with  the  letter  in  his  hand, 
and  telling  his  companions  that  his  presence  was  urgently  required  at  West 
Point,  he  went  upstairs  to  his  wife's  chamber,  and  sent  to  call  her.  In  a  few 
words  he  explained  to  her  that  he  must  fly  for  his  life,  and  that  they  might 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  493 

never  meet  again.     She  fell  in  a  swoon  upon  the  floor.     Kissing  his  child,  he  c  ha  p. 

hastily  descended  to  the  river-side,  and  entered  his  six-oared  barge,  telling  the 

men  that  he  was  going  on  board  the  Vulture  with  a  flag.  Unconscious  of  his 
purpose,  and  stimulated  by  the  promise  of  drink,  they  exerted  themselves  to 
the  utmost  to  reach  the  vessel.  Arnold,  leaping  on  board,  was  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  pursuit. 

Soon  after  he  had  departed,  Washington  returned,  and  after  breakfasting, 
determined  to  cross  over  to  West  Point.  As  the  whole  party  glided  across 
the  river,  surrounded  by  the  majestic  scenery  of  the  Highlands,  Washington 
said,  "  Well,  gentlemen,  I  am  glad,  on  the  whole,  that  General  Arnold  has 
gone  before  us,  for  we  shall  now  have  a  salute,  and  the  roaring  of  the  cannon 
will  have  a  fine  effect  among  these  mountains."  The  boat- drew  near  to  the 
beach,  but  no  cannon  were  heard,  and  there  was  no  appearance  of  preparation 
to  receive  them.  "  What,"  said  Washington,  "  do  they  not  intend  to  salute 
us?"  As  they  landed,  an  officer  descended  the  hill,  and  apologized  for  not 
being  prepared  to  receive  such  distinguished  visitors.  "  How  is  this,  sir," 
said  Washington,  "  is  not  General  Arnold  here  ? "  "No,  sir,"  replied  the 
officer,  "  he  has  not  been  here  these  two  days,  nor  have  I  heard  from  him  within 
that  time."  "  This  is  extraordinary,"  said  Washington,  "  we  were  told  he 
had  crossed  the  river,  and  that  we  should  find  him  here ; "  and  then  ascended 
the  hill,  and  inspected  the  fortifications.  On  his  return  to  the  house  he  was 
encountered  by  Hamilton,  who,  taking  him  aside,  placed  in  his  hands  the 
papers  forwarded  by  Jameson,  together  with  the  letter  of  Andre.  Washing- 
ton was  deeply  distressed,  for  no  officer  had  rendered  more  important  service 
to  America  than  Arnold,  or  might  have  seemed  more  deeply  pledged  to  it. 
*'  Whom  can  we  trust  now  ? "  he  sadly  exclaimed  to  his  companions.  The 
house  was  a  scene  of  misery.  Arnold's  wife  was  frantic  with  grief,  and  the 
sympathies  of  Washington  and  his  officers  were  warmly  excited  for  her  de- 
plorable situation.  Shortly  afterward  a  letter  came  in  from  Arnold,  beg- 
ging protection  for  his  wife  and  child.  "I  have  no  favour,"  said  the 
hardened  traitor,  "  to  ask  for  myself,  I  have  too  often  experienced  the  in- 
gratitude of  my  country  to  attempt  it,  but  from  the  known  humanity  of  your 
Excellency,  I  am  induced  to  ask  your  protection  for  Mrs.  Arnold  from 
every  insult  and  injury  that  a  mistaken  vengeance  of  my  country  might 
expose  her  to.  It  ought  only  to  fall  on  me.  She  is  as  innocent  as  an 
angel,  and  is  incapable  of  doing  wrong."  Such  an  appeal  was  how- 
ever unnecessary,  the  heart  of  Washington  felt  for  the  unhappy  woman, 
and  she  received  from  him  a  pass  to  repair  to  her  husband  at  New 
York. 

To  many  it  has  ever  been  doubtful  whether  this  lady  was  not  the 
tempter  to  her  husband's  crime.  In  the  "  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,"  are  some 
statements  relating  to  the  subject.  "  It  is  well  known  that  Washington  found 
Mrs.  Arnold  apparently  frantic  with  distress  at  the  communication  her  hus- 
band had  made  to  her  the  moment  before  his  flight.  Lafayette,  and  the  other 
officers  in  the  suite  of  the  commander-in-chief,  were  alive  with  the  most 


494  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  poignant  sympathy;  and  a  passport  was  given  her  by  "Washington,  with  which 
■ —  she  immediately  left  West  Point  to  ioin  Arnold  in  New  York.     On  her  way 

A.  D  1780  .  .. 

'  she  stopped  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Prevost,  the  wife  of  a  British  officer,  who 
subsequently  married  Colonel  Burr.  Here  the  frantic  scenes  of  West 
Point  were  renewed,"  says  the  narrative  of  Burr's  biographer,  "  and  con- 
tinued so  long  as  strangers  were  present.  As  soon  as  she  and  Mrs.  Prevost 
were  left  alone,  however,  Mrs.  Arnold  became  tranquillized,  and  assured 
Mrs.  Prevost,  that  she  was  heartily  sick  of  the  theatrics  she  was  exhibiting. 
She  stated  that  she  had  corresponded  with  the  British  commander ;  that  she 
was  disgusted  with  the  American  cause,  and  those  who  had  the  management 
of  public  affairs;  and  that,  through  great  persuasion  and  unceasing  perse- 
verance, she  had  ultimately  brought  the  general  into  an  arrangement  to  sur- 
render West  Point  to  the  British.  Mrs.  Arnold  was  a  gay,  accomplished, 
artful,  and  extravagant  woman.  There  is  no  doubt,  therefore,  that,  for  the 
purpose  of  acquiring  the  means  of  gratifying  her  vanity,  she  contributed 
greatly  to  the  utter  ruin  of  her  husband,  and  thus  doomed  to  everlasting 
infamy  and  disgrace  all  the  fame  he  had  acquired  as  a  gallant  soldier,  at  the 
sacrifice  of  his  blood." 

Andre  was  now  conveyed  to  West  Point,  and  from  thence  sent  down  the 
river  to  Tappan  in  the  custody  of  Major  Tallmadge.  Hitherto  he  appears 
to  have  thought  that,  with  no  intention  of  acting  as  a  spy,  and  being 
reluctantly  persuaded  to  cross  the  lines,  he  had  no  reason  to  fear  for  his  life. 
"  Before  we  reached  the  Clove,"  says  his  conductor,  "  he  became  very  in- 
quisitive to  know  my  opinion  as  to  the  result  of  his  capture.  When  I  could 
no  longer  evade  his  importunity,  I  remarked  to  him  as  follows : — '  I  had  a  much- 
loved  class-mate  in  Yale  College,  by  the  name  of  Hale,  who  entered  the  army 
in  1775.  Immediately  after  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  Washington  wanted 
information  respecting  the  strength  of  the  enemy.  Hale  tendered  his  services, 
went  over  to  Brooklyn,  and  was  taken,  just  as  he  was  passing  the  outposts  of 
the  enemy  on  his  return.'  Said  I,  with  emphasis,  f  Do  you  remember  the 
sequel  of  the  story?'  'Yes,'  said  Andre,  f  he  was  hanged  as  a  spy.  But 
you  surely  do  not  consider  his  case  and  mine  alike  ! '  I  replied,  '  Yes,  pre- 
cisely similar,  and  similar  will  be  your  fate.'  He  endeavoured  to  answer  my 
remarks,  but  it  was  manifest  he  was  more  troubled  in  spirit  than  I  had  ever 
seen  him  before." 

The  first  object  of  the  commander-in-chief  was  to  take  measures  to  defeat 
the  intended  movements  concerted  with  Clinton.  His  position  was  very  em- 
barrassing. Rumours  were  circulating,  though  without  foundation,  that  others 
were  implicated  in  the  treachery  of  Arnold.  He  resolved  however  to  treat 
every  one  as  innocent  until  criminated  by  fair  evidence,  and  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  finding  that  treason  was  confined  to  the  breast  of  Arnold  alone. 
On  the  arrival  of  Andre  at  Tappan,  a  court-martial,  consisting  of  the  first 
officers  in  the  army,  and  presided  over  by  Greene,  was  appointed  to  try  him. 
On  being  examined,  the  prisoner  candidly  recapitulated  what  he  had  already 
stated  in  his  letter  to  Washington.     His  own  statements,  without  any  further 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  495 

evidence,  were  sufficient  to  convict  him.     The  board  reported  that  he  had  c  ha  p. 
come  on  shore  to  hold  a  secret  interview  with  Arnold,  had  changed  his  dress 


within  the  American  lines,  passed  the  guards  in  a  disguised  habit  and  name, 
having  about  him  papers  containing  information  for  the  enemy.  These  cir- 
cumstances, they  considered,  justified  them  in  regarding  him  as  a  spy,  and  he 
was  accordingly  sentenced  to  suffer  death  by  hanging. 

Ever  since  his  capture,  the  unhappy  prisoner  had  made  the  most  favour- 
able impression.  The  elegance  of  his  manners,  his  openness  and  candour, 
his  many  accomplishments,  caused  even  his  judges  to  deplore  his  fate,  and 
heartily  desire  a  less  interesting  victim.  He  bore  the  intelligence  of  his 
sentence  with  manly  firmness,  his  chief  anxiety  being  to  exonerate  himself 
from  the  odium  attached  to  the  character  of  a  spy.  The  duty  upon  which 
he  was  sent  was  one  strictly  within  the  limits  of  military  law,  and  it  was  by 
accident,  not  by  premeditation,  that  he  committed  the  imprudence  of  passing 
within  the  American  lines,  by  which  circumstance,  and  by  which  alone,  he 
could  fairly  be  condemned  to  death.  On  learning  the  nature  of  his  sentence, 
Andre  wrote  a  pathetic  letter  to  Washington,  entreating  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  die  the  death  of  a  soldier.  Deeply  affected,  the  commander-in- 
chief  referred  the  subject  to  his  officers,  who  unanimously  desired  that  Andre* 
should  be  shot,  with  the  sole  exception  of  General  Greene,  the  president. 
"  Andre,"  said  he,  "  is  either  a  spy,  or  an  innocent  person.  If  the  latter,  to 
execute  him,  in  any  way,  will  be  murder ;  if  the  former,  the  mode  of  his 
death  is  prescribed  by  law,  and  you  have  no  right  to  alter  it.  Nor  is  this  all. 
At  the  present  alarming  crisis  of  our  affairs  the  public  safety  calls  for  a 
solemn  and  impressive  example.  Nothing  can  satisfy  it  short  of  the  execu- 
tion of  the  prisoner  as  a  common  spy ;  a  character  of  which  his  own  con- 
fession has  clearly  convicted  him.  Beware  how  you  suffer  your  feelings  to 
triumph  over  your  judgment.  Indulgence  to  one  may  be  death  to  thousands. 
Through  mistaken  sensibility,  humanity  may  be  wounded,  and  the  cause  of 
freedom  sustain  an  injury  you  cannot  remedy. 

"  Besides,  if  you  shoot  the  prisoner  instead  of  hanging  him,  you  will  excite 
suspicions  which  you  will  be  unable  to  allay.  Notwithstanding  all  your 
efforts  to  the  contrary,  you  will  awaken  public  compassion,  and  the  belief  will 
become  general  that,  in  the  case  of  Major  Andre,  there  were  exculpatory 
circumstances,  entitling  him  to  lenity  beyond  what  he  received — perhaps 
entitling  him  to  pardon.  Hang  him,  therefore,  or  set  him  free."  The  argu- 
ments of  Greene  prevailed,  and  the  ignominious  sentence  was  accordingly 
confirmed. 

Compassion  for  Andre  and  detestation  for  Arnold  now  suggested  to 
Washington  the  idea  of  effecting,  if  possible,  an  exchange,  and  transferring  the 
penalty  to  be  incurred  by  the  former,  upon  the  guilty  head  of  the  latter. 
This  proposal  was  indirectly  made  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  but  deeply  as  he 
loved  Andre,  and  much  as  he  must  have  despised  Arnold,  yet  honour 
forbade  that  he  should  give  up  the  traitor  to  the  vengeance  of  his  injured 
country. 


A.  D. 1780. 


v. 


a.  D.  1; 


496  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  The  last  hours  of  the  unhappy  young  man  are  best  described  in  Dr.  Thatcher's 
.  Military  Journal.  "  October  1st,  1780. — I  went  this  afternoon  to  witness  the 
"  execution  of  Major  Andre. — A  large  concourse  of  people  had  assembled,  the 
gallows  was  erected,  and  the  grave  and  coffin  prepared  to  receive  the  remains 
of  this  celebrated  but  unfortunate  officer ;  but  a  flag  of  truce  arrived  with  a 
communication  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  making  another  and  further  pro- 
posal for  the  release  of  Major  Andre,  in  consequence  of  which  the  execution 
was  postponed  till  to-morrow,  at  twelve  o'clock. 

"  The  flag  which  came  out  this  morning  brought  General  Robertson,  Andrew 
Eliot,  and  William  Smith,  Esqrs.,  for  the  purpose  of  pleading  for  the  release 
of  Major  Andre,  the  royal  army  being  in  the  greatest  affliction  on  the  occasion. 
The  two  latter  gentlemen,  not  being  military  officers,  were  not  permitted  to 
land,  but  General  Greene  was  appointed  by  his  Excellency  to  meet  General 
Robertson  at  Dobb's  Ferry  and  to  receive  his  communications.  He  had 
nothing  material  to  urge,  but  that  Andre  had  come  on  shore  under  the 
sanction  of  a  flag,  and  therefore  could  not  be  considered  as  a  spy.  But  this  is 
not  true:  he  came  on  shore  in  the  night,  and  had  no  flag,  on  business  totally 
incompatible  with  the  nature  of  a  flag.  Besides,  Andre  himself  candidly  con- 
fessed, on  his  trial,  that  he  did  not  consider  himself  under  the  sanction  of  a 
flag.  General  Robertson,  having  failed  in  his  point,  requested  that  the  opinion 
of  disinterested  persons  might  be  taken,  and  proposed  Generals  Knyphausen 
and  Rochambeau  as  proper  persons.  After  this  he  had  recourse  to  threats  of 
retaliation  on  some  people  in  New  York  and  Charlestown,  but  he  was  told 
that  such  conversation  could  neither  be  heard  nor  understood.  He  next 
urged  the  release  of  Andre  on  motives  of  humanity,  saying,  he  wished  an 
intercourse  of  such  civilities  as  might  lessen  the  horrors  of  war,  and  cited 
instances  of  General  Clinton's  merciful  disposition,  adding  -that  Andre  pos- 
sessed a  great  share  of  that  gentleman's  affection  and  esteem,  and  that  he  would 
be  infinitely  obliged  if  he  was  spared.  He  offered,  if  his  earnest  wishes 
were  complied  with,  to  engage  that  any  prisoner  in  their  possession,  whom 
General  Washington  might  name,  should  immediately  be  set  at  liberty.  But 
it  must  be  viewed  as  the  height  of  absurdity  that  General  Robertson  should, 
on  this  occasion,  suffer  himself  to  be  the  bearer  of  a  letter  which  the  vile  traitor 
had  the  consummate  effrontery  to  write  to  General  Washington.  This  insolent 
letter  is  filled  with  threats  of  retaliation,  and  the  accountability  of  his  Excel- 
lency for  the  torrents  of  blood  that  might  be  shed,  if  he  should  order  the 
execution  of  Major  Andre.  It  would  seem  impossible  that  General  Ro- 
bertson could  suppose  that  such  insolence  would  receive  any  other  treat- 
ment than  utter  contempt. 

"  October  2nd.  Major  Andre  is  no  more  among  the  living.  I  have  just 
witnessed  his  exit.  It  was  a  tragical  scene  of  the  deepest  interest.  During 
his  confinement  and  trial,  he  exhibited  those  proud  and  elevated  sensibilities 
which  designate  greatness  and  dignity  of  mind.  Not  a  murmur  or  a  sigh  ever 
escaped  him,  and  the  civilities  and  attentions  bestowed  on  him  were  politely 
acknowledged.     Having  left  a  mother  and  two  sisters  in  England,  he  was 


V. 


A.  D.  17i 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  497 

heard  to  mention  them  in  terms  of  the  greatest  affection,  and  in  his  letter   c  ha  p. 
to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  he  recommends  them  to  his  particular  attention. 

"  The  principal  guard  officer,  who  was  constantly  in  the  room  with  the 
prisoner,  relates,  that  when  the  hour  of  his  execution  was  announced  to  him 
in  the  morning,  he  received  it  without  emotion,  and  while  all  present  were 
affected  with  silent  gloom,  he  retained  a  firm  countenance,  with  a  calmness 
and  composure  of  mind.  Observing  his  servant  enter  his  room  in  tears,  he 
exclaimed,  'Leave  me,  till  you  can  show  yourself  more  manly.'  His  break- 
fast being  sent  him  from  the  table  of  General  Washington,  which  had  been 
done  every  day  of  his  confinement,  he  partook  of  it  as  usual,  and  having 
shaved  and  dressed  himself,  he  placed  his  hat  on  the  table,  and  cheerfully 
said  to  the  guard  officers,  1 1  am  ready  at  any  moment,  gentlemen,  to  wait 
on  you.'  The  fatal  hour  having  arrived,  a  large  detachment  of  troops  was 
paraded,  and  an  immense  concourse  of  people  assembled;  almost  all  our 
general  and  field  officers,  excepting  his  Excellency  and  his  staff,  were 
present  on  horseback ;  melancholy  and  gloom  pervaded  all  ranks,  and  the 
scene  was  affectingly  awful.  I  was  so  near  during  the  solemn  march  to  the 
fatal  spot,  as  to  observe  every  movement,  and  participate  in  every  emotion 
which  the  melancholy  scene  was  calculated  to  produce.  Major  Andre  walked 
from  the  stone -house,  in  which  he  had  been  confined,  between  two  of  our 
subaltern  officers,  arm  in  arm ;  the  eyes  of  the  immense  multitude  were  fixed 
on  him,  who,  rising  superior  to  the  fears  of  death,  appeared  as  if  conscious  of 
the  dignified  deportment  which  he  displayed.  He  betrayed  no  want  of  forti- 
tude, but  retained  a  complacent  smile  on  his  countenance,  and  politely  bowed 
to  several  gentlemen  whom  he  knew,  which  was  respectfully  returned.  It 
was  his  earnest  desire  to  be  shot,  as  being  the  mode  of  death  most  conform- 
able to  the  feelings  of  a  military  man,  and  he  had  indulged  the  hope  that  his 
request  would  be  granted.  At  the  moment,  therefore,  when  suddenly  he 
came  in  view  of  the  gallows,  he  involuntarily  started  backward,  and  made  a 
pause.  '  Why  this  emotion,  sir  ? '  said  an  officer  by  his  side.  Instantly  re- 
covering his  composure,  he  said,  f  I  am  reconciled  to  my  death,  but  I  detest 
the  mode.'  While  waiting  and  standing  near  the  gallows,  I  observed  some 
degree  of  trepidation  ;  placing  his  foot  upon  a  stone,  and  rolling  it  over,  and 
choking  in  his  throat,  as  if  attempting  to  swallow.  So  soon,  however,  as  he 
perceived  that  things  were  in  readiness,  he  stepped  quickly  into  the  waggon, 
and  at  this  moment  he  appeared  to  shrink,  but  instantly  elevating  his  head, 
with  firmness,  he  said,  ( It  will  be  but  a  momentary  pang  ;'  and  taking  from 
his  pocket  two  white  handkerchiefs,  the  provost-marshal,  with  one,  loosely 
pinioned  his  arms,  and  with  the  other,  the  victim,  after  taking  off  his  hat  and 
stock,  bandaged  his  own  eyes  with  perfect  firmness,  which  melted  the  hearts 
and  moistened  the  cheeks,  not  only  of  his  servant,  but  of  the  throng  of  spec- 
tators. The  rope  being  appended  to  the  gallows,  he  slipped  the  noose  over 
his  head,  and  adjusted  it  to  his  neck,  without  the  assistance  of  the  awkward 
executioner.  Colonel  Scammel  now  informed  him,  that  he  had  an  opportunity 
to  speak,  if  he  desired  it ;  he  raised  his  handkerchief  from  his  eyes,  and  said, 

3  s 


498  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  f  J  pray  yOU  to  bear  me  witness  that  I  meet  my  fate  like  a  brave  man.'  The 
•^  |78Q  waggon  being  now  removed  from  under  him,  he  was  suspended,  and  instantly- 
expired  ;  it  proved  indeed  '  but  a  momentary  pang.'  He  was  dressed  in 
his  royal  regimentals  and  boots,  and  his  remains  were  placed  in  an  ordinary 
coffin  and  interred  at  the  foot  of  the  gallows ;  and  the  spot  was  consecrated 
by  the  tears  of  thousands." 

The  spot  where  Andre  suffered  is  near  Tappan,  and  marked  by  a  large 
stone  with  an  inscription.  His  remains  were  taken  up  in  1831,  by  desire  of 
the  British  consul  at  New  York,  and  it  was  found  that  a  peach  tree  planted 
by  some  sympathetic  friend  had  twined  its  roots  around  his  skull.  They 
were  finally  deposited  near  the  handsome  monument  erected  to  his  memory 
in  Westminster  Abbey.  His  captors  were  rewarded  with  a  handsome  an- 
nuity by  Congress. 

Arnold  received  ten  thousand  pounds  for  his  treachery,  and  the  rank  of 
colonel  in  the  British  army.  Many  attempts  were  made  by  the  Americans  to 
get  possession  of  the  traitor,  in  order  to  inflict  upon  him  the  punishment  due 
to  his  crime.  One  of  these  is  strikingly  romantic.  "Washington  having 
secretly  requested  Major  Lee  to  pick  out  an  individual  of  tried  fidelity  and 
courage,  his  choice  fell  upon  Serjeant  Champe,  who  was  instructed  to  desert  to 
the  enemy  at  New  York,  get  introduced  to  Arnold,  and  concert  measures  for 
seizing  and  carrying  him  off.  Accordingly,  one  night  he  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  off,  but  his  escape  was  speedily  discovered  and  reported  to  his  com- 
manding officer.  Lee,  anxious  to  gain  time,  contrived  to  delay  pursuit  of  the 
supposed  deserter  as  long  as  possible,  but  with  such  ardour  was  the  chase 
kept  up,  that  Champe  had  barely  time  to  reach  the  shore  and  swim  off  to  a 
British  guard-boat,  when  his  pursuers  were  close  upon  his  heels. 

As  it  was  the  policy  of  the  British  to  encourage  desertions,  Champe  was 
handsomely  rewarded  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  who  desired  him  to  present 
himself  to  Arnold,  then  occupied  in  raising  a  legion  of  runaway  recruits.  In 
this  he  enlisted  in  order  to  have  free  access  to  his  person,  and  sent  word 
privately  to  Lee  to  meet  him  with  horses  on  the  other  side  of  the  Hudson. 
His  plan  was,  with  two  accomplices,  to  seize  and  gag  Arnold  in  his  garden, 
not  far  from  the  water,  and  in  case  of  interruption,  declare  that  he  was  a 
drunken  soldier  whom  they  were  carrying  off  to  the  guard-house.  They 
were  then  to  hurry  him  into  a  boat  and  cross  the  river  to  the  appointed  ren- 
dezvous. Thither  Lee  accordingly  repaired,  and  waited  long  and  anxiously, 
but  in  vain.  The  plan  was  disconcerted  by  the  sudden  departure  of  Arnold 
and  his  legion  to  the  south,  and  thus  Champe,  instead  of  being  the  captor, 
was  himself  insnared  and  carried  off.  Arrived  at  length  in  Virginia,  he  con- 
trived to  desert  and  make  his  way  back  to  his  old  comrades,  who  received 
him  as  one  alive  from  the  dead ;  and  the  mystery  of  his  disappearance  being 
now  explained,  he  was  extolled  as  much  as  he  had  been  formerly  execrated. 

Convenient  as  was  the  treachery  of  Arnold  to  the  British,  they  could  not 
but  secretly  detest  his  character.  From  motives  the  most  sordid,  he  for- 
feited a  dearly-earned  and  brilliant  reputation  among  his  own  countrymen, 


c 


A.  D. 1780. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  499 

to  reap  contempt  and  ignominy  among  strangers.  We  shall  shortly  find  him  chap. 
turning  his  sword  against  his  fellow-citizens,  and  plundering  those  whom  he 
had  formerly  laboured  to  protect.  He  afterwards  went  to  England,  where  he 
must  have  been  often  cut  to  the  soul  by  the  treatment  he  received.  Even 
the  patronage  of  royalty  could  not  bespeak  him  a  decent  measure  of  respect. 
When  George  III.  once  introduced  him  to  Earl  Balcarras,  one  of  Burgoyne's 
officers  who  had  witnessed  his  gallantry  at  Behmus*  Heights,  the  earl  re- 
plied, disdainfully  turning  on  his  heel,  "  I  know  General  Arnold,  and  abom- 
inate traitors." 

It  may  be  remarked  in  connexion  with  this  subject,  that  many  secret 
agents  were  employed  by  Washington  during  the  progress  of  the  war.  Of 
these  the  most  remarkable  was  Enoch  Crosby,  whose  operations  as  a  spy  were 
chiefly  on  the  neutral  ground.  His  secret  services  were  often  important 
in  revealing  the  designs  of  the  royalists.  Professing  himself  to  be  a 
zealous  Tory,  he  obtained  access  to  their  meetings,  and  though  he  often  be- 
trayed their  plans,  such  was  his  consummate  tact,  that  he  never  was  dis- 
covered. On  one  occasion,  finding  that  a  party  were  forming  to  join  the 
English  at  New  York,  he  wormed  himself  into  the  confidence  of  their  leader, 
and  during  the  night  stole  off  and  gave  information  to  their  enemies.  While, 
at  his  suggestion,  a  meeting  was  held  the  following  evening,  the  whole  party, 
himself  inclusive,  were  surrounded  and  made  prisoners,  and  confined  in  a 
neighbouring  church.  A  means  of  escape  was  however  artfully  left  him,  and 
leaping  through  a  window  he  darted  off,  a  few  bullets  being  fired  after  him 
at  random,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  deception.  In  this  manner  and  at  great 
personal  risk  he  rendered  important  services  to  his  country's  cause.  Being 
at  length  suspected  by  the  English,  he  went  into  the  army  to  the  close  of  the 
revolution,  and  ended  his  days  upon  a  farm.  Washington  had  also  agents 
in  New  York,  who,  unknown  to  each  other,  supplied  him  with  information 
through  different  channels.  Intelligence  was  conveyed  by  means  of  writing 
in  invisible  ink  between  the  lines  of  an  ordinary  letter,  so  that  if  intercepted 
the  risk  of  detection  was  but  trifling. 

The  banks  of  the  Hudson,  besides  being  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  in 
America,  are  for  ever  associated  with  these  events.  Here  Washington  had 
his  head-quarters  during  the  latter  part  of  the  war.  Here  occurred  the  trea- 
son of  Arnold  and  the  tragedy  of  the  unfortunate  Andre.  The  ruins  of  Fort 
Putnam  overlook  a  magnificent  scene  of  river  and  mountain,  the  theatre  of 
these  memorable  events.  Many  a  scene  of  thrilling  adventure  is  connected 
with  the  "  Neutral  Ground."  The  Marquis  of  Chastellux,  in  his  travels, 
gives  so  lively  a  picture  of  the  American  camp  in  the  midst  of  this  noble 
scenery,  that  we  cannot  refrain  from  inserting  it,  to  give  life  and  reality  to 
the  bare  and  indistinct  outline  of  historical  fact. 

"  On  my  return  southward,"  says  Chastellux,  "  I  spent  a  day  or  two  at 
Verplank's  Point,  where  I  had  the  honour  of  dining  with  General  Washing- 
ton. I  had  suffered  severely  from  an  ague,  which  I  could  not  get  quit  of, 
though  I  had  taken  the  exercise  of  a  hard-trotting  horse,  and  got  thus  far  to 

3  s  2 


500 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


CHAP. 
V. 


the  north  in  the  month  of  October.  The  General  observing  it,  told  me  he  was 
sure  I  had  not  met  with  a  good  glass  of  wine  for  some  time, — an  article  then 
very  rare, — but  that  my  disorder  must  be  frightened  away.  He  made  me 
drink  three  or  four  of  his  silver  camp  cups  of  excellent  Madeira  at  noon,  and 
recommended  to  me  to  take  a  generous  glass  of  claret  after  dinner ;  a  pre- 
scription by  no  means  repugnant  to  my  feelings,  and  which  I  most  religiously 
followed.  I  mounted  my  horse  the  next  morning,  and  continued  my  journey 
to  Massachusetts,  without  ever  experiencing  the  slightest  return  of  my  dis- 
order. 

"  The  American  camp  here  presented  the  most  beautiful  and  picturesque 
appearance.  It  extended  along  the  plain,  on  the  neck  of  land  formed  by  the 
winding  of  the  Hudson,  and  had  a  view  of  this  river  to  the  south.  Behind  it, 
the  lofty  mountains,  covered  with  wood,  formed  the  most  sublime  back-ground 
that  painting  could  express.  In  the  front  of  the  tents  was  a  regular  continued 
portico,  formed  by  the  boughs  of  the  trees  in  full  verdure,  decorated  with 
much  taste  and  fancy.  Opposite  the  camp,  and  on  distinct  eminences,  stood 
the  tents  of  some  of  the  general  officers,  over  which  towered  predominant  that 
of  Washington.  I  had  seen  all  the  camps  in  England,  from  many  of  which 
drawings  and  engravings  have  been  taken ;  but  this  was  truly  a  subject 
worthy  the  pencil  of  the  first  artist.  The  French  camp,  during  their  stay  in 
Baltimore,  was  decorated  in  the  same  manner.  At  the  camp  at  Verplank's 
Point  we  distinctly  heard  the  morning  and  evening  gun  of  the  British  at 
Kingsbridge." 

"  The  weather  being  fair  on  the  26th,"  he  says,  "  I  got  on  horseback,  after 
breakfasting  with  the  General.  He  was  so  attentive  as  to  give  me  the  horse 
I  rode  on  the  day  of  my  arrival.  I  found  him  as  good  as  he  is  handsome ;  but, 
above  all,  perfectly  well  broke  and  well  trained,  having  a  good  mouth,  easy 
in  hand,  and  stopping  short  in  a  gallop  without  bearing  the  bit.  I  mention 
these  minute  particulars,  because  it  is  the  General  himself  who  breaks  all  his 
own  horses.  He  is  an  excellent  and  bold  horseman,  leaping  the  highest 
fences,  and  going  extremely  quick  without  standing  upon  his  stirrups,  bearing 
on  the  bridle,  or  letting  his  horse  run  wild ;  circumstances  which  our  young 
men  look  upon  as  so  essential  a  part  of  English  horsemanship  that  they  would 
rather  break  a  leg  or  an  arm  than  renounce  them." 

Amidst  the  fast-fading  relics  of  the  revolution,  the  "  Hasbrouck  House," 
near  N ewburgh,  still  attracts  the  pious  footsteps  of  the  pilgrim,  as  being  the 
head-quarters  of  Washington  during  the  last  years  of  the  war.  It  is,  for 
America,  rather  antiquated,  being  no  less  than  a  hundred  years  old.  Its 
lofty  pointed  gables,  ponderous  roofs,  and  picturesque  piazza,  mark  the  style 
of  those  mansions  which  are  so  rapidly  disappearing  before  more  showy 
modern  edifices.  The  principal  chamber,  used  as  a  sort  of  levee  room  by 
Washington,  is  of  great  size,  with  a  fire-place  large  enough  to  roast  an  ox, 
and  its  low  roof  is  supported  by  ponderous  wooden  beams,  like  those  of  an 
old  English  farm.  It  looks  out  upon  one  of  the  most  magnificent  river  scenes 
in  the  world.     The  noble  Hudson  is  seen  entering  the  romantic  pass  of  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  501 

Highlands  between  parallel  ranges  of  mountains,  upon  whose  lofty  wood-    chap. 
crowned   heights,  in   those   days,  were    often   seen   the  watch-fires    of  the ■ — 

a  A.  D.  17  SO. 

American  army. 

The  rapid  progress  of  events  on  the  soil  of  America  has  withdrawn  our  at- 
tention from  one  of  the  earlier  and  most  important  actors  in  the  revolution, 
now  transported  to  a  distant  shore.  Franklin  had  lately  been  appointed  sole 
commissioner  to  the  coast  of  France,  and  was  conspicuous  amidst  that  scene 
of  luxury  and  splendour,  so  near  to  the  brink  of  a  terrible  convulsion.  The 
queen,  Marie  Antoinette,  had  been  one  of  the  warmest  friends  to  the  Ameri- 
can cause,  and  her  influence  had  procured  for  them  many  important  ser- 
vices. Of  this  the  people  were  well  aware,  and  on  the  settlement  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  war,  the  chief  town  was  called,  in  honour 
of  her,  Marietta.  "  She  was,"  to  use  the  words  of  Leitch  Ritchie,  "  a  frivolous 
but  not  unamiable  beauty.  She  was  full  of  whims,  and  was  determined  to 
gratify  them,  at  whatever  cost.  She  went  in  disguise  to  the  balls  at  the 
opera,  and  delighted  to  mix  among  the  masks,  and  spread  the  report  of  her 
own  presence.  At  Trianon  she  passed  to  an  opposite  extreme,  and  would 
be  a  simple  milkmaid,  dressed  in  a  white  muslin  gown,  with  a  gauze  kerchief 
and  a  straw  bonnet.  She  fished  in  the  lake,  she  saw  the  cows  milked,  she 
loitered  about  the  whole  day,  while  the  Count  de  Provence  took  the  part  of  a 
miller,  the  Count  d'Artois  of  a  farmer,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan  of  a 
village  curate.  Here  there  was  no  court  ceremony.  No  one  stood  up  when 
she  entered  the  room,  the  ladies  went  on  with  their  music  or  embroidery, 
and  the  gentlemen  with  their  gaming.  Private  theatricals  were  the  great 
amusement,  and  the  king  was  very  happy  to  look  on.  Here  she  received 
many  crOwned  heads  and  gave  them  fetes,  at  which  the  gardens  were  illum- 
inated with  variegated  lamps,  and  looked  like  fairy-land.  Among  the  glit- 
tering throng  there  was  one  who  attracted  special  attention,  and  whose 
presence  was  afterwards  looked  upon  as  an  omen.  He  was  a  venerable  old 
man,  with  white  hair,  round  hat,  and  plain  brown  clothes.  His  name  was 
Benjamin  Franklin,  and  he  had  come  over  from  America  to  stir  up  the 
French  in  favour  of  his  country,  which  was  about  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
England  and  become  a  republic.  Unhappily  for  monarchy,  his  voice  was 
listened  to.  The  national  hatred  of  the  English  prevailed,  and  the  troops  of 
an  absolute  king  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  fight  side  by  side  with  republicans, 
and,  when  the  victory  was  gained,  to  bring  back  into  the  bosom  of  excited 
France  the  war  of  freedom  and  detestation  of  royalty." 

That  Franklin  once  regarded  George  III.  with  feelings  of  sincere  loyalty, 
and  believed  that  he  had  been  led  unwillingly  into  the  war  by  his  ministers, 
has  already  appeared.  He  had  now  seen  reason  completely  to  change  his 
opinion,  and  believed  that  it  was  the  obstinacy  of  the  monarch  himself 
which  compelled  his  ministers  to  continue  the  struggle,  even  after  it  had  be- 
come evident  that  success  on  their  part  was  hopeless.  The  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing was  violent,  and  nothing  could  exceed  the  bitterness  with  which  he  now 


A.D.I  780. 


502  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

e  h  a  p.  spoke  and  wrote  of  the  king.  In  the  violence  of  Franklin's  feelings,  the  voice 
of  an  impartial  philosophy  was  not  allowed  to  suggest,  that  the  maintenance 
of  his  empire  in  America,  against  what  he  believed  to  be  rebellion,  might 
have  been  as  conscientious,  though  mistaken,  a  principle  of  action  in  the  mind 
of  George  III.,  as  was  the  resistance  of  the  Americans  to  what  they  rightfully 
regarded  to  be  an  unconstitutional  tyranny. 

No  doubt  the  bitterness  of  Franklin's  feelings  was  greatly  aggravated  by 
his  profound  detestation  of  war.  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Price,  one  of  the  warmest 
friends  of  America  in  England,  he  anticipates  a  state  of  things,  which  let  us 
hope  is  fast  approaching.  "  We  daily  make  improvements  in  natural,  there 
is  one  I  wish  to  see  in  moral  philosophy — the  discovery  of  a  plan  that  would 
induce  and  oblige  nations  to  settle  their  disputes  without  first  cutting  each 
others'  throats.  When  will  human  reason  be  sufficiently  improved  to  see  the 
advantage  of  this  ?  When  will  men  be  convinced  that  even  successful  wars  at 
length  become  misfortunes  to  those  who  unjustly  commenced  them,  and  who 
triumphed  blindly  in  their  success,  not  seeing  all  its  consequences  ?  Your 
great  comfort  and  mine  in  this  war  is,  that  we  honestly  and  faithfully  did 
every  thing  in  our  power  to  prevent  it." 

Another  of  Franklin's  letters  is  extremely  interesting,  as  showing  the  feel 
ings  with  which  Washington  was  even  then  regarded  in  Europe. 

"  I  have  received  but  lately  the  letter  your  Excellency  did  me  the  honour 
of  writing  to  me,  in  recommendation  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette.  His 
modesty  detained  it  long  in  his  own  hands.  We  became  acquainted,  how- 
ever, from  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Paris ;  and  his  zeal  for  the  honour  of  our 
country,  his  activity  in  our  affairs  here,  and  his  firm  attachment  to  our  cause, 
and  to  you,  impressed  me  with  the  same  regard  and  esteem  for  him  that  your 
Excellency's  letter  would  have  done,  had  it  been  immediately  delivered 
to  me. 

"  Should  peace  arrive  after  another  campaign  or  two,  and  afford  us  a  little 
leisure,  I  should  be  happy  to  see  your  Excellency  in  Europe,  and  to  accom- 
pany  you,  if  my  age  and  strength  would  permit,  in  visiting  some  of  its  ancient 
and  most  famous  kingdoms.  You  would,  on  this  side  the  sea,  enjoy  the  great 
reputation  you  have  acquired,  pure  and  free  from  those  little  shades,  that  the 
jealousy  and  envy  of  a  man's  countrymen  and  contemporaries  are  ever  endea- 
vouring to  cast  over  living  merit.  Here  you  would  know,  and  enjoy,  what 
posterity  will  say  of  Washington.  For  a  thousand  leagues  have  nearly  the 
same  effect  with  a  thousand  years.  The  feeble  voice  of  those  grovelling  pas- 
sions cannot  extend  so  far  either  in  time  or  distance.  At  present  I  enjoy 
that  pleasure  for  you,  as  I  frequently  hear  the  old  generals  of  this  martial  coun- 
try (who  study  the  maps  of  America  and  mark  upon  them  all  your  opera- 
tions) speak  with  sincere  approbation  and  great  applause  of  your  conduct, 
and  join  in  giving  you  the  character  of  one  of  the  greatest  captains  of 
the  age. 

"  I  must  soon  quit  the  scene,  but  you  may  live  to  see  our  country  flour- 
ish ;  as  it  will,  amazingly  and  rapidly,  after  the  war  is  over  ;    like  a  field  of 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  503 

Indian  corn,  which  long  fair  weather  and  sunshine  had  enfeebled  chap. 


and  discoloured,  and  which,  in  that  weak  state,  by  a  thunder  gust  of  violent 
wind,  hail,  and  rain,  seemed  to  be  threatened  with  absolute  destruction ;  yet, 
the  storm  being  past,  it  recovers  fresh  verdure,  shoots  up  with  double  vigour, 
and  delights  the  eye,  not  of  its  owner  only,  but  of  every  observing  traveller." 
If  the  harshness  with  which  England  had  treated  her  American  children 
had  provoked  the  general  reprobation  of  Europe,  the  spirit  with  which  she 
bore  up  against  the  combined  attacks  of  her  enemies  excited  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  world.  The  struggle  in  which  she  had  become  involved  threat- 
ened to  involve  her  single-handed  in  hostilities  with  all  Europe,  as  well  as 
the  rebellious  colonists.  Her  claim  to  exercise  a  despotic  sovereignty  over 
the  ocean  by  examining  neutral  vessels  for  stores  sent  to  America,  had|  pro- 
voked the  northern  powers  to  combine  for  their  mutual  protection,  under  the 
title  of  the  Armed  Neutrality.  They  insisted  that  their  ships  should  be  ex- 
empt from  search,  and  that  no  port  should  be  considered  blockaded  unless 
really  invested  by  ships  of  war.  Great  Britain  was  obliged  to  renounce  her 
pretensions  rather  than  provoke  so  formidable  a  confederacy.  The  magistrates 
of  Amsterdam  having  showed  a  disposition  to  join  the  Armed  Neutrality, 
Henry  Laurens  was  sent  over  to  conclude  a  commercial  treaty  with  Hol- 
land. The  ship  he  sailed  in  being  taken  by  the  British,  he  threw  his  papers 
overboard,  but  one  of  the  sailors  plunged  in  and  recovered  them.  The  plan 
of  the  treaty  being  thus  ascertained,  the  British  government  demanded  satis- 
faction of  the  Dutch,  and,  not  promptly  receiving  it,  declared  war.  The  fleets 
required  to  contend  with  such  a  host  of  enemies  were  immense.  In  the  West 
Indies,  at  the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  even  in  distant  Hindostan,  the  English, 
though  at  a  ruinous  expense,  met  and  eventually  triumphed  over  their  Euro- 
pean enemies,  and  the  origin  of  the  war  was  almost  forgotten  amidst  the  vast 
and  increasing  hostilities  which  it  had  called  into  existence. 


A.D.  1781. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


CAMPAIGN  JP  1781. — MUTINY  OF  THE  TROOPS. — GREENE  AND  CORNWALLIS  IN  THE  SOUTH. — IN- 
VESTMENT AND  CAPTURE  OP  YORKTOWN. — BATTLE  OF  EUTAW  8PRING8. — TREATY  OF  PEACE. — 
MASSACRE   OF  GNADENHUTTEN. — RETIREMENT   OF  WASHINGTON. 

The  last  year  of  this  long  and  weary  struggle,  destined  as  it  was  to  close  so    c  h  a  p- 
memorably  for  the  Americans,  was  gloomy  and  inauspicious  in  the  opening. 
The  regular  troops  had  endured  the  extremity  of  hardship  without  repining, 
but  now,  without  pay  or  clothing,  forgotten  as  it  seemed  by  an  ungrateful 
country,  they  at  length  broke  out  into  mutiny,  and  resolved  to  wring  from 


VI. 


A.D.  1781. 


A. D.  1781. 


504  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C^AP-  the  fears  of  Congress  what  they  had  failed  to  obtain  from  their  justice  or  their 
pity.  On  the  night  of  the  1st  of  January,  at  a  concerted  signal,  the  whole 
Pennsylvania  line  turned  out  and  declared  their  intention  of  marching  upon 
Philadelphia.  Their  officers  sought  in  vain  to  restrain  them  ;  in  their  mood 
of  exasperation  they  killed  one  of  them,  and  wounded  several  others.  When 
even  Wayne  himself  advanced  with  a  cocked  pistol,  they  pointed  their 
bayonets  at  his  breast,  exclaiming,  "  General,  we  love,  we  respect  you,  but 
if  you  fire  you  are  a  dead  man.  We  are  not  going  to  desert  to  the  enemy. 
Were  he  in  sight  this  moment  you  would  see  us  fight  under  your  orders  in 
defence  of  our  country.  We  love  liberty,  but  we  cannot  starve."  Finding 
them  fixed  in  their  determination,  Wayne  sent  provisions  after  them  to  pre- 
vent their  plundering  the  inhabitants,  and  proposed  to  the  Serjeants  who  had 
been  elected  leaders  of  the  revolt  to  send  a  deputation  to  Congress.  The 
soldiers  however  were  not  in  a  mood  to  temporize,  and  insisted  on  marching 
forward.  At  Trenton  they  were  met  by  three  emissaries  of  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, who  had  seized  what  he  thought  the  propitious  moment  to  seduce  them 
by  liberal  promises.  But  however  exasperated  by  their  sufferings,  the  men 
disdained  the  idea,  as  they  said,  of  becoming  Arnolds;  and  they  seized  upon 
their  British  tempters,  who  were  afterwards  tried  and  executed  as  spies. 

In  this  alarming  state  of  things,  when  the  refusal  of  their  claims  might 
induce  them  to  disband  and  return  to  their  homes,  Congress,  obliged  to  bend, 
sent  a  deputation  to  meet  and  conciliate  the  mutineers.  Suffering  as  they 
were,  one  great  cause  of  dissatisfaction  was  the  construction  put  upon  the 
terms  of  enlistment,  which,  as  they  contended,  were  for  three  years  or  the  war, 
instead  of  and  the  war,  whereas  their  officers  insisted  on  having  it.  On  this 
point  Congress  were  obliged  to  give  way,  and  a  considerable  number  were 
disbanded.  A  timely  supply  of  clothing  and  certificates  for  the  speedy  dis- 
charge of  their  arrears  of  pay,  induced  the  remainder  to  resume  their  duty. 

Washington  had  watched  this  sudden  movement  with  the  deepest  anxiety. 
While  he  felt,  on  one  hand,  the  substantial  justice  of  the  demands  thus 
made,  he  feared  lest  a  compliance  with  them  might  induce  the  whole  army 
to  adopt  a  similar  method  of  obtaining  redress.  He  took  this  occasion  of 
urging  upon  the  New  England  States  the  necessity  of  subsidies  that  could 
no  longer  be  safely  denied,  and  a  large  sum  of  money,  equal  to  three  months' 
pay,  the  timely  distribution  of  which  checked  any  disposition  to  mutiny  in  the 
troops  belonging  to  those  States.  But  the  New  Jersey  line  shortly  breaking 
into  revolt,  he  determined  to  employ  the  most  vigorous  measures  of  repression. 
The  precaution  had  already  been  taken  of  ordering  a  thousand  trusty  men  to 
hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  service ;  six  hundred  of  these  were  marched 
down  to  compel  the  rioters  to  surrender.  Their  camp  was  surrounded,  and 
finding  themselves  taken  by  surprise,  they  were  obliged  to  parade  without 
their  arms  and  make  unconditional  submission.  Two  of  the  ringleaders  were 
shot;  and  by  this  painful  but  summary  method,  the  evil  was  prevented  from 
spreading  any  further. 

This  alarming  outbreak  indicated  but  too  plainly  the  diseased  condition  of 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  505 

the  country.  The  paper  money  was  fast  reaching  the  last  stage  of  depression,  c  ha  p. 
The  scheme  for  specific  supplies  to  the  army  had  failed,  the  credit  of  Con- 
gress  was  all  but  annihilated,  and  the  States  neglected  to  pay  the  sums  re- 
spectively required  of  them.  Before  the  agents  of  government  abroad  had 
succeeded  in  negociating  loans,  so  desperate  was  their  need,  Congress  were 
already  issuing  bills  of  credit  upon  the  strength  of  them.  In  such  a  state  of 
things,  it  required  the  resources  of  a  master-mind  to  grapple  with  the  financial 
difficulties  of  the  country.  Such  a  man  was  Robert  Morris,  a  native  of 
England,  who  came  over  to  America  when  but  fifteen  years  of  age ;  and 
entering  into  a  commercial  life,  became  one  of  the  leading  men  of  Phila- 
delphia. "  Though  of  English  birth,"  says  Sullivan,  "he  devoted  himself  to 
the  patriot  side  in  the  revolutionary  contest.  He  had  acquired  great  wealth 
as  a  merchant,  but  he  cheerfully  risked  the  whole  of  it  to  gain  the  independence 
of  his  adopted  country.  The  final  success  of  the  revolution  depended  no  less  on 
the  ability  and  industry  of  this  one  man,  than  on  all  the  armies,  with  Wash- 
ington as  their  chief."  When  Congress  had  exhausted  their  means,  all  other 
means  depended  on  Robert  Morris.  At  one  time  he  had  used  his  own 
personal  credit,  to  the  extent  of  one  million  four  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
to  sustain  the  credit  of  the  United  States.  At  a  critical  moment  he  had 
presented  the  suffering  army  with  a  whole  ship-load  of  clothing  and  ammuni- 
tion. Under  his  auspices,  a  national  bank  was  established,  which  proved  a 
most  important  auxiliary  to  Congress.  Its  bills  payable  on  demand  were 
recognised  as  legal  tender  for  the  public  taxes,  and  by  issuing  exchequer 
notes,  the  government  were  able  to  anticipate  their  produce.  Under  the  able 
management  of  Morris,  public  credit  revived,  and  a  new  impulse  was  com- 
municated to  all  the  operations  of  government.  On  the  relinquishment  of  the 
system  of  boards,  he  was  induced  to  accept  the  post  of  treasurer,  on  the  ex- 
press condition  that  all  transactions  should  be  in  specie  value.  The  doom  of 
the  old  paper  was  now  sealed,  and  it  declined  with  such  rapidity,  that  by  the 
end  of  the  year  it  had  entirely  gone  out  of  circulation. 

After  the  mutiny,  Laurens  was  despatched  to  France,  to  press  more 
urgently  upon  the  government  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  loan,  to  extricate 
the  Americans  from  their  embarrassment.  Before  his  arrival,  Franklin  had 
already  obtained  a  considerable  subsidy,  and  Laurens  now  succeeded  in  get- 
ing  the  French  minister  to  guarantee  a  loan  on  Holland.  These  pecuniary 
succours  were  of  inestimable  value  in  promoting  operations,  upon  which  the 
termination  of  this  long  and  weary  contest  depended. 

When  General  Greene,  at  the  commencement  of  the  year,  had  assumed  the 
command  in  the  south,  he  found  an  army  mostly  of  militia,  consisting  of  less 
than  two  thousand  men,  but  three  days'  provision  in  the  camp,  and  a  wretched 
supply  of  ammunition.  In  front  was  Cornwallis,  with  a  superior  force  and 
master  of  the  country.  Virginia,  herself  menaced  with  a  formidable  invasion, 
was  the  only  source  to  which  he  could  look  for  further  succours.  The  task  might 
well  have  discouraged  the  most  sanguine  mind.  He  had  at  once  to  keep  at 
bay  a  powerful  and  victorious  foe,  to  overawe  the  triumphant  loyalists,  and 

3t 


A.  D. 1781 


506  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  encourage  the  disheartened  republicans.  He  had  to  cover  an  immense 
territory  with  a  force  which,  utterly  insufficient  as  it  was,  it  required  all  his 
resources  and  experience  as  quarter-master-general  to  provide  for.  Yet, 
under  such  disadvantages,  his  bold  and  comprehensive  mind  dared  to  attempt 
the  recovery  of  the  two  Carolinas  and  the  protection  of  Virginia.  His  policy 
was,  to  harass  and  divide  the  royal  army,  intimidate  its  partisans,  cut  off  its 
supplies ;  to  avoid  a  general  engagement,  except  where  victory  could  be  little 
less  ruinous  to  the  royal  army  than  a  defeat;  to  allow  no  repulse  to  discourage 
him,  but  turn  again  on  his  pursuers  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  and  fairly 
exhaust  them  with  a  tedious  and  indecisive  campaign.  He  well  knew  the 
skill  and  energy  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  of  the  officers  by  whom  he  was 
supported.  Yet,  confident  in  his  mental  resources,  he  determined  to  grapple 
with  and  overcome  these  numerous  and  formidable  obstacles. 

Having,  so  far  as  possible,  reorganized  his  army,  Greene  opened  the  cam- 
paign, by  taking  post  himself  at  the  Cheraw  Hill  on  the  Pedee.  He  next 
sent  General  Morgan,  the  brave  commander  of  the  rifles  at  Saratoga,  with 
four  hundred  continentals  under  Colonel  Howard,  Colonel  Washington's 
corps  of  dragoons,  and  a  few  militia,  to  a  position  near  Ninety-six,  in  order 
to  overawe  the  Tories,  who  were  committing  great  ravages  on  the  republi- 
cans, and  encourage  the  latter  to  repair  to  his  standard.  Cornwallis,  whose 
head-quarters  were  at  Winnsborough,  finding  that  Greene  had  thus  divided 
his  forces,  pushed  northward  between  the  Broad  river  and  the  Catawba; 
intending  to  place  himself  between  Greene  and  Morgan,  in  pursuit  of  whom 
he  detached  the  indefatigable  Tarleton.  This  officer  displayed  his  customary 
alacrity,  and  closely  pressed  upon  Morgan,  who,  rather  than  be  overtaken 
at  a  disadvantage,  boldly  came  to  a  halt,  and  determined  to  risk  an  engage- 
ment, the  loss  of  which  would  have  proved  as  fatal  to  himself,  as  it  would 
probably  have  been  ruinous  also  to  Greene. 

Morgan  selected  for  the  purpose  a  spot  called  the  Cowpens,  and  proceeded 
to  draw  up  his  force  with  no  small  measure  of  skill.  In  front  he  placed  his 
militia,  with  orders  to  keep  up  the  fire  as  long  as  possible,  and  then  fall  back 
and  range  with  the  main  body  in  the  rear,  composed  of  his  well-trained  con- 
tinentals and  two  bodies  of  Virginia  militia,  upon  whom  his  chief  reliance  was 
placed.  Colonel  Washington  with  his  cavalry  was  placed  so  as  to  protect  the 
flanks.  Morgan  now  harangued  his  troops,  urging  the  militia  to  remember 
their  families  and  homes,  and  warning  the  continentals  not  to  be  alarmed  at 
the  retreat  of  the  front  line,  that  being  a  part  of  his  plan  and  orders.  Posting 
himself  with  the  main  body,  he  then,  on  the  17th  of  January,  awaited  the 
attack  of  the  English. 

Tarleton  and  his  men,  weary  as  they  were  with  pursuit,  came  up  with  their 
usual  impetuosity,  and  the  line  being  hastily  formed,  rushed  to  the  charge 
with  loud  shouts  and  a  confident  anticipation  of  victory.  The  militia,  after 
delivering  a  discharge,  fell  back,  and  the  victorious  assailants  next  came  in 
contact  with  the  continentals.  With  these  tried  soldiers,  however,  their  success 
was  different,  and  so  obstinate  was  the  struggle  that  Tarleton  was  obliged  to 


A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  507 

order  up  his  reserve,  which  now  outflanked  the  line  of  the  Americans.  To  c ha p 
avoid  the  danger,  Colonel  Howard  ordered  a  portion  of  his  men  to  change 
front,  but  the  order  being  misunderstood,  the  whole  body  fell  back.  At  the 
sight  of  this  supposed  retreat,  the  British  infantry  rushed  forward  with  im- 
petuosity to  complete  their  discomfiture ;  when  their  enemies  unexpectedly 
faced  about  and  delivered  a  close  and  murderous  fire.  To  a  soldier  confident 
of  victory,  nothing  is  so  dangerous  as  a  sudden  revulsion  or  panic.  The  fore- 
most of  the  British  were  thrown  into  confusion,  when,  at  this  critical  moment, 
Howard  ordered  his  men  to  advance  upon  them  with  the  bayonet,  and  from 
pursued  to  become  the  pursuers.  The  British  infantry  now  turned  and  fled, 
while  the  cavalry,  who  had  pursued  the  American  militia,  were  charged  and 
broken  by  Colonel  Washington ;  and  the  whole  of  that  force,  a  moment  before 
confident  of  victory,  now  fled  discomfited  from  the  field.  Not  all  the  efforts  of 
their  officers  could  stay  the  rout.  With  a  handful  of  his  dragoons  and  several 
officers,  Tarleton  turned  fiercely  upon  Colonel  Washington's  horse,  with  the 
hope  of  restoring  the  battle  and  rallying  the  fugitives  ;  but  all  his  efforts  proved 
in  vain,  and  he  fled  with  his  horsemen  to  carry  the  bitter  news  to  Cornwallis, 
then  but  a  few  miles  distant.  He  had  lost  about  eight  hundred  men  in  killed 
and  wounded,  and  all  his  artillery,  ammunition,  baggage,  and  horses  fell  into 
the  power  of  the  victors.  This  triumph  over  an  enemy  so  long  dreaded  for  his 
fiery  courage  and  merciless  severity,  the  terror  of  the  whole  country,  not 
only  animated  the  republicans  with  enthusiasm,  but  was  the  proximate  cause 
of  all  the  difficulties  of  the  English  during  the  rest  of  the  campaign. 

Deeply  distressed  at  this  untoward  event,  Cornwallis  lost  nothing  of  his 
customary  energy  and  determination ;  but  set  himself  to  neutralize,  if  possible, 
the  success  of  Morgan,  and  wrest  his  prisoners  from  his  grasp  by  a  bold 
and  decided  movement.  Setting  himself  the  first  example  by  the  sacrifice  of 
his  own  share,  he  ordered  the  superfluous  baggage  and  stores  to  be  destroyed, 
and  converted  his  army  into  a  light  corps,  carrying  their  provisions  on  their 
backs.  His  'object  was  to  overtake  Morgan,  and,  if  possible,  prevent  his  form- 
ing a  junction  with  Greene,  and  then,  by  pressing  forward  to  the  Yadkin, 
which  separates  North  Carolina  from  Virginia,  before  the  American  general 
could  arrive  there,  interrupt  his  expected  succours,  and  compel  him  to  a 
general  action. 

His  adversaries,  however,  were  both  on  the  alert,  and  speedily  penetrating 
his  plans,  strained  every  nerve  to  render  them  abortive.  Morgan  had  lost 
not  a  moment  in  pushing  on  for  the  fords  of  the  Catawba ;  and  such  had  been 
his  activity,  that  just  two  hours  before  the  van  of  the  British  came  in  sight  he 
had  successfully  transferred  his  army  and  baggage  to  the  opposite  shore.  It 
was  dark  when  the  English  army  came  up,  and  they  encamped  on  the  bank 
of  the  river.  Just  at  this  critical  moment  the  elements  seemed  to  fight  for 
the  salvation  of  the  Americans  and  the  discomfiture  of  their  pursuers.  During 
the  night  a  heavy  fall  of  rain,  which,  had  it  occurred  a  little  sooner,  must,  by 
rendering  the  stream  impassable,  have  prevented  Morgan's  escape,  now 
obliged  Cornwallis  and  his  army  to  pause  impatient  on  the  shore  till  the 

3  t  2 


508  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    fugitive  corps  were  out  of  danger,  and  the  prisoners  were  sent  forward  out  of 
—  the  risk  of  recapture. 

No  sooner  had  Greene  heard  of  the  battle  of  the  Cowpens,  than,  antici- 
pating that  Cornwallis  would  pursue,  he  despatched  his  main  body,  under 
General  Huger,  by  a  direct  route  towards  Salisbury,  and  then  set  out  with 
a  few  dragoons  to  meet  Morgan,  and  assume  the  command  of  his  division. 
The  river  meanwhile  had  subsided,  and  Cornwallis  prepared  to  cross  over, 
while  his  adversaries  endeavoured  to  delay  the  passage  to  the  utmost,  in 
order  to  gain  time  for  the  main  army  to  advance  beyond  the  reach  of  pur- 
suit. Lest  this  should  happen,  the  English  general  determined  to  force  a 
passage ;  and,  after  making  a  feint  at  different  spots,  on  the  morning  of  the 
1st  of  February,  appeared  at  Gowan's  Ford,  guarded  by  General  Davidson 
and  three  hundred  men.  The  English  advanced  with  intrepidity  into  the 
stream,  which  was  broad,  deep,  and  full  of  impediments ;  and,  in  spite  of  a 
heavy  fire,  succeeded  in  gaining  the  opposite  shore  and  forming  in  order  of 
battle.  A  smart  action  ensued,  in  which  Davidson  and  thirty  men  were  killed, 
and  a  corps  of  militia  who  endeavoured  to  make  a  stand,  routed  and  dispersed 
by  Tarleton's  cavalry. 

Both  armies  now  continued  the  race  towards  the  Yadkin,  the  next  con- 
siderable river  in  the  direction  of  Virginia.  The  country  was  inundated  with 
rain ;  the  roads,  consisting  of  tough  clay  with  large  stones,  were  so  cut  up  as 
to  be  almost  impassable.  Greene  and  Morgan  nevertheless  pushed  forward 
so  fast  that  they  succeeded  in  passing  the  broad  and  rapid  Yadkin  before  the 
English  could  overtake  them.  The  pursuit  was,  however,  so  close  that  the 
van-guard  captured  some  of  the  American  waggons.  All  the  boats  that 
Greene  could  collect  he  conveyed  to  the  opposite  shore. 

Cornwallis  came  up  and  prepared  to  pass.  And  here  again  occurred  another 
remarkable  delay,  which  might  well  appear  providential  to  the  republicans. 
Just  as  the  English  arrived,  the  waters  of  the  Yadkin  rose  as  suddenly  as 
those  of  the  Catawba,  and  occasioned  a  further  detention.  Greene  profited 
by  the  delay  to  push  on  to  Guildford  Court  House,  where,  with  Morgan's 
corps,  he  joined  the  main  army,  which  had  been  sent  forward  under  General 
Huger.  Thus,  owing  to  their  extraordinary  activity,  aided  by  the  Budden 
rising  of  the  rivers,  all  the  sacrifices  and  exertions  of  Cornwallis  to  prevent 
a  junction  of  their  forces  had  proved  ineffectual. 

Bitterly  disappointed,  that  active  officer  lost  not  a  moment  in  improving 
what  chances  were  still  open  to  him.  Could  he  but  intercept  the  Americans 
before  they  reached  the  Dan,  and  prevent  their  crossing  into  Virginia,  he 
might  compel  them  to  fight,  and  retrieve  his  misfortunes  by  a  signal  victory. 
The  lower  part  of  this  river,  swollen  by  the  rains,  Cornwallis  believed  to  be 
impassable,  and  he  therefore  hastened  to  occupy  the  fords  higher  up  its  course, 
before  the  Americans  could  reach  them.  By  great  efforts  he  succeeded  in 
doing  so,  and  it  now  seemed  that  this  lengthened  and  weary  pursuit  mr.st  ter- 
minate in  the  capture  or  defeat  of  his  adversary. 

It  was  indeed  the  critical  moment  with  Greene,  and  he  su-uinoned  his  whole 


A.  D.  1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  509 

energies  to  surmount  the  imminent  peril  which  threatened  his  army — upon  c  ha  p. 
the  existence  of  which,  as  he  was  well  aware,  hung  the  fate  of  all  the  southern 
provinces.  His  forces  were  still  too  weak  to  encounter  those  of  Cornwallis, 
and  his  only  chance  lay  in  the  continuance  of  retreat.  But  could  he  be  cer- 
tain of  effecting  it  ?  Cut  off  from  the  upper  fords,  he  was  obliged  to  attempt 
Irwin's  ferry,  at  a  point  lower  down  t\e  river,  uncertain  whether  he  should 
find  it  in  a  fordable  condition,  and  whether  the  royal  army,  pressing  after  him 
with  desperate  speed,  might  not  overwhelm  him  before  he  could  even  reach 
its  shores.  To  cover  his  retreat,  he  organized  a  rear-guard  of  select  troops, 
and  confided  them  to  the  command  of  Colonel  Williams,  with  orders  to  take 
post  between  the  retreating  and  advancing  army,  to  hover  round  the  skirts  of 
the  latter,  to  seize  every  opportunity  of  striking  it  in  detail,  and  of  retard- 
ing its  progress.  And  admirably  did  that  officer  fulfil  the  trust  reposed  in 
him.  So  close  and  uninterrupted  was  the  pursuit,  that  one  meal  a-day  was 
all  that  the  soldiers  could  pause  to  snatch ;  and  out  of  forty-eight  hours,  but 
six  could  be  spared  to  restore  the  fatigues  of  the  rest.  The  British  and 
American  soldiers  vied  with  each  other  in  suffering  and  endurance  during  this 
long  and  fearful  race.  Worn  out  with  unavailing  conflict,  the  pursuers  and 
pursued,  close  upon  each  other,  paused  as  if  by  common  consent,  except  in 
crossing  a  stream  or  passing  a  defile.  The  American  rear-guard,  most  of 
whom  were  destitute  of  shoes,  tracked  the  soil  with  blood  as  they  pursued 
their  painful  march.  By  accomplishing  forty  miles  in  twenty -four  hours, 
they  at  length  succeeded  in  reaching  the  river  shortly  after  Greene  had 
crossed  over,  and  rejoined  their  companions  in  safety  upon  the  opposite  shore, 
just  as  the  van-guard  of  the  British  appeared  in  sight. 

Having  failed  to  capture  his  antagonist,  Cornwallis  resolved  at  least  to  as- 
sume the  merit  of  having  expelled  him  from  the  conquered  province.  March- 
ing to  Hillsborough,  the  late  seat  of  the  State  government,  the  authorities  fled 
before  him  to  Newbern.  He  had  sacrificed  much  of  his  supplies,  his  force 
was  weakened,  and  he  was  a  perilous  distance  from  his  base  of  operations.  He 
set  up  his  standard,  and  urged  the  loyalists  to  repair  to  it ;  but  overawed  by 
the  vicinity  of  Greene's  army,  they  at  first  came  forward  so  tardily,  that  he 
publicly  complained  of  their  apathy.  This  state  of  things  was  well  known 
to  his  watchful  adversary,  who,  aware  that  Tarleton  had  been  sent  out  to 
encourage  and  organize  the  royalists,  despatched  Colonel  Lee  across  the  Dan 
to  intercept  any  bodies  marching  to  join  him.  Scarcely  had  Lee  started,  when 
he  suddenly  fell  in  with  a  body  of  five  hundred  Tories  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Pyle,  marching  with  so  little  order  or  foresight,  that  they  threw  them- 
selves into  the  midst  of  his  corps  with  loud  and  reiterated  cries  of  "  Long  live 
the  king ! "  The  sabres  of  the  Americans  soon  covinced  them  of  their  fatal 
mistake.  They  were  cut  to  pieces  without  mercy,  and  the  few  fugitives  that 
escaped  the  bloody  scene,  dispersed  panic-stricken  through  the  neighbour- 
hood, each  protesting  that  he  alone  had  escaped.  Those  who  were  about  to 
join  Cornwallis  were  struck  with  dismay,  and  did  not  venture  to  rise  and  re- 
pair to  his  standard. 


A.  D.  1781. 


510  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CI^AP-  To  keep  up  this  discouragement,  Greene  now  ventured  to  recross  the 
Dan,  although  he  had  received  but  a  small  part  of  his  expected  succours  from 
Virginia.  He  moved  into  the  district  between  the  Haw  and  Deep  rivers, 
inhabited  principally  by  loyalists,  who  were  thus  effectually  kept  in  awe.  To 
counteract  this  influence,  Cornwallis  followed  in  pursuit,  labouring  incessantly 
to  compel  his  antagonist  to  engage.  But  Greene  was  too  wary  to  give  this 
advantage  to  an  adversary  whose  position  was  getting  every  day  more  preca- 
rious, while  his  own  was  as  rapidly  improving.  Throwing,  therefore,  in  front 
his  light  corps,  he  kept  up  a  series  of  marches,  countermarches,  feints,  and 
stratagems,  that  utterly  baffled  the  most  strenuous  exertions  of  Cornwallis.  He 
never  communicated  to  any  one  the  day  beforehand  where  his  next  encampment 
would  be,  and  yet,  such  was  the  activity  of  his  scouts,  was  never  many  hours 
at  a  time  without  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  position  of  his  foe.  During 
these  erratic  movements  he  was  often  obliged  to  beg  bread  of  his  own  soldiers. 

Worn  out  with  a  fruitless  and  harassing  chase,  Cornwallis  paused  awhile 
at  Bell's  Mills,  while  Greene  took  up  a  post  where  he  could  maintain  com- 
munications with  Virginia.  By  degrees  his  expected  succours  arrived ;  and 
with  sixteen  hundred  continentals  and  as  many  militia  as  raised  his  army  to 
four  thousand  five  hundred  men,  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  force 
more  than  double  that  of  Cornwallis.  He  determined,  therefore,  to  seek  and 
engage  him,  convinced  that,  even  should  the  issue  be  unfavourable  to  him,  the 
British  general  must  relatively  be  more  crippled  than  himself.  Cornwallis 
was  also  fully  sensible  of  the  increasing  difficulties  of  his  position,  which  even 
a  victory  could  hardly  retrieve,  while  defeat  must  prove  ruinous  and  fatal. 
Confident  in  the  superiority  of  his  troops,  he  nevertheless,  rather  than  retreat, 
resolved  to  accept  the  challenge  of  his  adversary. 

The  two  armies  met  near  Guildford  Court  House,  on  the  15th  of  March, 
in  a  country  almost  covered  with  trees  and  underwood.  Greene  drew  up 
his  first  and  second  lines  on  a  wooded  hill,  with  an  open  field  in  front. 
The  first  consisted  of  North  Carolina  militia,  the  second  of  Virginian,  while 
behind  were  posted  the  continentals ;  Colonel  Washington,  with  his  horse, 
being  prepared  to  act  as  circumstances  might  point  out.-  As  the  British  ad- 
vanced to  the  charge,  the  first  line  of  militia  broke  and  fled  through  the  woods ; 
the  second  behaved  somewhat  better,  but  eventually  gave  way ;  and  the  real 
battle  now  began  between  the  regular  troops  of  both  armies,  who  contested 
the  irregular  and  broken  ground  with  the  extreme  of  fierceness  and  obstinacy. 
The  rival  commanders  exerted  themselves  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  and 
were  exposed  to  the  greatest  personal  risk.  Stuart's  battalion  of  the  guards, 
while  in  pursuit  of  an  American  regiment,  being  charged  by  Washington's  horse, 
was  retreating  in  disorder,  when  Cornwallis  came  up,  and  ordered  the  artillery 
to  open  upon  the  pursuing  cavalry,  even  through  the  ranks  of  his  own  fugi- 
tives. Brigadier  O'Hara  remonstrated,  declaring  that  the  fire  would  destroy 
themselves.  "  True,"  replied  Cornwallis,  "  but  this  is  a  necessary  evil,  which 
we  must  endure  to  arrest  impending  destruction."  This  cannonade,  in  fact, 
turned  the  tide  of  victory:  the  Americans  retired,  and  finding  himself  hard 


A.  D.  1781. 


HISTORY   OF  AMERICA.  511 

pressed,  and  his  artillery  captured,  Greene,  whose  policy  forbade  him  to  risk  CT*rAP- 
the  total  destruction  of  his  army,  directed  a  retreat,  while  it  could  yet  be  ef- 
fected with  order  and  security.  He  had  lost  four  hundred  men  upon  the  field, 
and  the  fugitive  militia  for  the  most  part  returned  to  their  families.  On  his 
part  Cornwallis  had  lost  five  hundred  men,  among  whom  was  Colonel  Webster, 
one  of  the  most  gallant  and  accomplished  officers  of  the  army.  The  British 
had  marched  and  fought  without  eating ;  there  were  no  provisions  in  the  camp, 
and  they  only  received  a  small  allowance  on  the  evening  of  the  day  after. 

Crippled  in  every  way,  so  far  was  the  English  general  from  being  able  to 
profit  by  his  victory,  that  he  was  compelled  to  fall  back  to  subsist  his  troops. 
His  flanks  were  harassed  by  Greene's  light  corps ;  and  that  general  was  only 
refreshing  his  army  in  order  to  fight  him  a  second  time.  After  a  painful 
march,  Cornwallis  reached  Wilmington.  Vaunting,  as  a  political  manoeuvre, 
his  recent  victory,  he  called  upon  the  inhabitants  to  repair  to  his  standard, 
but  with  even  less  success  than  before.  His  star  was  no  longer  in  the  ascend- 
ant ;  his  indefatigable  opponent  had  only  fled  to  turn  again  upon  his  pursuer, 
and  at  this  very  time  was  meditating  a  daring  attempt  to  recover  the  provinces 
so  lately  overrun  by  his  rival. 

After  a  council  held  with  his  officers,  Greene  boldly  resolved  to  march 
into  South  Carolina,  leaving  Virginia  to  be  defended  by  her  own  resources 
and  such  as  Washington  could  add  to  them.  The  former  State  was  then 
held  by  Lord  Rawdon  with  a  small  force  at  Camden,  and  by  a  series  of  posts, 
which  formed  at  once  rallying-places  for  Tories  and  depots  of  stores  and  pro- 
visions. As  the  miseries  of  this  civil  conflict  had  almost  prevented  cultivation 
and  ravaged  the  open  country,  Greene  purposed,  by  striking  at  these  posts 
in  detail,  at  once  to  recover  his  influence  in  the  country  and  subsist  his  own 
troops  with  the  stores  intended  for  his  enemy. 

Taking  himself  the  main  road  towards  Camden,  he  detached  Colonel  Lee 
to  effect  a  junction  with  Marion,  cut  off  Rawdon's  communications  with 
Charleston,  and  capture  any  posts  that  might  be  open  to  a  successful  attack. 
By  this  means  the  British  position  at  Camden  became  one  of  extreme  diffi- 
culty, especially  as  Cornwallis,  concluding  that  he  was  leaving  behind  him  a 
force  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  the  south,  had,  after  consulting  his  officers, 
resolved  to  march  to  the  conquest  of  Virginia,  now  left  uncovered  by  the  de- 
parture of  Greene. 

The  latter  general — Sumpter  having  failed  to  join  him  as  desired — being  too 
weak  to  attack  Camden,  took  up  a  position  at  Hobkirk's  Hill,  about  two  miles 
distant,  to  intercept  Rawdon's  supplies  and  prevent  his  receiving  reinforce- 
ments. Meanwhile,  several  of  the  smaller  posts  were  successively  recovered 
by  Lee  and  Marion,  and  Rawdon  felt  that  he  must  either  strike  a  blow  at 
the  army  which  hung  menacingly  above  him,  or  retire  from  his  own  position. 
He  determined  therefore  to  attempt  the  surprise  of  Greene's  camp. 

The  American  army  was  posted  on  a  woody  ridge,  protected  on  one  side 
by  a  swamp.  Never  perhaps  was  Greene  so  near  being  taken  unawares. 
Some  provisions  had  just  been  served  out,  and  the  troops  were  engaged  in 


512  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  -washing  their  clothes,  when  Rawdon  stealthily  advanced  along  the  edge  of 

'z —  the  morass,  and  drove  in  the  American  picquets,  who  raised  the  alarm  only 

'  just  in  time  to  enable  Greene  to  form  his  line  of  battle.  Observing  that, 
from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  the  assailants  presented  a  very  narrow  front, 
Greene  despatched  two  regiments  to  turn  their  flanks,  but  Rawdon  brought 
up  a  reserve  in  time  to  frustrate  the  meditated  manoeuvre.  The  action  was 
now  maintained  on  both  sides  with  great  spirit,  till  Gunby's  veteran  Mary- 
land regiment  gave  way,  and  threw  the  whole  line  into  confusion,  upon 
which  Greene  was  obliged  to  retreat.  Fortunately  for  the  Americans,  they 
possessed  a  superiority  in  cavalry,  or  the  defeat  might  have  been  decisive. 
This  disaster  proved  but  a  very  trifling  check  to  Greene's  plan  of  operations. 
After  vainly  seeking  to  bring  his  adversary  to  battle,  Rawdon,  finding  that  all 
the  posts  were  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans,  that  his  commu- 
nications were  cut  off,  and  the  republicans  again  rapidly  rising,  evacuated 
Camden,  and,  followed  by  a  number  of  fugitive  Tories,  retired  towards 
Charleston,  taking  up  a  position  at  Monk's  Corner. 

Greene  now  marched  to  reduce  the  fort  of  Ninety-six,  the  principal  re- 
maining stronghold  of  the  British  influence  except  Charleston.  Here, 
however,  he  was  destined  to  meet  with  a  repulse.  The  garrison,  commanded 
by  Colonel  Cruger,  defended  themselves  with  extraordinary  spirit.  The 
Americans  were  obliged  to  invest  the  place  in  form,  under  the  direction  of 
Kosciusko,  and  Greene  had  nearly  carried  his  works  to  completion,  when  he  ob- 
tained the  unwelcome  intelligence,  that  Rawdon,  who  had  just  received  succours 
from  England,  was  rapidly  coming  up  to  raise  the  siege.  Repeated  attempts 
had  been  made  to  send  word  of  his  approach  to  the  garrison,  but  all  his  ex- 
presses were  cut  off  by  the  vigilance  of  the  American  scouts.  "  At  length," 
says  Colonel  Lee,  "  one  evening,  a  countryman  was  seen  riding  along  our 
lines  south  of  the  town,  conversing  familiarly  with  the  officers  and  soldiers  on 
duty.  He  was  not  regarded,  as  from  the  beginning  of  the  siege  our  friends  in 
the  country  were  in  the  habit  of  Visiting  the  camp,  and  were  permitted  to  go 
wherever  their  curiosity  led  them,  one  of  whom  this  man  was  presumed  to 
be.  At  length  he  reached  the  great  road  leading  directly  to  the  town,  in 
which  quarter  were  only  some  batteries  thrown  up  for  the  protection  of  the 
guards.  Putting  spur  to  his  horse,  he  rushed  with  full  speed  into  the  town, 
receiving  the  ineffectual  fire  of  our  centinels  and  guards  nearest  to  him,  and 
holding  up  a  letter  in  his  hand,  as  soon  as  he  cleared  himself  of  the  fire. 
The  propitious  signal  gave  joy  to  the  garrison,  who  running  to  meet  their 
friend,  opened  the  gate,  welcoming  his  arrival  with  loud  expressions  of  joy. 
He  was  the  bearer  of  a  despatch  from  Lord  Rawdon  to  Cruger,  communicating 
his  arrival  at  Orangeburg  in  adequate  force,  and  informing  him  that  he  was 
hastening  to  his  relief.  This  intelligence  infused  new  vigour  into  the  intrepid 
leader  and  his  brave  companions. 

Nothing  now  remained  but  to  try  the  chance  of  an  assault,  to  meet 
Rawdon,  or  retire.  Prompted  by  the  ardour  of  the  troops,  Greene  determined 
to  try  the  former  alternative ;  but  after  consummate  bravery  on  both  sides, 


A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  513 

the  issue  was  unfavourable,  and  after  a  siege  of  twenty-nine  days,  he  was  chap. 
compelled  to  retreat  across  the  Saluda  before  the  advancing  forces  of  Rawdon, 
who  pursued  him  as  far  as  the  Ennoree.  Disheartened  at  this  reverse,  some 
of  his  friends  advised  him  to  abandon  South  Carolina  and  repair  for  safety  to 
the  north,  but  with  stedfast  determination  he  replied,  "  I  will  recover  the 
country,  or  perish  in  the  attempt."  No  sooner,  therefore,  had  Eawdon  turned 
his  back,  than  he  again  hovered  about  his  flanks,  and  by  his  continual  pre- 
sence compelled  the  English  commander  to  contract  his  line  of  defence, 
evacuate  Ninety-six,  and  retire  to  Orangeburg,  with  a  host  of  Tory  families, 
thus  driven  to  seek  shelter  in  his  camp. 

The  sultry  season  had  now  arrived,  and  both  sides  were  glad  to  pause 
awhile  from  the  toils  of  this  terrible  campaign.  In  the  words  of  his  bi. 
ographer,  "  Since  the  commencement  of  January,  the  army  of  Greene 
had  experienced  nothing  but  an  uninterrupted  series  of  exertion,  toil,  ex- 
posure, and  battle.  It  is  believed  that  a  more  active  or,  for  the  number  of 
troops  engaged,  a  more  eventful  campaign,  is  no  where  recorded  in  military 
history.  Nor  had  adverse  fortune  been  backward  in  her  approaches,  or  light 
in  her  visitations.  The  Americans  had  been  twice  defeated  in  general  action ; 
once  repulsed  from  the  lines  of  a  fortress ;  and  twice  compelled  to  consult 
their  safety  in  a  rapid,  arduous,  and  extensive  retreat.  Notwithstanding 
this,  their  hopes  were  sanguine,  and  their  confidence  unshaken ;  because 
the  genius  of  their  commander,  still  converting  misfortune  into  prosperity, 
and  deriving  from  defeat  the  advantages  of  victory,  was  conducting  them  with 
certainty  to  conquest  and  triumph.  Already  had  they  captured  most  of  the 
enemy's  posts,  turned  against  him  the  tide  of  war,  so  as  to  place  him  com- 
pletely on  the  defensive,  and  wrested  from  his  hand  a  large  proportion  of  the 
conquered  territory.  But  the  season  was  now  hot  and  the  troops  were  be- 
coming sickly.  General  Greene,  therefore,  resolved  on  retiring  to  a  secure 
and  healthy  position,  to  indulge  his  army  in  a  short  repose,  that,  their  health 
being  restored  and  their  strength  renovated,  they  might  be  the  better  pre- 
pared to  act  with  vigour  in  their  future  operations. 

"  Selecting  for  this  purpose  the  high  hills  of  Santee,  where  the  air  is  pure, 
the  water  excellent,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  elevation  of  the  ground,  the 
heats  less  oppressive,  he  encamped  there  about  the  middle  of  July." 

Finding  the  spirit  of  opposition,  which  they  had  supposed  to  be  finally 
crushed,  thus  awakening  into  fresh  activity,  the  British  generals  resolved  to 
exert  the  utmost  severity  towards  those  who  dared  to  raise  anew  the  banner 
of  their  country's  independence,  though  there  were  not  wanting  many  among 
the  royal  officers  who  opposed  such  proceedings,  as  alike  impolitic  and 
inhuman. 

The  fate  of  Colonel  Isaac  Hayne  inspired  a  feeling  of  bitter  indignation 
throughout  the  States.  He  had  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  independence, 
and  during  the  siege  of  Charleston  had  served  in  a  volunteer  company  of 
light  horse.  After  the  capitulation  he  surrendered  himself  prisoner  of  war, 
but  under  threat  of  a  long  imprisonment  was  induced  to  take  the   oath  of 

3  u 


514  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  Hyf p-  allegiance  to  the  British,  under  the  special  condition  that  he  should  not  be 
'A  p  1781  required  to  bear  arms  against  his  country.  When,  however,  the  Americans 
vigorously  resumed  the  offensive,  he  was  required  to  associate  himself  with 
the  royal  troops,  an  order  which  his  patriotism  would  not  allow  him  to  obey. 
Nay  more,  considering  that  by  this  breach  of  the  promises  made  to  him  his 
parole  was  become  null,  he  willingly  listened  to  the  entreaties  of  his  coun- 
trymen, and  a  second  time  took  up  arms  against  the  English.  He  was  soon 
after  taken  prisoner,  and  immediately  condemned  to  death. 

This  sentence,  the  dictate  of  a  ruthless  military  policy,  was  inexorably 
carried  into  execution.  Nothing  could  shake  the  determination  of  Lord 
Kawdon.  In  vain  did  even  the  loyalists  themselves  intercede  in  his  behalf. 
In  vain  did  the  sister  and  motherless  children  of  the  prisoner  throw  them- 
selves at  his  feet  in  all  the  agonies  of  grief;  all  that  could  be  obtained  was  a 
respite  of  eight  and  forty  hours  in  consideration  of  "  Hayne's  humane  treat- 
ment of  the  British  prisoners  who  had  fallen  into  his  hands."  Surrounded 
during  these  fleeting  hours  by  sorrowing  friends  and  weeping  children,  whose 
mother  he  had  lately  consigned  to  the  tomb,  he  displayed  the  most  heroic 
fortitude.  Having  arranged  his  papers,  on  the  arrival  of  the  fatal  morning  he 
called  his  eldest  son,  only  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  desired  him  to  see  them 
forwarded  to  his  brother.  "  Go  then,"  he  said  to  the  poor  boy,  "  to  the  place 
of  execution,  receive  my  body,  and  see  it  decently  interred  with  my  fore- 
fathers." Bestowing  his  last  embrace  and  blessing,  he  firmly  advanced  to 
meet  his  fate.  Like  Andre,  he  had  prayed  to  die  the  death  of  a  soldier,  but 
as  he  approached  the  place  of  execution,  the  fatal  gallows  proved  to  him  that 
his  prayer  had  passed  unheeded.  A  momentary  shock  was  felt,  but  one  of  his 
friends  whispering  to  him,  "  You  will  now  exhibit  an  example  of  the  manner 
in  which  an  American  can  die,"  he  calmly  replied,  "  I  will  endeavour  to  do 
so."  Taking  an  affectionate  leave  of  his  friends,  he  ascended  the  cart,  drew 
the  cap  over  his  eyes,  and  amidst  the  tears  of  the  spectators,  died  with  a  forti- 
tude that  shed  an  heroic  lustre  over  what  was  intended  as  an  ignominious 
doom.  Leaving  behind  him  an  unenviable  reputation  for  merciless  severity, 
Lord  Rawdon  now  departed  for  Europe,  leaving  the  army  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Stuart. 

During  the  oppressive  heats  Greene  continued  on  the  salubrious  Santee 
Hills,  engaged  in  exercising  his  army  and  rendering  it  more  capable  of  en- 
countering that  of  the  enemy,  against  whom  he  determined  to  advance.  On 
the  21st  of  August,  having  received  a  supply  of  horses  for  his  cavalry,  he 
left  his  encampment,  and  taking  a  circuitous  direction,  fell  in  with  the  English 
army  at  the  Eutaw  Springs.  Here,  on  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  September, 
was  fought  one  of  the  bloodiest  and  most  obstinately  contested  engagements 
during  the  whole  war.  The  number  of  the  combatants  was  about  equal,  and 
the  struggle  was  maintained  on  both  sides  with  obstinate  valour  and  varying 
success.  Both  parties  resorted  to  the  bayonet,  and  used  it  with  equal  skill  and 
determination,  many  individuals  of  both  armies  being  mutually  transfixed 
with  the  deadly  weapon.    At  length  the  English  left,  attacked  simultaneously 


A.D.  1781- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  515 

in  front  and  flank,  gave  way,  covered  by  the  English  infantry  under  Major  ckap. 
Marjoribanks.  Colonel  Washington,  being  sent  to  charge  him  with  his 
cavalry,  got  entangled  in  an  almost  impervious  thicket,  and  was  wounded 
and  taken  prisoner,  and  his  detachment  obliged  to  withdraw.  As  the  broken 
English  left  fell  back,  they  threw  themselves  into  a  large  brick-house,  which 
enabled  Stuart  to  rally  his  troops  and  reorganize  his  line  of  battle.  This 
interruption  cut  short  the  progress  of  the  Americans,  and  turned  against  them 
the  tide  of  success.  Greene's  troops  in  vain  attempted  to  force  an  entry, 
and  even  his  artillery  failed  to  dislodge  the  English.  Their  whole  line  now 
advanced,  and  having  recovered  the  ground  from  which  they  had  been  driven, 
proceeded  no  further,  while  Greene  also  withdrew  his  troops.  Both  parties 
claimed  a  victory,  and  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  their  loss  was  about 
equal.  But  all  the  advantage  was  in  favour  of  Greene,  who,  after  falling  back 
a  few  miles  in  quest  of  water,  again  advanced  in  quest  of  his  enemy.  Crip- 
pled as  he  was  by  this  engagement,  and  fearing  lest  he  should  be  cut  off  from 
Charleston,  Colonel  Stuart  returned  to  Monk's  Corner,  his  rear-guard  being 
harassed  by  Marion  and  Lee.  Thus  by  the  persevering  policy  of  Greene 
were  the  English  at  length  restricted  to  a  narrow  corner  of  Carolina,*  the 
whole  of  which  they  had  so  recently  overran  as  conquerors.  Unable  to  pur- 
sue his  advantages,  owing  to  the  weakness  and  almost  destitution  of  his  army, 
he  returned  to  his  encampment  on  the  high  hills  of  Santee. 

The  state  of  affairs  in  Virginia  next  demand  our  attention.  Shortly  after 
the  unhappy  affair  of  Andre,  Arnold,  anxious  at  once  to  display  his  new-born 
loyalty  and  gloze  over  his  despicable  treachery,  put  forth-an  "  Address  to  the  In- 
habitants of  America."  Admitting  that  he  was  among  the  first  to  oppose  the 
aggressions  of  Great  Britain,  so  soon  as  that  country  had  evinced  a  desire  for 
accommodation,  and  Congress  had  displayed  an  unwarrantable  stubbornness, 
he  had  resolved  to  return  to  his  allegiance.  He  dwelt  upon  the  party  spirit 
with  which  the  national  assembly  was  distracted,  and  denounced  the  unnatural 
alliance  with  the  French,  aliens  alike  in  blood,  manners,  and  religion.  He 
concluded  his  "  Address  "  with  offering  three  guineas  to  every  private  soldier 
who  should  desert,  and  to  the  officers  a  similar  rank  in  the  British  army  to  that 
which  they  held  in  the  American.  This  manifesto,  which  totally  failed  in  its 
object,  was  received  with  indignation  and  disgust,  and  Arnold  was  reminded 
that  no  one  so  much  as  himself  had  courted  and  flattered  the  French  ambas- 
sador, until  baffled  in  his  base  endeavour  to  obtain  from  him  a  sum  of  money, 
under  the  convenient  title  of  a  loan. 

That  vigour  and  activity  which  had  formerly  won  him  the  admiration  of  his 
countrymen,  were  now  employed  in  injuring  them.  With  sixteen  hundred 
troops  he  set  sail  for  Virginia,  ascended  the  James  river,  and  before  resistance 
could  be  offered,  had  ravaged  Richmond  and  carried  off  a  considerable  booty. 
Washington,  anxious  to  effect  his  capture,  sent  Lafayette  to  co-operate  with 
Baron  Steuben,  then  in  Virginia,  and,  at  his  request,  the  whole  French  fleet 
soon  after  sailed  from  Newport  with  a  body  of  troops  on  board.  Pursued, 
however,  by  the  British  blockading  fleet,  after  an  indecisive  engagement  they 

3  u  2 


A.  D.  1781 


516  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    were  compelled  to   regain  Newport,  while  the    British  fleet,  carrying  tin 
additional  body  of  troops  under  General  Phillips,  entered  the  Chesapeake, 
'  and  effected  a  junction  with  Arnold's  corps. 

The  coasts  of  Virginia  were  now  exposed  to  the  requisitions  of  the  British 
ships  for  plunder  and  provisions.  One  of  these  vessels  entered  the  Poto- 
mac, and  sent  a  demand  for  supplies  to  Washington's  agent  and  relative 
in  charge  at  Mount  Yernon.  On  learning  that  they  had  been  furnished, 
Washington  wrote  a  letter  expressive  of  his  great  dissatisfaction.  "  It  would 
have  been  a  less  painful  circumstance  to  me,"  he  observes,  "  to  have  heard 
that  in  consequence  of  your  non-compliance  with  their  request  they  had 
burnt  my  house,  and  laid  the  plantation  in  ruins.  You  ought  to  have  con- 
sidered yourself  as  my  representative,  and  should  have  reflected  on  the  bad 
example  of  communicating  with  the  enemy,  and  making  a  voluntary  offer  of 
refreshments  to  them,  with  a  view  to  prevent  a  conflagration." 

But  these  predatory  expeditions,  that  could  only  annoy  and  irritate  a  people 
whomdt  had  been  found  impossible  to  subdue,  this  waste  of  blood  and  trea- 
sure to  maintain  a  contest  evidently  hopeless,  were,  happily  for  both  parties, 
fast  approaching  their  termination.  The  closing  scene  of  this  long  and  ob- 
stinate struggle  was  now  at  hand. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Lord  Cornwallis,  in  consequence  of  Greene's 
bold  inroad  upon  the  Carolinas,  resolved  to  leave  those  provinces  to  be  de- 
fended by  the  forces  stationed  there,  and  to  carry  his  arms  into  Virginia.  In 
pursuance  of  this  plan,  he  crossed  the  Roanoke,  and  soon  after  effected  a 
junction  with  the  corps  under  Phillips,  being  besides  reinforced  by  four  regi- 
ments from  New  York,  thus  largely  outnumbering  the  feeble  force  com- 
manded by  La  Fayette,  who,  retiring  before  him,  succeeded  in  joining  the 
Pennsylvania  troops  under  Wayne.  At  the  approach  of  the  British  general, 
the  assembly  of  Virginia  adjourned  from  Richmond  to  Charlottesville.  By 
the  activity  of  Tarleton,  however,  several  members  were  captured,  and  Jeffer- 
son himself  had  a  very  narrow  escape.  Destroying  arms  and  stores,  and 
ravaging  the  country  before  them,  the  British  troops  continued  to  advance, 
followed  however  by  La  Fayette,  who,  with  a  judgment  that  would  have  done 
honour  to  a  veteran  commander,  continued  to  hang  upon  the  skirts  and  harass 
the  progress  of  his  able  and  powerful  adversary.  While  thus  overrunning 
Virginia,  Cornwallis  received  an  order  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  then  ex- 
pecting an  attack  upon  New  York,  to  send  him  a  detachment  of  his  army, 
and  after  a  smart  skirmish  with  La  Fayette,  had  reached  Portsmouth,  and 
actually  embarked  the  troops,  when  he  received  a  counter-order  from  his 
chief,  who  in  the  mean  while  had  been  relieved  by  reinforcements  from 
England.  According  to  his  new  instructions  he  was  to  retain  the  troops  and 
establish  himself  at  Portsmouth,  where  he  could  easily  co-operate  with  an  ex- 
pected fleet.  This  station  appearing,  however,  less  favourable  for  the  purpose 
than  Yorktown,  Cornwallis  shortly  after  removed  thither  with  his  entire 
army,  and  diligently  proceeded  to  throw  up  intrenchments  to  secure  his  new 
position. 


VI. 

A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  517 

The  French  troops  under  Rochambeau  were  still  at  Newport,  where  chap. 
they  had  remained  inactive  ever  since  their  landing,  and  Washington  and 
his  army  occupied  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Highlands,  when  the  welcome 
news  arrived,  that  a  powerful  French  fleet,  commanded  by  the  Count  de 
Grasse,  might  shortly  be  expected  on  the  American  coasts.  The  favourite 
design  of  Washington,  in  which  he  had  been  so  often  disappointed,  and 
which,  could  it  be  realized,  would  have  proved  a  decisive  and  brilliant  term- 
ination of  the  war,  now  seemed  as  if  within  the  reach  of  accomplishment.  An 
express  was  sent  to  the  Count  de  Grasse,  requesting  him  to  direct  his  course 
to  New  York.  Rochambeau's  troops  were  marched  to  the  Hudson,  where 
they  effected  a  junction  with  those  of  Washington.  Thus  was  the  city  sur- 
rounded on  the  land  side,  and  the  arrival  of  De  Grasse,  to  co-operate  with  the 
attack  by  sea,  was  expected  with  the  greatest  anxiety.  After  remaining  in 
this  state  of  high- wrought  suspense  for  several  weeks,  Washington  received 
despatches  announcing  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the  French  admiral  to 
come  to  New  York,  but  repair  to  the  Chesapeake,  and  that  his  stay  upon  the 
coast  must  necessarily  be  brief.  Here  seemed  to  occur  another  instance  of 
the  futility  of  French  co-operation  which  had  so  often  disappointed  the  hopes 
of  the  Americans.  Never,  it  is  said,  was  Washington  more  distressed  and 
agitated  than  on  the  receipt  of  this  despatch.  His  attendants  were  obliged  to 
leave  him,  and  shut  up  in  his  own  chamber,  he  gave  way  for  a  while  to  the 
uncontrollable  excitement  of  his  feelings.  His  wonted  self-command,  how- 
ever, soon  recovered  the  ascendancy,  and  he  now  applied  all  his  energies  to 
improve  the  opening  afforded  him  by  this  new  and  unexpected  turn  of 
affairs. 

The  plan  he  formed  was  to  march  upon  Virginia,  and  with  the  expected 
succours  enclose  Cornwallis  by  land,  while  the  fleet  of  De  Grasse  blockaded 
the  river  and  prevented  him  from  receiving  help  by  sea.  As  Clinton  and 
Cornwallis  were  alike  unsuspicious  and  ignorant  of  his  design,  to  the  success 
of  which  secrecy  and  despatch  were  above  all  essential,  every  possible  arti- 
fice was  made  use  of  to  conceal  it.  Batteries  were  established  in  New  Jersey 
as  if  for  extensive  operations,  surveys  carried  on,  and  other  contrivances  re- 
sorted to.  But  what  especially  served  to  cast  a  film  over  the  eyes  of  Clinton, 
was  the  receipt  of  letters  he  had  been  artfully  allowed  U  Intercept.  The 
bearer  of  one  of  these,  a  young  man  named  Montagnie,  was  directed  by 
Washington  to  proceed  to  Morristown  by  the  way  of  the  Ramapo  Pass. 
Knowing  it  to  be  infested  by  the  Cow-boys,  he  ventured  to  suggest  that  he 
should  be  sent  some  other  road.  "  Your  duty,  young  man,"  said  Wash- 
ington, stamping  his  foot,  "  is  not  to  talk,  but  to  obey."  He  set  off,  and,  as 
he  anticipated,  was  captured  and  thrown  into  prison  at  New  York.  His 
despatches,  which  contained  the  plan  of  an  attack  upon  the  city,  were  taken 
from  him,  and  next  day  made  their  appearance  in  the  gazette.  Clinton  was 
thoroughly  bamboozled,  and  so  fully  satisfied  that  New  York  was  the  point 
about  to  be  menaced,  that  even  when  Washington  began  to  march  his  troops 
to  the  southward,  he  regarded  it  merely  as  a  feint  in  order  to  throw  him  off 


518  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  his  guard,  and  hugging  himself  with  malicious  satisfaction,  remained  securely 
within  his  defences. 

Profiting  by  this  illusion,  which  he  could  not  expect  would  long  continue, 
Washington,  having  directed  the  formation  of  depots  and  transports  at  differ- 
ent points  on  the  line  of  march,  and  ordered  La  Fayette  to  take  up  a  position 
so  as  to  intercept  Cornwallis  in  case  of  his  retreat,  rapidly  advanced  toward 
the  scene  of  action.  Having  crossed  the  Jerseys  and  reached  Philadelphia,  a 
serious,  and  what  might  have  been  a  fatal,  interruption  to  their  progress  oc- 
curred. The  soldiers  of  the  eastern  and  middle  States  evinced  great  disinclin- 
ation to  march  southward,  and  to  put  them  in  good  humour,  it  was  highly  desir- 
able to  advance  them  a  month's  pay  in  specie.  But  the  treasury  was  empty, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  Rochambeau,  who  advanced  Morris  a  sufficient  loan 
from  the  French  military  chest,  to  be  replaced  within  thirty  days,  the  con- 
sequences might  have  proved  extremely  serious.  At  this  critical  moment, 
Laurens  arrived  from  France,  after  a  successful  mission,  with  a  large  supply 
of  clothing,  arms,  ammunition,  and  specie.  While  the  army  pursued  its 
march,  Washington,  accompanied  by  Rochambeau,  paid  a  hurried  visit  to 
Mount  Vernon,  whither  he  was  so  soon  to  retire  accompanied  by  the  bless- 
ings of  his  countrymen,  for  the  first  time  during  his  long  and  anxious  struggle 
of  more  than  six  years.  Both  generals  then  repaired  to  the  camp  of  La  Fayette 
at  Williamsburg ;  where  they  awaited  with  intense  anxiety  the  news  of  De 
Grasse's  arrival,  which  after  all  might  be  entirely  frustrated  by  a  superiority 
of  the  English  at  sea. 

In  truth,  the  English  admiral,  Lord  Rodney,  expecting  that  a  portion,  though 
not  the  whole,  of  the  French  fleet  would  proceed  to  the  coast  of  America, 
had  despatched  Hood  with  fourteen  ships  of  the  line  to  reinforce  the  squad- 
ron of  Graves,  the  commander  of  the  English  fleet.  On  the  25th  of  August, 
Hood  arrived  off  the  Chesapeake,  and  not  finding  his  superior  admiral, 
directed  his  course  to  New  York.  No  sooner  had  he  arrived  there,  than  the 
news  came  that  Du  Barras,  commander  of  the  French  fleet  at  Newport,  had 
put  to  sea  to  effect  a  junction  with  the  expected  fleet  of  De  Grasse.  The 
English  admiral-in-chief  now  sailed  to  prevent,  if  possible,  this  junction, 
and  had  reached  the  entrance  to  the  Chesapeake,  when  he  found  De  Grasse's 
fleet  of  twenty-four  ships  of  the  line  at  anchor  within  Cape  Henry.  Three 
thousand  troops  had  already  been  landed,  and  some  ships  sent  up  the  river 
to  blockade  Cornwallis  in  Yorktown.  The  French  admiral  stood  out  to 
sea}  and  for  five  days  artfully  kept  up  a  distant  engagement,  until  assured 
that  Barras  also  had  safely  entered  the  river,  when  he  returned  to  his  original 
position.  Unsuccessful  in  his  object,  the  English  admiral  was  obliged  to 
return  disappointed  to  New  York. 

Thus,  while  Lord  Cornwallis  was  daily  expecting  the  co-operation  of  an  Eng- 
lish fleet,  he  suddenly,  to  his  astonishment,  found  himself  blockaded  both  by 
land  and  sea.  After  so  many  abortive  attempts  at  co-operation,  the  French  and 
American  forces,  by  this  extraordinary  concurrence  of  circumstances,  so  skil- 
fully improved  by  Washington,  were  about  to  strike  a  final  and  decisive  blow. 


VI. 


A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  519 

The  town  of  York,  standing  on  an  eminence  above  the  river  of  that  name,  chap. 
had,  by  the  labours  of  the  English  troops,  been  rendered  as  strong  as  possible. 
Flanked  and  half-encircled  on  the  right  by  a  marshy  ravine,  it  was  access- 
ible only  by  a  limited  space,  defended  by  strong  lines  flanked  by  a  redoubt 
and  bastion.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  here  about  a  mile  across, 
was  Gloucester  Point,  defended  by  Colonel  Tarleton  with  a  body  of  cavalry. 

As  soon  as  De  Grasse  had  arrived,  Washington  repaired  on  board  and 
concerted  with  him  the  plan  of  operations.  Transports  were  sent  for  the 
American  troops,  who  speedily  joined  those  already  before  the  place.  The 
Americans  were  stationed  on  the  right  hand,  the  French  upon  the  left,  in  a 
semicircular  line  extending  on  each  side  to  the  river.  The  post  at  Gloucester 
was  merely  blockaded ;  but  around  York,  the  besieging  army  immediately 
began  to  construct  regular  approaches. 

Strong  as  was  the  force  by  which  he  was  invested,  Cornwallis  was  at  first 
but  little  uneasy.  The  film  having  fallen  from  the  eyes  of  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  he  determined  to  strain  every  nerve  to  throw  succours  into  Yorktown, 
and  had  despatched  a  messenger  with  a  letter  in  secret  cipher,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  eluding  the  watchfulness  of  the  American  sentinels.  This  missive 
informed  Cornwallis,  that  but  for  the  damage  sustained  by  Graves'  ships  he 
would  at  once  repair  to  his  assistance,  but  that  by  the  5th  of  October,  as  he 
hoped,  they  should  be  on  their  way  to  him  with  a  fleet  and  army.  Building 
somewhat  too  confidently  on  these  anticipations,  Cornwallis  withdrew  his 
troops  from  the  outer  line  of  defences,  and  concentrated  them  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  Yorktown. 

In  order  to  create  a  diversion,  and  if  possible  induce  Washington  to  with- 
draw a  portion  of  his  troops,  Arnold,  just  returned  from  Virginia,  was  de- 
spatched with  a  considerable  force,  consisting  chiefly  of  Hessians  and  Tories, 
to  make  a  descent  upon  the  New  England  coasts.  Landing  near  the  flourish- 
ing town  of  New  London,  and  finding  but  little  opposition  from  the  militia, 
they  set  the  town  and  shipping  on  fire  ;  Arnold,  it  is  said,  standing  in  a 
church  belfry  to  witness  the  conflagration.  On  the  opposite  side  the  river 
was  Fort  Griswold,  into  which  the  militia  had  retreated,  and  which  might 
have  facilitated  the  escape  of  a  portion  of  the  shipping.  Arnold,  therefore, 
ordered  it  to  be  reduced.  After  being  summoned  in  vain  to  surrender,  it 
was  attacked  with  great  spirit,  but  just  as  bravely  defended;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  British  had  sustained  a  heavy  loss  that  they  succeeded  in  effecting 
an  entrance  by  storm.  Colonel  Ledyard,  the  commandant,  now  ordered  his 
men  to  "throw  down  their  arms.  One  of  the  British  officers,  mortally  wounded 
in  the  attack,  had  exhorted  his  comrades,  in  dying,  to  kill  every  man  in  the  fort. 
Exasperated  at  the  protracted  defence  and  the  loss  of  several  officers,  the 
British,  instead  of  respecting  the  bravery  of  the  defendants,  commenced  an 
indiscriminate  massacre.  "Who  commands  this  garrison?"  shouted,  as  he 
entered,  Major  Bromfield,  a  New  Jersey  loyalist,  at  the  head  of  the  attacking 
party.  "  I  did,  sir,  but  you  do  now,"  said  Ledyard,  presenting  his  sword,  with 
which  his  savage  captor  instantly  ran  him  through  the  body.    The  place  was 


520 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D. 1781. 


c  ha  p-  ancle  deep  in  blood,  and  the  slaughter  went  on  till  one  of  the  officers  exclaimed, 
"  My  soul  can  no  longer  bear  this  butchery."  Seventy  men  were  killed  and 
thirty-five  more  dangerously  wounded ;  some  of  the  latter  were  put  into  a 
baggage  waggon,  which  was  then  thrust  down  the  rugged  surface  of  the  hill, 
in  the  hope  that  it  might  plunge  into  the  river  and  get  rid  of  the  poor  wretches 
by  a  general  noyade.  The  jolting  of  the  waggon  killed  some  outright  and 
horribly  tortured  others,  until  arrested  in  its'  course  by  a  tree.  The  prisoners 
were  then  taken  out  and  confined  all  night  in  a  neighbouring  house,  suffering, 
in  addition  to  their  other  agonies,  the  extremities  of  thirst,  until  relieved  next 
morning  by  Fanny  Ledyarcl,  niece  to  the  murdered  colonel,  who  came  to  their 
succour  with  a  supply  of  necessaries.  After  these  proceedings,  as  barbarous 
as  they  were  useless  in  a  military  point  of  view,  Arnold  and  his  companions 
returned  to  New  York.  The  prisoners  killed  in  cold  blood  after  surrender, 
he  represented  in  his  despatch  as  having  been  found  dead  in  the  fort.  As 
this  was  one  of  the  most  wanton  inroads  during  the  war,  so  happily  it  also 
proved  to  be  the  last. 

To  return  to  the  siege  of  Yorktown;  the  besiegers,  having  completed 
their  works,  upon  which  they  mounted  a  hundred  pieces  of  cannon,  opened  a 
most  destructive  fire  upon  a  place  utterly  inadequate  to  sustain  it.  Their 
balls  even  flew  over  the  town  into  the  river,  and  set  on  fire  an  English 
frigate  and  several  transports.  Cornwallis  now  received  a  second  letter  from 
Clinton,  regretting  that  the  departure  of  the  promised  reinforcements  must  in- 
evitably be  delayed  until  the  twelfth.  Hereupon  several  of  his  officers  sug- 
gested a  timely  evacuation,  but  he  was  unwilling  to  surrender  while  any 
chance  of  succour  yet  remained.  Meanwhile  the  enemy,  animated  by  the 
prospect  of  a  speedy  triumph,  pushed  their  operations  with  such  energy,  that 
they  were  soon  within  three  hundred  yards  of  the  place.  Severely  annoyed 
by  the  English  redoubts,  so  placed  as  to  enfilade  their  works,  it  was  resolved, 
if  possible,  to  carry  them  by  storm.  The  capture  of  one  was  confided  to  the 
Baron  de  Viosmenil  and  a  party  of  French ;  the  other,  consisting  of  American 
troops,  was  headed  by  La  Fayette  and  Colonel  Hamilton,  the  talented  aide- 
de-camp  of  Washington.  So  warm  was  the  emulation  between  the  two  de- 
tachments, and  so  vigorous  their  assault,  that  both  the  redoubts  were  car- 
ried, and  included  within  the  second  parallel  of  the  besiegers.  Cornwallis, 
whose  position  now  grew  desperate,  endeavoured  to  check  their  progress  by 
a  vigorous  sortie ;  but  the  advantage  thus  gained  was  but  momentary,  and 
he  wrote  to  Clinton,  informing  him  that  such  was  his  distress,  that  it  was 
hardly  worth  while  running  any  great  risk  in  endeavouring  to  bring  him 
relief. 

As  a  last  desperate  chance,  the  advice  before  rejected  was  now  acted  upon. 
On  the  night  of  the  16th,  boats  were  prepared,  and  a  portion  of  the  army 
passed  safely  over  to  Gloucester  Point.  But  as  the  second  was  on  its  way, 
there  arose  a  violent  storm  of  wind  and  rain,  which  dispersed  the  embarkations 
up  and  down  the  river.  As  morning  approached  the  tempest  ceased,  and  the 
scattered  barks  made  their  way  back  to  Yorktown. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  521 

To  hold  out  any  longer  could  only  create  unnecessary  suffering,  without   chap. 

improving  the  chance  of  escape.    The  works  were  ruined,  the  guns  silenced, ' — 

and  the  fire  of  the  enemy  swept  the  place.  The  garrison  was  enfeebled  by 
sickness,  and  the  result  of  an  assault  could  not  be  doubtful.  Painful  as  it 
must  have  been  to  a  commander  who  had  marched  triumphantly  across  the 
land  to  find  himself  thus  conquered  by  inevitable  circumstances,  he  had  no 
alternative  but  to  send  next  morning  a  flag  of  truce,  proposing  an  armistice 
for  twenty-four  hours  in  order  to  arrange  the  terms  of  capitulation. 

As  the  British  succours  might  arrive  at  any  moment,  only  two  hours  were 
allowed  to  come  to  a  decision.  According  to  the  terms  proposed  by  the 
British  general,  the  garrison  were  to  march  out  as  prisoners  of  war  with 
the  usual  honours,  and  be  transported  to  England.  The  only  alteration 
required  by  Washington,  was  that  they  should  be  retained  in  the  country 
until  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  No  promises  could  be  obtained  in  favour  of 
the  Tories,  but  Lord  Cornwallis  was  allowed  to  send  a  ship  to  convey  de- 
spatches to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  which  by  agreement  departed  without  ex- 
amination, and  the  unhappy  refugees  embraced  this  opportunity  of  retiring 
to  New  York. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  19th  of  September,  the  British  army  marched  out 
of  Yorktown,  and  deposited  their  arms  with  the  same  formalities  prescribed 
to  the  Americans  on  the  surrender  of  Charleston.  Lord  Cornwallis  was  not 
present  at  the  trying  scene,  but  delegated  to  General  O'Hara  the  task  of 
surrendering  his  sword  to  General  Lincoln.  The  whole  number  of  prisoners, 
exclusive  of  seamen,  rather  exceeded  seven  thousand  men,  of  whom  three  thou- 
sand were  not  fit  for  duty ;  the  combined  American  and  French  forces,  in- 
cluding militia,  to  about  sixteen  thousand. 

This  brilliant  success  far  transcended  all  previous  anticipations,  and,  indeed, 
had  Lord  Cornwallis  been  able  to  hold  out  a  little  longer,  (as  he  probably 
would  had  he  not  at  an  earlier  period  counted  upon  Clinton's  arrival,)  the 
affair  might  after  all  have  taken  a  different  turn.  Only  five  days  afterward 
the  British  fleet,  conveying  an  army  of  seven  thousand  men,  arrived  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Chesapeake,  but  finding  that  Cornwallis  had  already  surren- 
dered, returned  disappointed  to  New  York. 

It  is  said  that  the  news  of  the  surrender  reached  Philadelphia  after  the 
citizens  had  retired  to  rest,  and  that  the  watchmen,  when  proclaiming  the 
midnight  hour,  added  the  startling  intelligence,  "  Cornwallis  is  taken."  The 
windows  of  the  inhabitants  flew  up  to  assure  themselves  that  what  they  heard 
was  not  a  dream,  and  when  assured  of  its  reality,  the  candles  were  lighted, 
and  the  citizens,  hastily  throwing  their  clothes  on,  hurried  into  the  streets, 
questioning,  congratulating,  and  embracing  each  other.  That  night  was  not 
made  for  sleep.  The  tide  of  joy  was  too  much  for  the  bosom  of  one  aged 
patriot,  who,  thanking  God  he  had  lived  to  see  his  hopes  fulfilled,  expired. 
When  morning  dawned,  and  the  glorious  event  was  fully  confirmed,  the 
whole  city  was  given  up  to  rejoicing.  The  news  flew  like  wildfire  over  the 
country,  giving  assurance  to  the  people  that  the  cause  for  which  they  had 

3  x 


522  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  suffered  so  much,  and  of  which.,  in  the  dark  hour  of  defeat,  they  had  often 
-    v  L      been   tempted  to  despair,  was  now,  in   sober  earnest,  at  length  about  to 
j         -o-tfsi.  prove  triumphant. 

Although  fully  participating  in  feelings,  which  to  him,  who  thus  saw 
his  toils  rewarded,  must  have  been  inexpressibly  sweeter,  Washington 
was  far  from  suffering  his  watchfulness  to  be  lulled  asleep.  Brilliant 
as  was  the  recent  success,  it  might,  nevertheless,  fail  to  overcome  the 
obstinacy  of  the  English  ministers.  The  war  might  be  renewed,  and 
Congress,  and  the  people  at  large,  tempted  in  the  prospect  of  a  speedy 
peace  to  relax  from  their  long  and  arduous  sacrifices,  might  be  taken  at  a 
ruinous  disadvantage.  He  therefore  strenuously  urged  the  necessity  of 
keeping  up  the  number  of  the  troops,  and  maintaining  a  state  of  watchful 
preparation.  He  returned  to  the  camp  at'Newburgh,  and  earnestly  exerted 
himself,  both  by  correspondence  and  personal  labours,  to  place  the  army  upon 
a  footing  efficient  in  case  of  the  continuation  of  the  war,  and  which  by 
showing  that  the  Americans  were  still  on  the  alert,  might  assist  in  procuring 
an  honourable  peace. 

The  surrender  of  Cornwallis  proved  the  virtual  termination  of  the  war. 
So  recently  as  the  preceding  January,  the  empress  of  Russia  had  offered  her 
mediation,  which  was  accepted  by  Great  Britain.  Gates  had  just  been  de- 
feated in  Carolina,  and  Congress,  with  the  southern  States,  stating  their  will- 
ingness to  be  satisfied  with  something  short  of  an  express  acknowledgment 
of  independence,  although  the  northern  States  strenuously  opposed  such  a 
concession.  But  England  haughtily  refused  to  acknowledge,  in  any  shape 
whatever,  the  independence  of  her  revolted  colonies,  and  the  attempted  medi- 
ation consequently  proved  abortive.  Now,  however,  the  case  was  changed. 
The  surrender  of  another  British  army  proved  but  too  plainly  the  impossi- 
bility of  subduing  America,  yet,  stimulated  by  George  III.,  still  obstinately 
determined  not  to  give  way,  Lord  North  ventured  to  propose  a  further  con- 
tinuance of  hostilities.  The  king's  speech  to  parliament  declared  "  that  he 
should  not  answer  the  trust  committed  to  the  sovereign  of  a  free  people,  if  he 
consented  to  sacrifice  either  to  his  own  desire  of  peace,  or  their  temporary 
ease  and  relief,  those  essential  rights  and  permanent  interests,  upon  the  main- 
tenance and  preservation  of  which  the  future  strength  and  security  of  the 
country  must  ever  depend."  The  opposition  moved,  on  the  other  hand,  "  that 
any  further  attempt  to  reduce  the  Americans  by  force  would  be  ineffectual 
and  injurious."  The  ministers  gained  only  a  majority  of  forty-one,  which 
showed  their  parliamentary  influence  to  be  already  on  the  wane.  But  the 
country  was  now  heartily  weary  of  the  war,  and  the  enormous  expense  it 
had  entailed  ;  their  murmurs  gave  increased  energy  to  the  opposition,  and 
after  repeated  efforts,  they  lost  only  by  a  single  vote  a  motion  brought  for- 
ward by  General  Conway,  "  declaring  that  whosoever  should  advise  his  Ma- 
jesty to  any  further  prosecution  of  offensive  war  against  the  colonies  of  North 
America  should  be  considered  as  a  public  enemy."  Thus  situated,  Lord 
North  had  no  alternative  but  to  resign. 


A.D.  1781. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  523 

The  leader  of  the  new  ministry  was  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  who  c  ha  p. 
openly  favoured  the  recognition  of  American  independence.  As  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  who,  on  the  death  of  the  Marquis,  succeeded  to  his  office,  was  desirous 
of  avoiding,  if  possible,  this  open  dismemberment  of  the  empire,  endeavours 
were  made  to  effect  a  separate  treaty  with  America,  without  then  insisting  on 
this  unpalatable  ultimatum.  Indeed,  if  Franklin  was  rightly  informed,  the 
king  still  continued  to  insist  upon  this  condition.  Among  his  papers  was 
found  the  following  memorandum.  "  Immediately  after  the  death  of  Lord 
Rockingham,  the  king  said  to  Lord  Shelburne,  '  I  will  be  plain  with  you,  the 
point  next  to  my  heart,  and  which  I  am  determined,  be  the  consequence  what 
it  may,  never  to  relinquish  but  with  my  crown  and  life,  is  to  prevent  a  total, 
unequivocal  recognition  of  the  independence  of  America.  Promise  to  sup- 
port me  on  this  ground,  and  I  will  leave  you  unmolested  on  every  other,  and 
with  full  power  as  the  prime  minister  of  the  kingdom.'  The  bargain  was 
struck.  No  effort  was  spared  by  the  English  commissioners  to  effect  this  de- 
sired object,  but  the  instructions  of  Congress  to  their  agents  rendered  them 
entirely  abortive.  They  refused  to  negociate  unless  in  conjunction  with 
France,  and  insisted  upon  the  open  recognition  of  independence  as  the  indis- 
pensable basis  of  a  treaty. 

At  this  juncture  England  received  a  salve  for  her  wounded  honour  by 
the  victory  of  Rodney  over  the  fleet  of  De  Grasse  in  the  West  Indies,  one  of 
the  most  splendid  achievements  in  the  long  catalogue  of  her  naval  triumphs. 
Now  that  she  had  lost  America,  it  was  at  least  no  small  satisfaction  to  have 
thus  effectually  humbled  the  pride  and  repaid  the  interference  of  her  ancient 
and  inveterate  foe.  Neither  had  Spain  any  reason  to  congratulate  herself  upon 
espousing,  however  reluctantly,  the  cause  of  the  Americans,  since,  after  a 
long  siege,  in  which  the  combined  resources  of  herself  and  France  had  been 
exhausted,  the  flag  of  England  still  waved  upon  the  impregnable  rock  of  Gibral- 
tar. The  Dutch  had  also  suffered  from  the  interruption  of  their  commerce. 
England,  in  short,  had  nobly  maintained  her  ancient  prowess,  and,  if  compel- 
led to  yield  to  invincible  circumstances,  might  console  herself  with  the  reflec- 
tion, that  the  territory  she  had  lost  had  been  wrested  from  her  by  her  own 
undegenerate  children. 

The  king  and  ministry  being  no  longer  able  to  contend  with  the  general 
feeling  of  the  nation,  an  act  of  parliament  was  obtained,  authorizing  a  negocia- 
tion  with  the  colonies,  which  was  presently  opened  at  Paris  by  Mr.  Oswald 
on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  Franklin,  Jay,  and  Laurens  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States.  As  Vergennes,  the  French  minister,  hesitated  to  comply 
with  the  American  claims  to  fish  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  Frank- 
lin and  Jay,  at  Oswald's  suggestion,  concluded  a  separate  preliminary  treaty 
with  England.  The  sovereign  independence  of  the  United  States  was  acknow- 
ledged, an  unlimited  right  of  the  fisheries  was  conceded,  and  certain  imaginary 
boundary  lines  agreed  upon.  This  conclusion  of  a  separate  negociation  was 
contrary  to  the  instructions  of  Congress,  who  had  required  that  every  thing 
should  be  done  in  concert  with  their  French  allies,  and  it  naturally  gave 

3x2 


524  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.    offence  to  Vergennes,  who,  however,  speedily  gave  his  assent,  and  on  the 
3rd  of  September,  1783,  the  treaty  was  definitively  signed. 

During  this  interval  the  feelings  of  Washington  were  exposed  to  a  painful 
trial.  The  end  of  the  war  was  now  in  prospect,  and  yet,  amidst  the  general 
exultation,  the  officers,  their  pay  several  months  in  arrear,  were  suffering 
the  most  intolerable  distress.  Promises  had  indeed  been  made  to  them  by 
Congress,  at  Washington's  earnest  entreaties,  of  enjoying  a  half-pay  for  life ; 
but  if  they  had  been  neglected  by  that  body  while  engaged  in  active  service, 
it  was  feared  that,  when  independence  was  achieved,  they  might  be  cast 
aside  unrewarded  and  forgotten  by  an  ungrateful  country.  Knowing  that 
the  negligence  of  Congress  arose  from  the  limited  and  uncertain  nature  of  its 
powers,  they  feared  not  only  for  their  own  rights,  but,  perhaps,  also  for  their 
country's  safety  under  the  existence  of  republican  government ;  and  they  were 
tempted  to  meditate,  under  the  auspices  of  their  venerated  chief,  what  they 
believed  would  be  a  firmer  and  more  energetic  system.  Colonel  Nicola,  an 
officer  through  whom  the  distresses  of  the  army  had  often  been  made  known 
to  Washington,  was  now  made  the  organ  of  a  proposal  which  might  have  ex- 
cited the  ambition  of  one  of  less  pure  and  disinterested  patriotism.  After 
exposing  the  disadvantages  of  a  republican  government,  and  the  desirableness 
of  a  limited  monarchy,  this  writer  proceeded  as  follows  :  "  In  this  case  it  will,  I 
believe,  be  uncontroverted,  that  the  same  abilities  which  have  led  us  through 
difficulties,  apparently  insurmountable  by  human  power,  to  victory  and  glory, 
those  qualities  that  have  merited  and  obtained  the  universal  esteem  and 
veneration  of  an  army,  would  be  most  likely  to  conduct  and  direct  us  in  the 
smoother  paths  of  peace.  Some  people  have  so  connected  the  ideas  of 
tyranny  and  monarchy,  as  to  find  it  very  difficult  to  separate  them.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  requisite  to  give  the  head  of  such  a  constitution  as  I  propose, 
some  title  apparently  more  moderate  ;  but,  if  all  things  were  once  adjusted, 
I  believe  strong  arguments  might  be  produced  for  admitting  the  name  of 
king,  which  I  conceive  would  be  attended  with  some  material  advantages." 

This  communication  must  have  been  deeply  distressing  to  Washington , 
who  had  so  often  defended  his  companions  in  arms  against  the  insinuations 
and  suspicions  of  their  countrymen— jealous  as  they  were  (and,  as  he  must  now 
have  acknowledged,  not  altogether  without  reason)  of  the  dangers  to  be 
dreaded  from  the  maintenance  of  a  standing  army.  Yet  he  was  but  too  well 
aware  of  the  long  though  unavoidable  neglect,  and  cruel  extremity  of  suffer- 
ing, that  had  extorted  the  movement ;  and  thus  his  reply,  full  of  a  noble  stern- 
ness, is  softened  by  the  expression  of  compassionate  regard. 

"  Sir,  «  Newburg,  22  May,  1782. 

With  a  mixture  of  great  surprise  and  astonishment  I  have  read 
with  attention  the  sentiments  you  have  submitted  to  my  perusal.  Be  as- 
sured, sir,  no  occurrence  in  the  course  of  the  war  has  given  me  more  painful 
sensations,  than  your  information  of  there  being  such  ideas  existing  in  the 
army  as  you  have  expressed,  and  I  must  view  with  abhorrence  and  repre- 


VI. 

A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  525 

hend  with,  severity.      For  the  present,  the  communication  of  them  will  rest   c  ha  p. 
in  my  own  bosom,  unless  some  further  agitation  of  the  matter  shall  make  a 
disclosure  necessary. 

"  I  am  much  at  a  loss  to  conceive  what  part  of  my  conduct  could  have 
given  encouragement  to  an  address,  which  to  me  seems  big  with  the  greatest 
mischiefs  that  can  befall  my  country.  If  I  am  not  deceived  in  the  knowledge 
of  myself,  you  could  not  have  found  a  person  to  whom  your  schemes  are  more 
disagreeable.  At  the  same  time,  in  justice  to  my  own  feelings,  I  must  add, 
that  no  man  possesses  a  more  sincere  wish  to  see  ample  justice  done  to  the 
army  than  I  do  ;  and  as  far  as  my  powers  and  influence  in  a  constitutional 
way  extend,  they  shall  be  employed  to  the  utmost  of  my  abilities  to  effect  it, 
should  there  be  any  occasion.  Let  me  conjure  you,  then,  if  you  have  any 
regard  for  your  country,  concern  for  yourself  or  posterity,  or  respect  for  me, 
to  banish  these  thoughts  from  your  mind,  and  never  communicate,  as  from 
yourself  or  any  one  else,  a  sentiment  of  the  like  nature.     I  am,  sir,  &c, 

George  Washington." 

From  the  camp  at  Newburgh  let  us  now  glance  at  that  of  Greene.  After 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  the  operations  of  the  southern  army  were  desul- 
tory and  unconnected,  and  had  for  their  object  only  to  harass  and  keep  in 
check  an  enemy  now  confined  to  the  walls  of  Charleston  and  Savannah.  Yet 
the  labours  of  Greene  were  still  arduous,  and  his  trials  severe.  His  troops, 
no  longer  actively  occupied,  and  left  almost  in  a  state  of  destitution,  became 
discontented  and  mutinous.  His  letters  at  this  period  present  a  deplorable 
picture  of  their  condition.  "  I  would  order,"  says  he  to  the  secretary  of  war, 
(( the  returns  you  require,  but  we  really  have  not  paper  enough  to  make 
them  out,  not  having  had,  for  months  past,  even  paper  to  make  provision  re- 
turns, or  to  record  the  necessary  returns  of  the  army.  Since  we  have  been 
in  the  lower  country,  through  the  difficulty  of  transportation,  we  have  been 
four  weeks  without  ammunition,  while  there  was  plenty  of  this  article  in 
Charlotte.  We  lay  within  a  few  miles  of  the  enemy  without  six  rounds  a 
man.  Had  they  got  knowledge  and  availed  themselves  of  our  situation,  they 
mighl  have  ruined  us.  You  can  have  little  idea  of  the  confusion  and  dis- 
order which  prevail  among  the  southern  States.  Our  difficulties  are  so 
numerous  and  our  wants  so  pressing,  that  I  have  not  a  moment's  relief  from 
the  most  painful  anxieties."  He  had  moreover  the  chagrin  of  knowing,  that, 
while  the  British  generals  at  least  did  justice  to  his  great  abilities,  the  secre- 
tary at  war  had  entertained  prejudices  against  him.  "  However  mortifying 
these  things  were,"  thus  he  writes,  "  my  pride  would  not  suffer  me  to  unde- 
ceive you,  and  such  was  my  situation  at  the  time,  that  it  would  have  been 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  had  I  attempted  it.  My  military  conduct  must 
speak  for  itself.  I  have 'only  to  observe,  that  I  have  not  been  at  liberty  to 
follow  my  own  genius  until  lately,  and  here  I  have  had  more  embarrassment 
than  it  is  proper  to  disclose  to  the  world.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  this  part  of 
the  United  States  has  had  a  narrow  escape.     /  have  been  seven  months  in  the 


526  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

QWV' field,  without  taking  off  my  clothes  one  night"     Amidst  these   distresses 
A  D  j, ;.-  some  of  the  soldiers  became  tainted  with  treason  ;  a  plot  was  formed  for  seiz- 
ing and  giving  him  up  to  the  enemy,  but  being  discovered  in  time,  the  ring- 
leader was  tried  and  executed.      It  was   consoling  to  find  that  no  native 
American  was  concerned  in  this  conspiracy. 

The  hour  at  length  drew  near  when  the  southern  army  was  to  repose  from 
its  long  and  arduous  toils.  The  British  evacuated  Savannah  in  July,  and 
announced  their  intention  of  speedily  withdrawing  from  Charleston.  Being 
unwisely  refused  the  necessary  supplies,  they  were  compelled  to  send  out 
foragers,  and  the  younger  Laurens  was  unhappily  cut  off  in  a  skirmish.  Be- 
fore the  year  closed  the  British  had  for  ever  left  the  soil  of  Carolina,  and 
Greene  was  received  by  the  inhabitants  of  Charleston  with  demonstrations  of 
a  respect  and  attachment  only  second  to  that  bestowed  on  Washington  him- 
self. As  he  entered  the  city  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  cavalry,  the  spectators 
at  first  gazed  in  silence  upon  the  brilliant  hero  of  the  south,  the  deliverer  of 
Carolina,  the  adversary  of  the  redoubtable  Cornwallis,  till  one  universal  and 
enthusiastic  shout  arose  from  that  vast  assemblage.  Balls,  banquets,  and 
festive  entertainments,  all  that  a  grateful  and  generous  people  could  devise 
for  his  amusement,  succeeded.  Nor  was  it  a  mere  temporary  ebullition  of 
thankfulness.  The  southern  States  showed  their  sense  of  his  services  by 
other  and  more  substantial  rewards.  From  South  Carolina  he  received  an 
estate  worth  ten  thousand  pounds,  from  Georgia  another  of  half  that  value, 
and  from  North  Carolina  an  extensive  tract  of  land  in  what  is  now  the  State 
of  Tennessee. 

In  describing  the  revolutionary  war,  our  attention  has  of  necessity  been 
principally  fixed  upon  the  most  important  movements,  and  their  most  con- 
spicuous theatre,  the  older  and  more  civilized  States.  But  on  the  western 
frontier  of  civilization,  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  struggle,  had  been 
waged  a  fierce  and  barbarous  war  of  extermination  between  the  settlers  and 
the  Indians,  stimulated  by  Tory  intrigue  and  British  gold.  Many  elements  of 
discord  entered  into  this  contest,  and  contributed  to  inflame  it  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  ferocity.  The  unlawful  encroachments  of  the  Americans  upon  the 
lands  belonging  to  the  Indians,  the  wrongs  and  insults  the  latter  had  en  lured, 
predisposed  them  to  listen  to  the  emissaries  of  the  British  government.  The 
Tories,  in  the  violence  of  party  feeling,  had  often  been  treated  with  great 
cruelty  by  the  Republicans,  and  felt  that  it  was  between  them  a  struggle  for 
life  and  death.  It  is  not  clear  to  whom  the  guilt  belongs  of  first  engaging  the 
Indians  in  the  war.  In  the  very  outset  of  the  quarrel  Congress  had  resolved 
to  enlist  a  body  of  Indian  warriors,  and  perhaps  this  circumstance  may  have 
led  the  British  ministers  to  adopt,  by  way  of  reprisal,  a  measure  so  indig- 
nantly denounced  by  the  eloquence  of  Burke  and  Chatham.  One  thing  is 
clear,  that  while  Congress  afterwards  desired  to  induce  the  Indians  to  ob- 
serve a  peaceful  neutrality,  the  emissaries  of  Great  Britain  in  the  west  per- 
sisted in  using  every  effort  to  stimulate  their  ferocity,  by  promises  of  gold  and 
plunder,  and  by  offering  a  premium  for  the  scalps  of  the  American  rebels. 


VI. 


A.  D.  1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  527 

Some  of  the  consequences  of  this  horrid  and  revolting  policy,  have  al-  chap. 
ready  appeared  in  the  destruction  of  Wyoming  and  the  ravages  of  the 
frontier  settlements.  But  until  the  close  of  the  war  they  were  destined  to 
know  no  respite  from  incessant  alarm.  The  animosity  thus  enkindled  was 
satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  mutual  extermination.  The  historian  would 
gladly  pass  over  scenes  so  humiliating  to  human  nature,  but  that  without 
them  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  correct  idea  of  those  dreadful  times,  and  of 
the  demoniac  feelings  called  into  activity  by  civil  war. 

Of  the  condition  of  the  frontier  settlers  during  the  war,  a  vivid  picture  is 
given  by  Monette  in  his  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  a  work  to  which  we 
have  been  already  largely  indebted.  "  The  flame  of  Indian  war  was  lighted 
up  simultaneously  west  of  the  mountains  and  against  all  the  settlements  upon 
the  waters  of  the  Ohio.  These  feeble  settlements,  remote  from  the  dense 
population  and  from  succour,  without  defence  or  support,  were  thrown,  as  an 
isolated  portion  of  the  States,  entirely  upon  their  own  resources,  for  the  sup- 
port of  their  families  in  the  wilderness,  and  for  the  protection  of  their  homes 
and  lives  from  savage  massacre  and  rapine.  Unprovided  with  the  means  of 
regular  warfare,  they  were  compelled  to  associate  for  mutual  protection  and 
defence  with  the  limited  means  at  command.  Surrounded  by  hostile  savages 
in  every  quarter,  whose  secret  approaches  and  whose  vengeance  none  could 
foresee  or  know,  they  were  compelled  to  depend  upon  their  own  courage  and 
energy  of  character,  in  order  to  maintain  an  existence  against  the  exterminr 
ating  warfare  of  these  allies  of  the  British  king.  The  mode  of  Indian  war- 
fare itself  suggested  their  only  course.  To  protect  themselves  from  midnight 
slaughter,  they  were  compelled  to  secure  themselves  in  forts  and  stations, 
where  the  women  and  children  could  enjoy  comparative  security,  while  the 
men,  armed  always  in  the  Indian  manner,  went  out  to  meet  the  enemy  in 
their  secret  approach  and  in  their  hiding-places,  whether  in  the  recesses  of 
the  mountains  or  in  the  dense  forests.  Every  residence,  however  humble, 
became  thus  a  fortified  station ;  every  man,  woman,  an'd  child,  able  to  raise  a 
gun,  or  axe,  or  club,  in  case  of  assault,  became  a  combatant  in  defence  of 
their  castle,  and  every  able-bodied  man  or  youth  was  a  soldier  of  necessity. 
During  hostilities  every  day  was  spent  in  anxious  apprehension,  and  each 
night  was  a  time  of  suspense  and  watching,  uncertain  who  might  survive  the 
night.  Life,  in  such  a  condition,  was  a  forced  state  of  existence  against  the 
dangers  of  the  tomahawk  and  rifle,  for  no  retreat  was  safe,  no  shelter  secure, 
and  no  caution  effectual,  against  the  insidious  advances  and  midnight  sallies 
of  the  ever-watchful  savage.  The  private  paths,  the  springs,  the  fields,  and 
the  hunting-grounds  were  all  waylaid  by  parties  of  Indians,  who  remained 
quietly  in  their  hiding-places  for  days  to  secure  the  devoted  victim  who 
might  incautiously  frequent  those  places.  To  <mi  off  supplies,  the  gardens 
and  the  fields  were  laid  waste  at  night,  the  stock  were  killed  in  the  woods, 
and  the  game  was  destroyed  around  them  by  lurking  savages.  The  bear 
and  the  panther,  and  the  most  ravenous  beasts  of  prey,  were  less  an  object  of 
dread  than  the  Indian,  thirsting  for  human  blood,  and  bent  on  extermination. 


528  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  "Every  recent  massacre  of  helpless  innocence  and  female  weakness;  every 
— V— —  ruined  family ;  every  depredation  and  conflagrated  dwelling  ;  every  daring 
a.  d.  i/8i.  incursion  an^  new  alarni)  served  but  to  increase  the  white  man's  terror  of  the 
horrid  warfare,  and  to  stimulate  his  vengeance  to  deeds  of  blood  against  the 
omnipresent  foe.  To  remain  at  home  and  in  their  fortified  stations,  was  to 
starve  and  make  themselves  an  easy  prey  to  their  enemies,  or  to  invite  an 
attack  from  united  numbers,  which  would  overwhelm  all  in  one  promiscuous 
carnage ;  hence  the  active,  the  strong,  and  the  daring,  scoured  the  woods  for 
miles  in  every  direction,  to  discover  any  approaches  that  might  be  made,  and, 
in  case  of  large  numbers  discovered,  to  give  the  alarm,  and  prevent  surprise 
to  the  respective  stations. 

(<  Where  offensive  operations  in  force  required,  when  no  regular  government 
existed,  and  where  no  military  organization  had  been  formed,  each  man 
volunteered  his  individual  patriotism,  and  devised  ways  and  means  for  the 
general  defence ;  each  man  became  a  private  soldier,  supplied  and  equipped 
himself,  and  entered  the  expedition  to  aid  in  the  enterprise.  The  bold  and 
experienced  were,  by  general  consent,  placed  in  command,  and  all  submitted 
with  a  cheerful  obedience.  If  the  object  was  the  destruction  of  a  remote  Indian 
town,  probably  two  hundred  miles  distant,  and  known  to  be  the  dwelling- 
place  of  hostile  bands,  which  had  repeatedly  laid  waste  the  settlements  with 
conflagration  and  blood,  all  were  eager  to  engage  in  the  enterprise ;  fathers, 
sons,  brothers,  and  relatives,  all  were  ready  to  march  to  the  destruction  of  the 
devoted  town.  Where  the  numbers  required  were  less  than  the  voluntary 
levy,  the  leader  selected  the  chosen  men  and  the  skilful  warriors,  leaving  the 
remainder  to  defend  the  stations.  Thus  a  portion  of  the  pioneers  were  com- 
pelled to  seek  danger  at  a  remote  distance,  in  order  to  secure  safety  for  those 
at  home." 

It  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that  some  of  the  renegade  Tories,  who,  outcasts 
from  their  own  people,  and  adopting  the  manners  of  the  Indians,  became 
their  instigators  and  'leaders  during  the  war,  committed  atrocities  which 
revolted  even  their  savage  allies.  An  instance  of  this  may  be  cited  from  the 
history  of  Schoharie  Valley.  "  When  Sir  John  Johnson  and  his  half-bred 
Indian  confederate  Brant  were  ravaging  this  valley,  an  infant  happened  to 
be  carried  off.  The  frantic  mother  followed  them  as  far  as  the  fort,  but  could 
get  no  tidings  of  her  child.  On  the  morning  after  the  departure  of  the  in- 
vaders, and  while  General  Van  Ransselaer's  officers  were  at  breakfast,  a  young 
Indian  came  bounding  into  the  room,  bearing  the  infant  in  his  arms,  and  a 
letter  from  Captain  Brant,  addressed  to  '  The  commander  of  the  rebel  army.' 
The  letter  was  as  follows :  '  Sir — I  send  you  by  one  of  my  runners  the  child 
which  he  will  deliver,  that  you  may  know  that  whatever  others  may  do,  I  do  not 
make  war  upon  women  and  children.  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  I  have  those  en- 
gaged with  me  who  are  more  savage  than  the  savages  themselves.'"  That 
such  was  often  the  case,  the  following  story  gives  painful  evidence  :  "  A 
party  of  Indians  in  the  British  employ  had  entered  a  house,  and  killed  and 
scalped  a  mother  and  a  large  family  of  children.     They  had  just  completed 


A.D.  1781. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  5£9 

their  work  of  death,  when  some  royalists  belonging  to  their  party  came  up  c  ha  p. 
and  discovered  an  infant  still  alive  in  its  cradle.  An  Indian  warrior,  noted 
for  his  barbarity,  approached  the  cradle  with  uplifted  hatchet;  the  babe  looked 
up  in  his  face  and  smiled;  the  feelings  of  nature  triumphed  over  the  ferocity  of 
the  savage,  the  hatchet  fell  from  his  hands,  and  he  was  in  the  act  of  stooping 
down  to  take  the  infant  in  his  arms,  when  a  royalist,  cursing  the  Indian  for 
his  humanity,  took  up  the  child  on  the  point  of  his  bayonet,  and  as  he  held  it 
up,  struggling  in  the  agonies  of  death,  he  exclaimed,  l  This,  too,  is  a  rebel.' ': 

It  was  the  inevitable  consequence  of  this  deadly  warfare  between  the  whites 
and  the  Indians,  that  the  peaceful  and  unoffending  were  dragged  into  the 
quarrel,  or  made  to  pay  the  penalty  of  wrongs  inflicted  by  others.  Driven  to 
madness  by  the  outrages  of  savages  and  Tories,  the  frontier  settlers  gave  way 
to  an  indiscriminate  spirit  of  revenge.  Thus  perished  Cornstalk,  one  of  the 
bravest  and  noblest  of  the  sachems,  who  after  fighting  against  the  Americans 
at  the  battle  of  Kenhawa,  had  voluntarily  come  to  Fort  Pleasant  to  warn  the 
commander  of  approaching  danger.  This  disinterested  service  was  requited 
by  his  being  detained  as  a  hostage  by  the  commandant,  and  while  thus  in 
custody,  and  his  son  Ellenipsico  had  come  to  inquire  what  was  become  of  him, 
a  party  of  militia,  enraged  at  some  murders  committed  in  the  neighbourhood, 
burst  into  the  fort  and  declared  their  intention  of  putting  all  the  Indians  to  death. 
"  Cornstalk  was  conversing  with  some  of  the  officers,  and  delineating  the  region 
north  of  the  Ohio  on  the  ground,  when  apprized  of  their  murderous  intent.  At 
their  approach,  Ellenipsico  appeared  agitated,  but  the  veteran  chief  bade  him 
not  to  fear  death ;  (  My  son,'  he  said,  '  the  Great  Spirit  has  seen  fit  that  we 
should  die  together,  and  has  sent  you  here  to  that  end — it  is  his  will — let 
us  submit.'  The  murderers  had  now  arrived,  the  old  chief  turned  round  to 
meet  them,  when,  shot  through  the  body  with  seven  balls,  he  fell  and  expired 
without  a  struggle."  Ellenipsico  met  his  fate  with  great  composure,  and  was 
shot  upon  the  seat  on  which  he  was  sitting  when  he  received  the  announce- 
ment of  his  fate. 

Such,  also,  was  the  unhappy  lot  of  the  Christian  Indians  converted  by  the 
Moravian  missionaries.  Their  village  happened  to  be  half  way  between  the 
white  settlements  and  the  hostile  Indian  towns,  so  that  it  became  next  to  im- 
possible to  preserve  a  strict  neutrality.  Both  parties  required  their  aid 
and  assistance,  and  if  from  motives  of  compassion  they  gave  shelter  to  fugi- 
tives from  either,  they  were  considered  guilty  of  a  breach  of  neutrality. 
Menaced  more  than  once  by  the  whites,  they  had  been  actually  dispersed  by 
the  Indians,  but  had  returned  again  to  their  village  and  engaged  in  the  peace- 
ful occupation  of  husbandry.  But  their  doom  could  no  longer  be  averted. 
Depredations  having  been  committed  by  some  of  the  hostile  Indians  upon  the 
whites,  the  latter,  on  the  pretext  that  either  the  marauders  must  have  been 
Moravians,  or  at  least  were  sheltered  in  their  village,  determined  to  destroy 
this  peaceful  and  unoffending  people.  A  body  of  volunteers,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Williamson,  stole  suddenly  upon  them  as  they  were  reaping, 
and  professing  peace  and  friendship,  informed  them  that  they  were  come  to 

3  T 


530  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  conduct  them  for  protection  to  Fort  Pitt.     The  Indians  cheerfully  complied, 
^D  1781  surrendered  their  arms,  and  prepared  breakfast  for  their  protectors  before  de- 
parting on  the  journey.     At  length  they  arrived,  and  were  confined  in  two 
houses  under  a  strong  guard. 

"After  the  prisoners  were  thus  secured,  a  council  of  war  was  held  to  de- 
cide upon  their  doom.  The  officers,  unwilling  to  incur  the  whole  re- 
sponsibility of  the  terrible  decision,  agreed  to  refer  the  question  to  the  whole 
number  of  men  engaged  in  the  expedition.  The  men  were  accordingly 
paraded  in  a  line,  and  the  commandant,  Colonel  Williamson,  then  put  the 
following  question  to  them  :  f  Shall  the  Moravian  Indians  be  taken  prisoners 
to  Pittsburgh,  or  shall  they  be  put  to  death  ?  All  those  who  are  in  favour  of 
saving  their  lives,  step  forward  and  form  a  front  rank.'  Only  sixteen  or 
eighteen  stepped  forward.  The  line  for  vengeance  greatly  outnumbered  that 
of  mercy,  and  the  fate  of  the  innocent  and  defenceless  Indians  was  sealed. 
They  were  informed  that  they  must  prepare  for  death.  They  were  not  sur- 
prised at  the  summons ;  for,  from  the  moment  they  were  placed  in  the  guard- 
house, they  anticipated  their  fate,  and  had  commenced  their  devotions  with 
hymns,  prayers,  and  exhortations  to  each  other  to  place  a  firm  reliance  on  the 
Saviour  of  men. 

"  When  their  fate  was  announced  to  them,  these  devoted  people  embraced 
and  kissed  each  other,  and  bedewing  each  other's  faces  and  bosoms  with  their 
tears,  asked  pardon  of  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  any  offence  they  may  have 
committed  through  life.  Thus  at  peace  with  God  and  each  other,  they  re- 
plied to  those  who,  impatient  for  the  slaughter,  demanded  c  Whether  they 
were  ready  to  die? '  '  That,  having  commended  their  souls  to  God,  they  were 
ready  to  die.' "  No  sooner  had  they  done  so,  than  they  were  butchered  in 
cold  blood  by  their  treacherous  captors,  and  their  mangled  bodies  consumed 
in  the  flames  of  their  own  homesteads. 

Nor  was  this  enough.  A  new  expedition  set  out  to  complete  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Christian  Indians  by  assailing  Sandusky,  and  also  to  include  the  Wy- 
andots  in  their  attack.  It  was  waylaid  and  defeated  by  a  superior  force.  Several 
prisoners,  among  whom  was  Colonel  Crawford,  being  taken,  the  exasperated 
Wyandots  took  a  fearful  revenge  for  the  atrocious  massacre  at  Gnadenhutten. 
•  In  spite  of  the  endeavours  of  Girty  to  save  his  life,  Crawford  was  burned  to 

death  with  the  severest  tortures  which  Indian  cruelty  could  invent. 

When  the  news  of  this  massacre  reached  Franklin  at  Paris,  it  elicited  the 
following  letter,  in  which,  while  he  does  not  attempt  to  palliate  the  cruelty  of 
his  own  countrymen,  he  attributes  it  mainly  to  the  policy  of  the  British 
ministers,  'instigated,  a  he  believed,  by  George  III.  himself.  The  letter  is 
addressed  to  Mr.  Hutton,  a  man  of  the  greatest  worth  and  respectability,  for 
many  years  secretary  to  the  Society  of  Moravians  in  England. 

"  My  old  and  dear  Friend,  Passy,  July  7,  1782. 

A  letter  written  by  you  to  M.  Bertin,  Ministre  d'Etat,  containing  an 
account  of  the  abominable  murders  committed  by  some  of  the  frontier  people 


A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  531 

on  the  poor  Moravian  Indians,  has  given  me  infinite  pain  and  vexation.  The  chap. 
dispensations  of  Providence  in  this  world  puzzle  my  weak  reason ;  I  cannot 
comprehend  why  cruel  men  should  have  been  permitted  thus  to  destroy  their 
fellow-creatures.  Some  of  the  Indians  may  be  supposed  to  have  committed 
sins,  but  one  cannot  think  the  little  children  had  committed  any  worthy  of 
death.  Why  has  a  single  man  in  England,  who  happens  to  love  blood,  and 
to  hate  Americans,  been  permitted  to  gratify  that  bad  temper  by  hiring  Ger- 
man murderers,  and  joining  them  with  his  own,  to  destroy,  in  a  continued 
course  of  bloody  years,  near  100,000  human  creatures,  many  of  them  possessed 
of  useful  talents,  virtues,  and  abilities,  to  which  he  has  no  pretension !  It  is 
he  who  has  furnished  the  savages  with  hatchets  and  scalping  knives,  and 
engages  them  to  fall  upon  our  defenceless  farmers,  and  murder  them  with 
their  wives  and  children,  paying  for  their  scalps,  of  which  the  account  kept 
in  America  already  amounts,  as  I  have  heard,  to  near  two  thousand  I  Perhaps 
the  people  of  the  frontiers,  exasperated  by  the  cruelties  of  the  Indians,  have 
been  induced  to  kill  all  Indians  that  fall  into  their  hands  without  distinction; 
so  that  even  these  horrid  murders  of  our  poor  Moravians  may  be  laid  to  his 
charge.  And  yet  this  man  lives,  enjoys  all  the  good  things  this  world  can 
afford,  and  is  surrounded  by  flatterers  who  keep  even  his  conscience  quiet  by 
telling  him  he  is  the  best  of  kings." 

About  the  same  time  a  large  body  of  Indians  under  the  command  of  Simon 
Girty,  one  of  the  most  desperate  and  implacable  of  the  refugees,  having  made 
a  fresh  incursion  into  Kentucky,  were  pursued  and  imprudently  attacked, 
while  lying  in  ambush,  at  the  Big  Blue  Lick.  Taken  at  a  disadvantage, 
the  Kentiickians  sustained  a  loss  of  nearly  seventy  in  killed  and  wounded, 
and  this  bloody  skirmish  spread  mourning  through  the  whole  State,  most  of 
the  best  families  having  some  relative  engaged  in  the  combat.  Similar  incur- 
sions on  the  part  of  the  Cherokee  Indians  and  Tories  were  repressed  by 
General  Pickens.  The  camp  of  General  Wayne  was  attacked  by  a  body  of 
Creek  Indians,  who  were  however  repulsed,  and  the  western  frontiers  ob- 
tained an  interval  of  repose. 

Meanwhile  the  uneasiness  of  the  northern  army,  given  up  by  inaction  to 
brood  over  their  sufferings,  increased  with  the  progress  of  the  negociation  for 
peace.  A  memorial  was  drawn  up  requiring  Congress  to  give  security  for  ful- 
filling their  engagements,  and  also  proposing  a  commutation  of  a  certain  sum 
instead  of  the  half  pay  for  life.  To  this  proposition  no  definite  or  satisfactory 
answer  was,  nor  couMd  be,  returned.  Some  members  were  desirous  that 
Congress  should  assume  the  responsibility  of  satisfying  the  claims  of  the  army, 
and  others  disposed  to  call  upon  the  States  to  discharge  their  unsettled  obli- 
gations. Between  one  and  the  other,  the  officers  despaired  of  obtaining  re- 
dress, and  some  of  those  more  active  in  the  movement  employed  a  young  and 
talented  writer  (afterwards  ascertained  to  be  Major  Armstrong)  to  draw  up 
certain  anonymous  letters,  known  as  the  "  Newburgh  Addresses,"  to  stimu- 
late the  army  to  more  energetic  remonstrances,  and  extort  from  the  fears  of 
Congress,  what  its  weakness  and  disunion  had  prevented  it  from  granting. 

3  t  2 


A.D.  1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  The  style  of  the  letters  was  vivid  and  impassioned,  and  in  the  excited  state  of 
the  army  calculated  to  produce  a  deep  and  dangerous  fermentation.  After 
exposing  with  great  energy  their  hopeless  wrongs,  the  writer  demands  of  his 
fellow-soldiers,  "  Can  you  then  consent  to  be  the  only  sufferers  by  the  revo- 
lution, and  retiring  from  the  field  grow  old  in  poverty,  wretchedness,  and 
contempt  ?  Can  you  consent  to  wade  through  the  vile  mire  of  dependency, 
and  owe  the  miserable  remnant  of  that  life  to  charity  which  has  hitherto  been 
spent  in  honour  ?  If  you  can  go  and  carry  with  you  the  jest  of  Tories  and 
the  scorn  of  Whigs,  the  ridicule,  and  what  is  worse,  the  pity  of  the  world ! 
go,  starve,  and  be  forgotten." 

Washington  had  a  difficult  and  delicate  task  to  perform.  In  his  general 
orders  he  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  the  anonymous  letters  and  the 
proposed  meeting  at  a  new  building  called  the  Temple,  and  requested  that 
the  delegates  from  the  whole  army  should  assemble.  Meanwhile,  he  took 
occasion  privately  to  confer  with  the  principal  officers,  and  represent  to  them 
in  the  strongest  colours  the  mischievous  effect  of  any  rash  and  premature 
measures,  the  dictates  of  passion  and  resentment.  Having  thus  prepared 
their  minds  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason,  at  the  appointed  hour  he  repaired 
to  the  Temple,  and  stepped  forth  upon  the  platform  in  presence  of  his 
officers.  There  was  a  deep  and  solemn  silence.  Putting  on  his  spectacles, 
he  said,  "  You  see,  gentlemen,  that  I  have  not  only  grown  gray,  but  blind 
in  your  service."  This  simple  remark  touched  them  to  the  heart.  For  years 
had  they  borne  the  toil  and  burden  of  war  under  the  leadership  of  their 
venerated  chief,  upon  the  purity  of  whose  motives  no  shade  ever  rested,  of 
the  kindness  of  whose  heart  no  one  among  them  ever  entertained  a  doubt. 
His  empire  over  their  feelings  was  irresistible,  and  as  he  read  to  them  an 
address  embodying  the  results  of  calm  and  earnest  reflection,  the  mist  fell 
from  their  eyes,  and  the  step  to  which  they  had  been  goaded  by  insupport- 
able distress  appeared  in  its  legitimate  colours.  After  dwelling  at  some 
length  upon  the  incendiary  character  of  the  anonymous  letters,  he  turned  to 
the  advice  which  their  author  had  not  hesitated  to  offer.  "  *  If  peace  takes 
place,  never  sheathe  your  swords,'  says  he,  '  until  you  have  obtained  full  and 
ample  justice.'  This  dreadful  alternative  of  either  deserting  our  country  in 
the  extremest  hour  of  her  distress,  or  turning  our  arms  against  it — which  is 
the  apparent  object — unless  Congress  can  be  compelled  into  instant  com- 
pliance, has  something  so  shocking  in  it,  that  humanity  revolts  at  the  idea. 
My  God  !  what  can  this  writer  have  in  view  by  recommending  such  measures  ? 
Can  he  be  a  friend  to  the  army  ?  Can  he  be  a  friend  to  this  country  ?  Rather, 
is  he  not  an  insidious  foe  ?  some  emissary,  perhaps,  from  New  York,  plot- 
ting the  ruin  of  both,  by  sowing  the  seeds  of  discord  and  separation  between 
the  civil  and  military  powers  of  the  continent  ?  And  what  a  compliment  does 
he  pay  to  our  understandings,  when  he  recommends  measures,  in  either 
alternative,  impracticable  in  their  nature !  " 

Not  satisfied  with  thus  denouncing  the  intemperate  rashness  of  the  author, 
he  applied  himself  to  assuage  the  feelings  and  rekindle  the  hopes  of  his  audi- 


VI. 


A.  D. 1781. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

tors.  "Let  me  request  you,"  he  continued,  "to  rely  on  the  plighted  faith  chap. 
of  your  country,  and  place  a  full  confidence  in  the  purity  of  the  intentions 
of  Congress,  that  previous  to  your  dissolution  as  an  army,  they  will  cause 
all  your  accounts  to  be  fairly  liquidated,  as  directed  in  the  resolutions 
which  were  published  to  you  two  days  ago,  and  that  they  will  adopt  the  most 
effectual  measures  in  their  power  to  render  ample  justice  to  you  for  your 
faithful  and  meritorious  services.  And  let  me  conjure  you,  in  the  name  of 
our  common  country,  as  you  value  your  own  sacred  honour,  as  you  respect 
the  rights  of  humanity,  and  as  you  regard  the  military  and  national  character 
of  America,  to  express  your  own  utmost  horror  and  detestation  of  the  man 
who  wishes,  under  any  specious  pretences,  to  overturn  the  liberties  of  our 
country,  and  who  wickedly  attempts  to  open  the  flood-gates  of  civil  discord 
and  deluge  our  rising  empire  in  blood.  By  thus  determining,  and  thus  acting, 
you  will  pursue  the  plain  and  direct  road  to  the  attainment  of  your  wishes; 
you  will  defeat  the  insidious  designs  of  our  enemies,  who  are  compelled  to 
resort  from  open  force  to  secret  artifice,  you  will  give  one  more  distin- 
guished proof  of  unexampled  patriotism  and  patient  virtue,  rising  superior 
to  the  most  complicated  sufferings  ;  and  you  will,  by  the  dignity  of  your  con- 
duct, afford  occasion  for  posterity  to  say,  when  speaking  of  the  glorious 
example  you  have  exhibited  to  mankind,  (  Had  this  day  been  wanting,  the 
world  had  never  seen  the  last  stage  of  perfection  to  which  human  nature  is 
capable  of  attaining.' "  Having  terminated  this  address,  which  was  listened 
to  in  breathless  silence,  Washington  departed  without  uttering  another 
word.  Under  the  influence  of  feelings  thus  awakened,  the  officers  passed  a 
vote  declaring  their  unshaken  attachment  to  their  chief,  and  their  confidence  in 
the  justice  of  their  country,  denouncing  the  insidious  attempt  that  had  been 
made  to  tempt  them  from  the  path  of  their  allegiance. 

In  no  instance  probably  did  Washington  render  a  greater  service  to  his 
country,  than  in  thus  repressing  the  spirit  of  revolt  in  the  army.  Fortunately, 
as  has  been  well  observed,  he  was  placed  by  his  ample  private  fortune  above  the 
temptation  of  want,  and  the  confusion  and  excitement  of  mind  that  the  fear  of 
want  is  so  liable  to  produce.  But  he  was  not  satisfied  with  having  recalled 
the  suffering  troops  to  a  sense  of  duty,  but  continued  to  plead  their  cause 
until  that  justice,  which  indeed  was  only  delayed  for  want  of  means,  had 
been  fully  and  satisfactorily  granted. 

While  arrangements  were  making  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who  had  replaced 
Clinton,  for  the  evacuation  of  New  York,  Washington  paid  a  visit  to  the 
scenes  of  Burgoyne's  defeat  and  surrender,  and  on  this  occasion  is  said  to  have 
called  attention  to  a  plan  for  that  water  communication  with  the  west,  which 
has  since  been  so  magnificently  carried  out  in  the  New  York  and  Erie  canal. 

At  length,  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  November,  the  last  British  soldier 
having  departed,  the  American  officers,  civil  and  military,  made  their  public 
entry  into  New  York,  amidst  the  general  rejoicing  of  the  people.  A  few 
days  afterwards,  Washington  prepared  to  set  out  on  his  journey  home.  One 
trial  of  his  feelings  yet  remained — to  take  leave,  perhaps  for  ever,  of  those 


534 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


A.  D.  1781. 


C  vlP'  brave  companions  in  arms  to  whom  he  had  become  endeared  by  the  toils  and 
trials  of  seven  eventful  years.  This  affecting  scene  cannot  be  better  de- 
scribed than  in  the  very  words  of  Marshall.  "  At  noon,  the  principal  officers 
of  the  army  assembled  at  Frances's  tavern,  soon  after  which  their  beloved 
commander  entered  the  room.  His  emotions  were  too  strong  to  be  concealed. 
Filling  a  glass,  he  turned  to  them  and  said,  '  With  a  heart  full  of  love  and 
gratitude  I  now  take  leave  of  you.  I  most  devoutly  wish,  that  your  latter 
days  may  be  as  prosperous  and  happy,  as  your  former  ones  have  been  glori- 
ous and' honourable.'  Having  drunk,  he  added,  i  I  cannot  come  to  each  of 
you  to  take  my  leave,  but  shall  be  obliged  if  each  of  you  will  come  and  take 
me  by  the  hand.'  General  Knox,  being  nearest,  turned  to  him.  Washing- 
ton, incapable  of  utterance,  grasped  his  hand  and  embraced  him.  In  the 
same  affectionate  manner  he  took  leave  of  every  succeeding  officer.  The 
tear  of  manly  sensibility  was  in  every  eye  ;  and  not  a  word  was  articulated  to 
interrupt  the  dignified  silence  and  the  tenderness  of  the  scene.  Leaving  the 
room,  he  passed  through  the  corps  of  light  infantry,  and  walked  to  White  Hall, 
where  a  barge  waited  to  convey  him  to  Paulus  Hook.  The  whole  company 
followed  in  mute  and  solemn  procession  with  dejected  countenances,  testify- 
ing feelings  of  delicious  melancholy,  which  no  language  can  describe.  Having 
entered  the  barge,  he  turned  to  the  company,  and  waving  his  hat,  bid  them 
a  silent  adieu.  They  paid  him  the  same  affectionate  compliment ;  and  after 
the  barge  had  left  them,  returned  in  the  same  solemn  manner  to  the  place 
where  they  had  assembled." 

Congress  having  adjourned  from  Princeton  to  Annapolis  in  Maryland, 
Washington  proceeded  thither  by  easy  stages,  welcomed  as  he  passed  along 
by  public  addresses  and  every  mark  of  affectionate  regard.  How  different 
were  now  his  feelings  to  those  with  which,  seven  years  before,  he  had  been 
compelled  to  retreat  over  the  same  country  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  revolu- 
tion, before  the  pursuit  of  the  victorious  English.  Then  the  cause  of  liberty 
might  well  have  seemed  on  the  verge  of  extinction ;  now  it  was  secure  and 
triumphant.  On  reaching  the  seat  of  Congress  he  deposited  in  the  con- 
troller's office  an  account  of  his  expenses,  and  informed  the  president  that  he 
was  ready  to  resign  his  commission,  in  whatever  way  might  be  deemed  most 
suitable  by  that  illustrious  body.  They  at  once  decided  on  a  public  recep- 
tion ;  and  at  the  appointed  hour,  the  hall  being  crowded  by  anxious  spec- 
tators, and  the  members  of  Congress  being  seated,  Washington  was  conducted 
to  a  chair  by  the  secretary.  After  a  few  moments'  pause,  the  President  ap- 
prized him  that  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  were  prepared  to 
receive  his  communication.  Rising  with  that  majestic  dignity  which  clothed 
his  every  action,  he  briefly  congratulated  the  assembly  upon  the  happy 
termination  of  the  war,  resigned  with  satisfaction  an  appointment  accepted 
with  diffidence,  and  thus  concluded  his  address :  "  Having  now  finished  the 
work  assigned  me,  I  retire  from  the  great  theatre  of  action,  and  bidding  an 
affectionate  farewell  to  this  august  body,  under  whose  orders  I  have  so  long 
acted,  I  here  offer  my  commission,  and  take  leave  of  all  the  employments  of 


A.D.  1781. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  535 

public  life."  He  then  stepped  forward  to  the  chair  of  the  President,  and  chap. 
deliyering  his  commission  into  his  hands,  awaited,  while  standing,  the  follow- 
ing impressive  reply.  It  was  a  striking  circumstance  that  this  address  was 
delivered  by  Mifflin,  the  lately  elected  President  of  Congress,  and  one  of 
those  who,  as  it  was  believed,  when  Washington's  fair  fame  lay  under  a  cloud, 
was  among  the  most  active  and  influential  of  his  enemies. 

"  Sir,"  said  Mifflin,  "the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  receive 
with  emotions  too  affecting  for  utterance,  the  solemn  resignation  of  the  authority 
under  which  you  have  led  their  troops,  with  success,  through  a  perilous  and 
doubtful  war.  Called  upon  by  your  country  to  defend  its  invaded  rights,  you 
accepted  the  sacred  charge  before  it  had  formed  alliances,  and  while  it  was 
without  funds  or  a  government  to  support  you.  You  have  conducted  the  great 
military  contest  with  wisdom  and  fortitude,  invariably  regarding  the  rights  of 
the  civil  power  through  all  disasters  and  changes.  You  have,  by  the  love  and 
confidence  of  your  fellow-citizens,  enabled  them  to  display  their  martial  genius, 
and  transmit  their  fame  to  posterity.  You  have  persevered  until  these  United 
States,  aided  by  a  magnanimous  king  and  nation,  have  been  enabled,  under 
a  wise  Providence,  to  close  the  war  in  freedom,  safety,  and  independence  ; 
on  which  happy  event  we  sincerely  join  you  in  congratulations.  Having 
defended  the  standard  of  liberty  in  this  New  World,  having  taught  a  lesson 
useful  to  those  who  feel  oppression,  you  retire  from  the  great  theatre  of  ac- 
tion with  the  blessings  of  your  fellow-citizens.  But  the  glory  of  your  virtues 
will  not  terminate  with  your  military  command ;  it  will  continue  to  animate 
remotest  ages." 

Having  deposed  the  burden  of  care,  Washington  retired  to  Mount  Verntn, 
which,  except  on  hurried  occasions,  he  had  not  visited  for  eight  years  and  a 
half.  He  had  become,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  a  private  citizen  on  the  banks 
of  the  Potomac,  under  the  shadow  of  his  own  vine  and  his  own  fig-tree,  free 
from  the  bustle  of  a  camp  and  the  busy  scenes  of  public  life."  Yet  it  was 
long  "  ere  he  could  get  the  better  of  his  usual  custom  of  ruminating,  as 
soon  as  he  waked  in  the  morning,  on  the  business  of  the  ensuing  day,  and  of 
his  surprise  at  finding,  after  revolving  many  things  in  his  mind,  that  he  was 
no  longer  a  public  man,  nor  had  any  thing  to  do  with  public  transactions." 

As  he  had  at  first  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties  with  a  firm 
reliance  upon  the  support  of  Providence,  and  as  he  had  recognised  its  work- 
ings in  the  surprising  turns  and  events  of  the  war,  so  now  did  he  feel  as  "  the 
wearied  traveller  must  do,  who,  after  treading  many  a  painful  step  with  a 
heavy  burden  on  his  shoulders,  is  eased  of  the  latter,  having  reached  the 
haven  to  which  all  the  former  were  directed,  and  from  his  house-top  is  look- 
ing back  and  tracing  with  an  eager  eye  the  meanders  by  which  he  had 
escaped  the  quicksands  and  mires  which  lay  in  his  way,  and  into  which  none 
but  the  all-powerful  Guide  and  Dispenser  of  human  events  could  have  pre- 
vented his  falling." 

The  war  was  over — the  army  disbanded — and  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  achieved.      Other  nations  have  attained  distinction  after  undergoing  a 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    long  and  protracted  struggle  with  feudal  oppression, — the  Great  Republic 

—  sprung,  Minerva-like,  into  sudden  and  full-grown  existence.     But  the  glori- 

'  ous  prospect  now  opening  before  her,  cannot  be  better  described  than  in  the 
words  of  him  who  had  mainly  contributed  to  her  emancipation. 

"  The  citizens  of  America,  placed  in  the  most  enviable  condition,  as  the 
sole  lords  and  proprietors  of  a  vast  tract  of  continent,  comprehending  all  the 
various  soils  and  climates  of  the  world,  and  abounding  with  all  the  necessaries 
and  conveniences  of  life,  are  now,  by  the  late  satisfactory  pacification, 
acknowledged  to  be  possessed  of  absolute  freedom  and  independency.  They 
are,  from  this  period,  to  be  considered  as  the  actors  on  a  most  conspicuous 
theatre,  which  seems  to  be  peculiarly  designated  by  Providence  for  the  dis- 
play of  human  greatness  and  felicity.  Here  they  are  not  only  surrounded 
with  every  thing  which  can  contribute  to  the  completion  of  private  and 
domestic  enjoyment,  but  Heaven  has  crowned  all  its  other  blessings, 
by  giving  a  fairer  opportunity  for  political  happiness  than  any  other  nation 
has  ever  been  favoured  with.  Nothing  can  illustrate  these  observations  more 
forcibly,  than  a  recollection  of  the  happy  conjuncture  of  times  and  circum- 
stances under  which  our  republic  assumed  its  rank  among  the  nations.  The 
foundation  of  our  empire  was  not  laid  in  the  gloomy  age  of  ignorance  and 
superstition  ;  but  at  an  epocha  when  the  rights  of  mankind  were  better  un- 
derstood, and  more  clearly  defined,  than  at  any  former  period.  The  researches 
of  the  human  mind  after  social  happiness  have  been  carried  to  a  great  ex- 
tent ;  the  treasures  of  knowledge,  acquired  by  the  labours  of  philosophers, 
sages,  and  legislators,  through  a  long  succession  of  years,  are  laid  open  for 
our  use,  and  their  collected  wisdom  may  be  happily  applied  in  the  establish- 
ment of  our  forms  of  government.  The  free  cultivation  of  letters,  the  un- 
bounded extension  of  commerce,  the  progressive  refinement  of  manners,  the 
growing  liberality  of  sentiment,  and  above  all,  the  pure  and  benign  light  of 
Revelation,  have  had  a  meliorating  influence  on  mankind,  and  increased  the 
blessings  of  society.  At  this  auspicious  period  the  United  States  came  into 
existence  as  a  nation;  and  if  their  citizens  should  not  be  completely  free  and 
happy,  the  fault  will  be  entirely  their  own." 


BOOK  IV. 


FROM   THE    CLOSE   OF    THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR,    TO   THE   INSTALLATION 
OF   WASHINGTON   AS    FIRST    PRESIDENT. 


I. — Review  op  the  Struggle. — Notices  of  the  Leaders  on  both  sides  ;  and  or  the  Pub- 
lic Men  op  the  earliest  tears  op  the  Union. 

II. — The  United  States'  Territory,  and  the  Races  inhabiting  it,  in  1783.— Sketches  op 
Society  and  Manners  during  and  after  the  War. 

III. — The  Consequences   op  the  War  to  the  Royalists,  and  the   Refugees: — to  the 
Patriots.— Discontent  and  Insurrection.— Inefficiency  of  Congress. 

IV. — The  Constitutional  History  op  the  Colonies,  and  their  development  into  States. 
— The  growth  op  the  Federal  Union. — The  first  Articles  of  Confederation. 

V — Agitation  for  a  new  Federal  Constitution.— New  parties,  Federalists  and  Demo- 
crats.— The  Convention. 

VI.  —  The   new  Confederation.  —  The    Adoption   op   the   Constitution.  —  Washington 
elected  and  installed  as  the  First  President. 


3z 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  539 


CHAPTER  I. 


REVIEW    OF    THE    STRUGGLE. — NOTICES    OF    THE    LEADERS    ON    EOTH    SIDES  ;    AND    OF    THE    PUBLIC 
MEN   OF  THE   EARLIEST   YEARS   OF  THE   UNION. 


The  efforts  of  Great  Britain  to  coerce  her  rebellious  colonies,  thus  issued  in   chap. 

i. 
their  establishment  as  independent  States.    It  was  the  birth-throe  of  a  nation, ■ — 

which  she,  endeavouring  to  suppress  what  she  regarded  as  mere  "  ignorant  to  1783. 
impatience  of  taxation/'  had  unwittingly  aided.  Indeed,  more  than  a  new 
nation  had  emerged  to  the  day : — one  of  those  ideas,  which  are  the  souls  of 
states  and  nations, — democracy,  had  now  taken  visible  form,  and  in  resolute 
struggle  had  won  both  "  life  and  victory."  Before  we  enter  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  the  manner  in  which  this  victory  was  consolidated,  and  the 
confederation,  which  was  sufficient  for  united  action  in  the  war,  exchanged 
for  one  which  could  secure  the  same  results  in  the  more  trying  contests  of 
peace, — with  which  the  History  of  the  United  States  properly  begins, — we 
will  rapidly  review  the  whole  struggle ;  that,  seeing  with  what  aims  it  was 
entered  on,  and  how  those  aims  were  modified  in  breadth  and  largeness  as  it 
proceeded,  we  may  be  the  better  able  to  discover  the  secret  of  the  power, 
which  increasingly  characterizes  this  first-born  and  most  prosperous  of  the 
republics  of  modern  times,  and  of  the  New  World.  We  shall  also  find  it 
advantageous  to  notice  the  leaders  in  this  conflict.  For  although  this  less 
than  most  histories  is  one  of  great  men,  and  is  pre-eminently  that  of  an  idea, 
the  various  stages  and  aspects  of  the  development  of  that  idea  were  not 
faintly  mirrored  in  some,  who  may  be  regarded  as  "  representative  men ; " 
the  study  of  whom  will  cast  considerable  light  upon  the  process  by  which  it 
was  so  successfully  realized.  Whilst  in  the  public  men  who  swayed  the 
councils  of  the  confederation  during  the  time  when  its  constitution  was 
organizing,  we  shall  more  clearly  perceive  the  various  forces,  the  combina- 
tion or  opposition  of  which  so  largely  influenced,  not  only  the  earliest  years, 
but  the  whole  period  of  the  existence  of  the  Union. 

Mr.  Fynes  Clinton,  remarking  in  his  Fasti  Hellenici  upon  the  "  Ionic 
Migration,"  says,  "  These  migrations  of  early  Greece — colonizings — were  of 
a  different  character  from  those  which  have  occurred  in  modern  Europe. 
The  colonies  which  the  nations  of  modern  Europe  have  planted  in  the  East 
and  in  America,  were  not  emancipated  from  their  allegiance  to  the  mother 
country.  They  existed  for  the  supposed  benefit  of  the  parent  state.  But  by 
the  emigrations  of  the  Greeks,  a  new  state  was  created,  legislating  for  itself, 
and  conducting  its  own  concerns  in  peace  and  war.  In  the  Greek  emigrations, 
the  new  establishment  was  not  the  vassal,  but  the  equal  of  its  parent  state. 

3  z  2 


I 

640  HISTORY   OF    AMERICA. 

chap.    The  spirit  of  modern  colonization  appears  in  what  the  South  American  States 

- —  and  the  United  States  of  the  North  originally  were  to  the  mother  countries, 

to  1783.  Spain  and  Britain.  The  character  of  the  Grecian  settlements  is  seen  in  what 
they  have  become  since  their  independence.  But  as,  among  the  Greeks,  this 
independence  existed  from  the  first,  there  was  nothing  to  produce  hostile 
feelings  between  the  old  and  the  new  state.  They  were  bound  together  by  a 
community  of  interest  and  of  language,  by  common  institutions  and  religious 
rites ;  and  the  relation  in  which  they  stood,  led  to  a  respect,  which  was  not 
forcibly  exacted  by  the  one,  but  voluntarily  yielded  by  the  other,  without 
interfering  with  its  freedom.  The  effects  of  the  two  systems  were  as  opposite 
as  the  principles  on  which  they  were  conducted.  The  South  American  colo- 
nies ruined  Spain,  without  producing  a  flourishing  people  in  the  new  country. 
The  settlements  of  Greece  left  the  mother  state  stronger  than  before,  and 
gave  birth  to  new  and  prosperous  communities,  equal,  and  often  superior,  in 
wealth  and  population  to  the  mother  city." 

In  this  paragraph,  the  fundamental  error  of  the  colonial  policy  of  Great 
Britain,  which  remains  uncorrected  to  the  present  day,  and  has  more  than 
once  endangered  her  hold  upon  her  most  valuable  possessions,  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  is  accurately  -pointed  out.  The  relation  in  which 
Malta  and  Gibraltar,  St.  Helena  and  Balize,  must  stand  to  the  imperial 
government,  is  not,  without  some  violence,  possible  for  dependencies  which 
of  themselves,  both  as  to  extent,  and  wealth,  and  population,  might  be  em- 
pires. Colonies  like  those  of  North  America  should  have  been  planted  as 
the  seeds  of  states,  and  so  much  autonomy  from  the  beginning  accorded  to 
them,  as  would  have  rendered  a  complete  separation  from  the  parent  state 
possible,  without  any  exasperation  of  feeling,  or  the  rupture  of  the  tie  of 
kindred,  as  soon  as  ever  the  consciousness  of  the  capacity  for,  and  the  need 
of,  independence  prompted  the  demand.  It  is,  however,  so  much  easier  for 
the  historian  to  be  wise  upon  paper,  than  for  the  statesman  to  be  wise  in 
action,  that  we  dare  not  with  asperity  condemn — although  condemn  we 
must — those  who,  finding  themselves  in  a  completely  novel  position,  and 
having  had  nothing  beyond  the  most  shallow,  and  pedantic,  and  unprincipled 
education  and  precedents  in  politics,  proved  both  themselves  and  their  max- 
ims to  be  incapable  of  measuring  or  discharging  its  responsibilities.  And  we 
can  only  hope  that  the  lessons  which  this  passage  of  colonial  history  has 
placed  with  such  prominence  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  will  not  be  ex- 
hibited in  vain  to  those,  in  whose  hands  may  lie,  in  coming  years,  the  fate  of 
the  future,  but  (as  yet)  undeveloped,  sovereignties  of  the  earth. 

The  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  people  of  the  thirteen  colonies  of  Britain, 
in  North  America,  may  be  regarded  as  rendering  armed  collision  with  their 
mother  country,  which  regulated  its  conduct  towards  them  by  such  principles 
as  have  been  intimated,  sooner  or  later,  inevitable.  The  true  nucleus  of  this 
cluster  of  infant  States,  was  that  little  band  of  indomitable  hearts,  which  had 
landed,  in  the  early  winter  of  1620,  on  the  frost-bound  and  savage  shore  of 
Massachusetts  Bay ;  for  though  one  or  two  settlements  had  been  made  to  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  541 

south  of  this  part  of  the  continent  at  an  earlier  date,  they  were  so  feeble  in  c  ha  p. 
character,  as  scarcely  to  be  able  to  maintain  themselves  in  existence,  until  a  A  p  ^ 
portion  of  the  energy  and  fire  of  the  exiles  for  conscience'  sake  had  been    to  i>83. 
communicated  to  them.     The  settlements  formed  subsequently  to  that  earliest 
one  in  New  England,  participated,  to  no  small  extent,  in  its  spirit.     And 
what  was  lacking  in  them  of  the  stern  principle  and  unshrinking  determina- 
tion which  characterized  the  descendants  of  "  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  was  soon 
made  up  to  them  by  the  operation  of  the  same  causes,  that  kept  alive  in  the 
latter  the  stedfast  spirit  of  their  sires. 

The  whole  history  of  the  world  shows  that  nations  are  not  rendered 
wealthy,  nor  states  prosperous,  by  propitious  climate,  and  abundance  of  the 
precious  metals.  How  invariably  the  hardy  children  of  the  North  have, 
both  in  Asia  and  Europe,  overrun  and  subjugated  the  smiling  regions  and 
effeminate  races  of  the  southern  parts  of  these  continents,  we  need  not  tell. 
For  our  purpose,  a  glance  at  the  contrast  between  the  countries  of  tropical 
and  central  America,  and  those  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  will  suffice  as  a 
proof.  Neither  do  we  need  to  point  to  Spain  in  its  present  degradation,  com- 
pared with  England,  to  show  the  different  effects  produced  upon  people,  by 
the  possession  of  gold,  and  the  possession  of  iron,  as  sources  of  riches ;  for 
the  contrast  (before  pointed  out)  between  the  states  which  are  the  wrecks  of 
the  once  gigantic  Spanish  empire,  and  those  which  have  been  nurtured  under 
British  sway,  demonstrates  them.  Further  illustrations  will,  ere  long,  be 
afforded  by  the  comparison  of  the  progress  of  the  Northern  with  that  of  the 
Southern  States  of  the  Union;  and  of  those  on  the  Atlantic  with  that  of 
those  on  the  Pacific  sea-board.  A  constant  demand  for  the  exercise  of  skilled 
intelligence  and  strength,  to  combat  obstacles,  arising  from  soil  and  sky,  to 
the  producing  of  the  means  of  life,  produces  and  sustains  in  agricultural  com- 
munities, when  unshackled  by  feudal  fetters,  a  stubborn  manfulness,  which 
is  in  itself  a  promise  of  greatness.  And  this  was  the  feeling  to  which,  in 
New  England  especially,  the  exigencies  of  their  circumstances  had  given 
rise  in  the  colonists. 

But  they  were  not  merely  cultivators  of  the  ground,  they  had  thriven  in 
their  work ;  extended  commerce  had  testified  to  their  success ;  and  the  sense 
of  self-sufficiency,  which  is  not  necessarily  an  evil  in  a  nation,  had  grown  up 
with  this  growth  of  material  prosperity.  The  impediments  and  checks  to  the 
entertainment  and  discussion  of  political  questions,  which  in  old  countries 
are  always  more  or  less  operative,  being  here  unknown ;  and  length  of  time 
and  enlarged  intercourse  having  thrown  down,  or  worn  away,  the  circumscribed 
barriers  to  thought,  which  the  Puritan  theology  and  church-principles  prac- 
tically always  set  up ;  and  yet  more  remarkably,  for  the  influence  exerted  by 
it,  there  being  no  hereditary  rulers  nor  territorial  aristocracy  to  interfere 
with,  arid  "  disturb,"  the  hopes  and  the  speculations  of  the  political  dreamers  ; 
it  necessarily  happened  that,  with  the  progress  of  wealth,  the  desire  for  inde- 
pendence should  also  progress ;  and  the  indications  of  subjection  to  another 
country  become  increasingly  irksome  and  provoking. 


54£  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

ch^ap.  Nor  were  there  wanting  other  incentives  to  this  passion  for  liberty ;  and 
I764  Great  Britain  herself  supplied  the  most  powerful.  We  will  not  expatiate 
to  1783.  upon  the  grievance  felt  in  some  colonies,  of  being  placed  under  royal  nominees, 
such  as  governors,  &c,  who,  as  Franklin  said,  "  often  came  to  the  colonies 
merely  to  make  fortunes,  with  which  they  intended  to  return  to  Britain;  were 
not  always  men  of  the  best  abilities  or  integrity ;  had  many  of  them  no  estates 
there,  nor  any  natural  connexion  with  them,  that  should  make  them  heartily 
concerned  for  their  welfare ;"  and  who,  if  intrusted,  as  was  proposed  by  the 
ministry  at  London  in  1754,  in  reply  to  the  scheme  suggested  by  the  Albany 
Convention,  with  the  unchecked  management  of  affairs,  i(  might  possibly  be 
fond  of  raising  and  keeping  up  more  forces  than  necessary,  from  the  profits 
accruing  to  themselves,  and  to  make  provision  for  their  friends  and  depend- 
ents." We  will  rather  dwell  upon  other  matters.  The  leaven  of  democracy 
had  been  suffered  to  enter  into  the  constitution  of  almost  every  province.  In 
some,  the  governors  and  the  magistrates  were  elected  by  the  people ;  and  in 
those,  the  governor  and  chief  officers  of  which  were  appointed  by  the  crown, 
the  power  of  these  functionaries  was  controlled  by  assemblies,  the  members 
of  which  were  chosen  by  the  freeholders,  who  were  too  numerous  to  be  bribed, 
and  too  independent  in  their  circumstances  to  be  swayed  by  influence. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  the  Union  there  was  not  found  a  single  constituency 
subject  to  dictation  in  the  choice  of  its  representatives,  nor  an  interest  which 
could  foster  the  principles  of  bigotry  and  passive  obedience.  The  assemblies 
regulated  all  the  interior  concerns  of  the  different  colonies :  an  arrangement 
which  was  the  exact  parallel  to  the  municipal  institutions  of  the  middle  ages, 
both  in  its  nature  and  in  its  results.  It  also  followed  from  the  system  of  colo- 
nial government,  that  the  maxim,  which  has  most  extensively  tended  to  the  con- 
solidation and  enlargement  of  the  liberties  of  Britain,  that  representation  and 
taxation  should  be  coextensive  ;  or  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  tax 
themselves,  which  the  immigrants  from  the  old  country  had  carried  with  them, 
engraven  on  their  hearts,  was  immediately  applicable  to  their  position  as  pro- 
vincials. And  from  this,  as  we  know,  arose  the  resistance  to  the  British  par- 
liament, which  issued  in  the  Avar  of  independence,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Federal  Republic. 

The  famous  navigation  laws  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Convention 
Parliament,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  confirmed  by  an  Act  in 
1663,  restricted  the  trade  of  the  Anglo-American  colonists  almost  wholly  to 
England.  Their  most  valuable  products,  designated  by  name,  they  were 
required  to  send  thither ;  and  thence  alone  might  they  receive  the  commodi- 
ties of  Europe.  And  thus  the  endeavour  was  made  to  secure  to  the  parent 
state  a  double  advantage  from  the  commerce  of  its  dependencies,  without 
giving  them  in  return  a  single  compensating  benefit.  It  may  easily  be  ima- 
gined, that  laws  so  stringent  would  be  perpetually  evaded.  It  was  found  far 
more  easy  and  profitable  to  disregard  them,  than  to  remove  or  alleviate  them 
by  argumentation  and  constitutional  opposition.  And  it,  consequently,  came 
to  be  believed,  that  the  Americans  cheerfully  submitted  to  the  obligation  of 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.  543 

exclusively  trading  with  England,  and  of  being  bound  by  all  the  laws,  touch-    c  n  a  p. 

ing  commerce,  which  might  be  passed  by  the  British  parliament,  in  consider : — 

ation  of  their  origin,  and  of  the  protection  which  they  received  from  the  to  iVs3. 
mother  country.  When,  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Great 
Britain  attacked  the  commerce  and  the  colonies  of  Spain,  she  zealously  en- 
couraged the  illicit  trade  which  was  carried  on  with  the  Spanish  colonies, 
under  cover  of  the  Asiento  treaty;  little  reflecting  upon  the  blow  she  was 
striking  at  the  very  principles  on  which  her  own  colonial  policy  was  founded. 
And  by  this  licensed  smuggling,  she  afforded  to  the  provincials  of  North 
America,  ample  means  of  knowing  how  much  they  lost  by  her  commercial 
restrictions ;  and  an  example,  which  she  might  have  been  sure  they  would 
not  be  slow  to  use,  in  vindication  of  their  own  violations  of  laws  of  trade,  which 
they  had  no  hand  in  making,  and  which  it  was  not  to  their  interest  to  keep. 

Added  to  all  these  causes  of  impatience  under  the  yoke  of  the  imperial 
government,  was  the  experience  which  the  colonists  had  acquired  of  their 
own  strength,  during  the  wars  between  England  and  France,  in  the  middle 
of  the  century.  The  capture  of  Louisburg  by  the  forces  of  New  England, 
in  1745,  aided  by  a  British  armament  from  the  West  Indies,  produced  other 
effects  beside  the  indignation  of  the  French  at  their  loss  ;  one  of  the  ministry 
at  London  avowed  his  alarm  at  "  the  independence  it  might  create  in  those 
provinces,  when  they  should  see  within  themselves  so  great  an  army,  pos- 
sessed of  so  great  a  country  [as  Canada,  which  Colonel  Shirley  proposed  to 
attack  and  reduce  by  a  colonial  army]  by  right  of  conquest."  In  the  "  Seven 
Years'  War  "  this  consciousness  of  power  was  greatly  increased.  The  Con- 
vention of  Albany,  in  1754,  had  proposed  not  only  a  union  of  the  colonies 
for  their  common  defence,  but  the  establishment  of  a  council  to  make  general 
laws,  and  to  raise  money  for  general  purposes  from  all  the  colonies.  This 
had  been  resisted  by  the  British  government ;  and  the  jealousy  with  which 
they  regarded  the  project,  may  be  considered  the  first  step  towards  the  adop- 
tion of  those  measures,  the  consequence  of  which  was  the  loss  of  the  colonies 
for  ever.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  provinces,  in  general,  had  entered  into 
this  war  with  such  zeal,  that  some  of  them  advanced  a  greater  amount  than 
the  quota  which  had  been  demanded  of  them  for  its  prosecution.  Others, 
however,  from  accidental  causes,  had  neglected  to  contribute  their  share  of  the 
'  requisite  supplies.  It  was  this  that  led  immediately  to  the  plans  for  making 
the  resources  of  the  colonies  available  for  their  own  defence,  or  share  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  empire  at  large,  without  the  necessity  of  the  concurrence 
of  their  local  legislatures,  which  occasioned  the  revolution.  On  the  part  of 
the  Americans,  although  the  hardest  and  most  dangerous  services  had  been 
allotted  to  their  levies,  and  they  had  lost,  either  by  disease  or  the  sword, 
thirty  thousand  men,  and  were,  moreover,  burdened  with  a  debt  of  above 
ten  million  dollars,  consequences  of  the  most  antagonistic  kind  to  those 
which  Mr.  Pitt  expressed  followed  from  this  war.  They  had  imbibed  a  taste 
for  martial  exploits  and  renown ;  they  looked  upon  war  with  the  feeling  that 
has  been  especially  attributed  to  kings,  whose  conclusive  argument  it  is  said 


544  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  to  be ;  they  had  acquired  some  experience  in  military  service,  and  were  filled 
—  with  assurance  respecting  their  strength  and  resources.     At  the  same  time, 

it  i'?8s.  their  dependence  upon  Britain  had  never  before  seemed  so  slight,  and  the 
propositions  mooted,  but  not  definitively  discussed,  by  the  Albany  Convention, 
had  silently  become  the  political  creed  of  almost  the  entire  population. 

This  very  period,  when  all  these  causes  were  in  most  effective  operation, 
was  chosen  by  the  British  House  of  Commons  for  asserting  its  right  to  levy 
taxes  upon  the  colonies.  A  ground  of  quarrel  could  not  long  have  been 
wanting,  since  both  provinces  and  mother  country  had  grown  so  electric  and 
mutually  repulsive ;  but  it  argued  extreme  want  of  perspicacity  in  the  minis- 
try, to  select  such  a  time  and  such  a  ground  as  this,  on  which  the  dispute 
began.  It  is  very  significant,  that  though  the  first  provocation  to  hostilities 
was  an  attack  upon  the  commercial  gains  of  the  colonists,  the  actual  outbreak 
occurred  on  a  question  of  right ;  and  it  appears  certain  that,  had  not  this  been 
involved,  the  act  of  oppression,  though  irritating,  would  have  speedily  been 
submitted  to.  This  influence  of  an  "  abstract "  question,  as  it  is  called,  upon 
so  matter-of-fact  a  community  as  the  inhabitants  of  Anglo-Saxon  America,  is 
worthy  of  being  noted,  because  of  the  testimony  it  affords  to  the  origin  and 
training  of  that  people,  and  also  of  the  augury  derivable  from  it,  concerning 
the  future  of  a  state  so  initiated. 

The  "Sugar  Act"  of  1764  recognised,  and  in  fact  authorized,  the  trade 
between  the  provinces  and  the  French  and  Spanish  colonies,  which  a  former 
Act,  named  the  "  Molasses  Act,"  had  been  vainly  devised  to  prevent.  This 
intercourse,  though  highly  beneficial  both  to  the  provincials  and  to  the  mer- 
chants of  Britain ;  for  great  quantities  of  their  manufactures  were  by  that 
means  distributed,  and  the  profits  shared  between  the  sellers  and  their  cor- 
respondents in  the  mother  country ;  was  opposed  to  the  strict  meaning  of  the 
"  Navigation  Laws  ; "  and  revenue  cutters  had  been  employed  to  put  a  stop 
to  it,  to  the  hurt  or  ruin  of  many,  both  in  America  and  Britain.  The 
"  Sugar  Act"  was,  however,  a  most  delusive  measure.  The  traffic  was  loaded 
with  such  heavy  duties,  as  to  be  virtually  prohibited ;  and  offenders  were 
directed  to  be  prosecuted  in  the  Admiralty  Court,  where  they  would  have  a 
royal  nominee  for  judge,  and  be  deprived  of  a  trial  by  jury.  Whilst,  in  the 
preamble,  it  was  asserted  that  "  it  was  just  and  necessary  that  revenue  should 
be  raised  in  America,  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  defending,  protecting, 
and  securing  the  same."  Immediately  upon  the  heels  of  this  announcement 
came  the  too-celebrated  "  Stamp  Act,"  which  showed  the  colonies  clearly 
the  intentions  of  the  government  respecting  them.  This  device  was  originally 
suggested  by  no  less  a  person  than  Franklin  himself,  who  recommended  it  to 
the  Albany  Convention,  as  a  good  means  for  securing  contributions  for  the 
common  benefit  of  the  united  provinces,  from  all  of  them.  But  the  entire 
administration  of  it  was,  by  Franklin's  scheme,  intrusted  to  a  council  elected 
in  the  colonies ;  whereas,  this  was  a  direct  violation  of  the  rights  which,  by 
charter,  and  usage,  and  their  boasted  descent  from  those  who  framed  the 
Magna  Charta,  were  theirs,  in  respect  of  their  internal  taxation. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  545 

It  was  Pitt,  who  during  the  "  Seven  Years'  War "  had  said  to  Franklin,   c  ha  p. 

that  *  when  the  war  closed,  if  he  should  be  in  the  ministry,  he  would  take — 

measures  to  prevent  the  colonies  from  having  a  power  to  refuse  or  delay  the  to  m3. 
supplies,  which  might  be  wanting  for  national  purposes."  But  the  "  Stamp 
Act"  was  the  work  of  George  Grenville,  who  illustrated  his  not  very  dis- 
tinguished administration  by  this  most  unhappy  statute.  The  tidings  that 
the  British  government  purposed  to  step  beyond  their  proper  sphere,  in  re- 
lation to  the  provinces,  in  this  manner,  filled  the  Americans  with  anger 
and  alarm.  How  much  more  fierce  the  spirit  of  opposition  and  hostility 
grew,  when  it  was  found,  that  in  spite  of  all  petitions  and  remonstrances, 
public  and  private,  the  odious  bill  was  made  a  law,  is  well  known  !  Colonel 
Barre's  burst  of  indignation  against  the  minister,  who  designedly  misrepre- 
sented the  relation  of  the  colonists  to  England,  that  he  might  have  a  sem- 
blance of  reason  for  the  proposed  imposition,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  Nor 
will  the  excesses  by  which,  at  Boston,  New  York,  and  elsewhere,  the  popu- 
lace (for  there  was  no  "  mob "  in  the  colonies)  marked  their  disapprobation 
of  the  measure ;  nor  the  calm,  but  more  effective,  passive  resistance  of  the 
higher  classes,  by  abstinence  from  all  business  requiring  stamps,  and  the  non- 
importation of  British  merchandise,  be  forgotten.  The  assemblies  of  the  dif- 
ferent provinces  (and  Virginia  most  emphatically)  'pronounced  against  the 
hateful  law ;  and  Massachusetts  proposed  a  general  Congress  of  deputies  from 
the  various  legislatures  of  the  colonies,  to  be  held  at  New  York,  to  deliberate 
on  the  proceedings  suitable  to  the  emergency.  In  October  this  first  Con- 
gress met,  and  agreed  upon  a  declaration  of  rights,  and  a  statement  of 
grievances,  and  sent  both  with  petitions  to  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Lords, 
and  the  King.  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  unable  to  unite  in 
Congress,  petitioned  individually.  The  trading  interests  of  Britain  were 
affected  by  the  measures  of  the  colonists  ;  Grenville  and  the  "  king's  friends  " 
had  given  place  to  Rockingham,  with  a  section  of  the  Whig  party ;  Pitt,  not 
"  in  the  ministry,"  and  therefore  free  to  forget  what  he  had  said  he  would  do 
at  the  end  of  the  war,  uttered  eloquent  periods,  which  sounded  like  the  praise 
of  liberty,  and  overwhelmed  the  luckless  devisers  of  the  tax  with  shame  and 
scorn ;  Edmund  Burke,  now  first  speaking  in  favour  of  the  colonists,  also 
denounced  the  "  Act ; "  Franklin,  examined  at  the  bar  of  the  House,  (for  he 
happened  to  be  in  London,  as  agent  for  Pennsylvania,)  described  the  conse- 
quences of  the  unfriendly  attitude  taken  by  the  British  government,  in  re- 
spect of  the  American  provinces  ;  and  parliament,  after  decreeing  with 
incredible  puerility,  that  it  "  had,  and  of  right  ought  to  have,  power  to  bind 
the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever,"  (which  Lord  Camden  characterized  as 
a  violation  of  "  a  law  of  nature,")  repealed  the  "  Stamp  Act "  in  1766. 

Except  Franklin,  none  of  the  American  leaders  exercised  any  particular 
influence  beyond  the  boundaries  of  his  own  province  ;  nor  was  Franklin 
known  as  a  party  leader  so  much  as  a  man  of  science,  having,  by  his  electrical 
discoveries,  already  achieved  a  European  reputation.  Amongst  those  who 
were  best  known  and  most  looked  up  to  in  America,  were  Otis,  Hancock, 

4  A 


546  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Cushing,  and  John  Adams  of  Massachusetts,  Patrick  Henry  the  Virginia 
1764  orator,  William  Johnson  of  Connecticut,  Philip  Livingston  of  New  York, 

to  1783.  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania,  Thomas  M'Kean  of  Delaware,  and  Chris- 
topher Gadsden  and  John  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina.  Most  of  these  took 
part  in  the  Congress,  and  were  thus  brought  into  communication  with  men 
from  other  colonies  than  their  own.  But  no  leader  was  wanted.  In  every 
man's  heart  the  idea  lived,  and  nothing  operated  so  powerfully  in  calling 
it  forth  into  activity,  as  the  reports  of  the  debates  in  the  British  parliament 
respecting  the  "  Stamp  Act."  They  who  began  by  insisting  upon  the  old 
Whig  maxim,  which  has  been  referred  to  as  the  basis  of  the  struggle  up  to 
this  time,  fancying,  with  Lord  Camden,  that  it  was  "  a  law  of  nature ;"  now. 
inquiring  more  carefully,  and  endeavouring  to  gain  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  boundary  between  the  lawful  and  the  illicit  exercise  of  parliamentary 
authority,  that  they  might  proceed  in  their  opposition  upon  grounds  of  right 
reason ;  u  became  fully  convinced,"  as  one  of  them  has  written,  "  that  such  a 
line  did  not  exist ;  and  that  there  could  be  no  medium  between  acknowledging 
and  denying  that  power  in  all  cases."  They  did  not,  however,  conclude, 
that  they  must  therefore  submit  to  it :  on  the  contrary,  amidst  all  the  popular 
festivities  which  celebrated  the  repeal  of  the  offensive  statute,  they  looked 
forward  silently  to  the  next  stage  of  the  conflict,  and  felt  that  they  knew 
whither  it  would  tend. 

The  year  following,  1767,  Rockingham's  ministry  had  been  displaced  by 
the  Salmagundi  of  Whigs  and  "  King's  Friends,"  which  Pitt  (now,  by  "  a 
fall  up  stairs,"  Earl  of  Chatham)  had  collected  under  himself  in  his  second 
and  faineant  administration.  Townsend,  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer, 
in  culpable  ignorance  of  the  actual  state  of  the  American  colonies,  and  of  the 
fire  that  smouldered  there,  or  in  more  culpable  defiance  of  those  feelings  of 
hostility  which  length  of  time  had  not  appeased ;  dared  to  it  by  his  former 
chief,  Grenville ;  proposed,  and  hurried  forward  into  a  law,  the  laying  of 
duties  upon  tea,  paper,  glass,  and  colours,  imported  into  those  provinces  ; 
the  object  being,  the  formation  of  a  civil  list  for  America,  which  should  be 
wholly  at  the  disposal  of  ministers,  for  salaries,  pensions,  and  all  other  re- 
munerations, which  might  seem  to  be  deserved  by  faithful  service.  This 
proceeding  rekindled  the  excitement  throughout  the  colonies  ;  whilst,  to  add 
to  the  alarm,  a  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Customs  was  established  at  Boston. 
The  opposition  to  the  right  of  taxation  was  at  once  renewed ;  and  it  was 
found  that  it  had  grown,  in  the  general  mind,  from  repudiation  of  the  claim 
to  impose  internal  taxes,  to  the  denial  of  the  right  to  impose  taxes  on  trade 
for  purposes  of  revenue.  Massachusetts  took  the  lead  now ;  it  was  the  chief 
of  the  New  England  provinces,  and  the  stedfast  spirit  of  the  Puritans  was 
not  extinct.  Its  capital,  Boston,  had  also  been  selected  as  the  head-quarters 
for  the  new  officials,  and  of  necessity  became  the  principal  seat  of  the  op- 
ponents, who  once  more  resorted  to  petitions,  remonstrances,  and  non-im- 
portation agreements.  The  seizure  of  the  sloop  c<  Liberty,"  belonging  to 
Hancock,  for  an  infringement  of  the  new  revenue  laws,  incited  the  populace 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  547 

to  violence  again,  and  the  commissioners  were  driven  to  take  refuge  in  chap. 

Castle  William.     To  suppress  this  spirit  of  insubordination,  armed  vessels — - 

were  ordered  to  be  stationed  in  the  harbour,  and  two  regiments  of  foot  to  be  to  lVss. 
quartered  in  the  town.  The  intention  of  the  British  government,  to  send 
this  force  to  Boston,  having  been  announced,  delegates  were  summoned  from 
all  the  towns  in  the  province,  (for  the  assemblies  in  Massachusetts  and  other 
colonies  were  dissolved,)  the  people  were  advised  to  arm  themselves,  and  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appointed.  The  proceedings  of  this  extem- 
porized Convention  were  exceedingly  moderate,  and  the  day  after  it  broke 
up,  the  troops  arrived  and  landed  without  opposition,  under  cover  of  the  guns 
of  the  vessels  in  the  harbour. 

Samuel  Adams  became  prominent  in  the  town-meetings  at  Boston  during 
these  proceedings;  and  Bowdoin  obtained  great  influence  in  the  council. 
While  in  New  York,  George  Clinton  and  Philip  Schuyler  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  The  next  year,  1769,  brought  Thomas  Jefferson  into  the  field,  as  a 
member  of  the  Virginia  assembly,  and  turned  Peyton  Randolph,  the  former 
speaker  of  that  assembly,  who  had  not  been  very  ardent  in  the  cause,  into  a  leader. 
In  the  mother  country,  Pownall,  who  had  been  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
joined  Barre  and  Burke  in  opposing  in  parliament  the  insanity  of  the  advisers 
of  the  crown.  But  the  mass  of  the  British  people  was  either  indifferent  or 
hostile  to  the  claims  of  the  colonists  ;  and  of  those  who  favoured  them,  and 
openly  espoused  them,  the  greater  part  was  influenced  by  no  higher  con- 
sideration than  the  effect  of  the  existing  unsettlement  upon  their  own  trade. 
Lord  Hillsborough,  the  colonial  secretary,  supported  the  attempts  upon  the 
liberties  of  the  colonies.  The  governors  of  the  provinces,  nominated  by  the 
king,  were,  of  course,  amongst  the  advocates  of  the  taxes ;  but  those  chosen 
by  the  people,  were  recommended  by  their  opposition  to  them  to  the  honours 
of  their  station.  More  stringent  resolutions  against  importation  of  any  goods 
from  Britain  were  passed,  and  s^o  firmly  acted  upon,  that  cargoes,  which  had 
arrived,  were  sent  back  without  being  unloaded.  The  domestic  embarrass- 
ments of  the  imperial  government  were,  at  this  time,  aggravated  by  the  dis- 
pute with  the  famous  Wilkes,  of  the  "  North  Briton,"  and  by  the  anonymous 
attacks  of  the  more  celebrated  "  Junius."  It  was  therefore  resolved  to  repeal 
the  clauses  of  Townsend's  Act,  which  imposed  duties  on  British  goods,  as 
"  contrary  to  the  true  principles  of  commerce,"  but  the  duty  upon  tea,  and 
the  right  of  parliament  to  impose  such  taxes,  were  maintained. 

And  now  a  new  element  of  popular  madness  showed  itself.  The  regiments 
which  had  been  sent  to  Boston,  on  the  occasion  of  the  riots  there,  were  not 
withdrawn  when  order  was  restored ;  and  they  were  regarded  as  a  badge  of 
servitude,  which  became  increasingly  galling  to  the  hearts  of  the  patriots. 
Attempts  were  incessantly  made  by  those  restless  spirits,  that  are  to  be  found 
in  every  community,  and  especially  in  those  which  are  in  a  transition  state, 
and,  consequently,  somewhat  disorganized,  to  provoke  a  quarrel  between  the 
citizens  and  the  soldiers,  and  at  last  they  succeeded.  A  picket-guard  of  eight 
men  was  irritated  by  words  and  blows,  till  neither  military  nor  human  nature 

4  a  2 


518-  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  could  endure  it  no  longer ;  they  fired,  killing  three  of  the  crowd,  and  wound- 

ing  five  others.     The  good  sense  of  the  majority  prevented  the  commotion, 

to  1783.  which  followed,  ending  in  a  general  fight ;  on  a  firm  representation  of  the 
state  of  feeling  in  the  town,  the  troops  were  removed  ;  the  funeral  of  the  slain 
was  conducted  with  exaggerated  display ;  the  event  was  magnified  into  "  the 
Boston  massacre ; "  and  finally,  the  officer  and  soldiers  of  the  picket-guard  were 
indicted  and  tried  for  murder.  John  Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy,  two  young 
lawyers,  braving  the  risk  of  losing  the  popularity  which  they  enjoyed,  de- 
fended them ;  and  they  were  all  acquitted  except  two,  who  were  sentenced 
to  slight  punishments  for  manslaughter.  Great  as  was  the  excitement  occa- 
sioned by  the  reports  of  this  affair,  it  might  have  been  forgotten,  but  for  the 
ministry ;  who  were  now  in  that  most  hopeless  position  of  having  committed 
themselves  and  their  country  to  a  mistaken  course,  so  far,  that  whether  they 
proceeded  with  their  unwise  policy,  or  endeavoured  to  return  towards  safer 
ways,  they  aggravated  the  case.  Nothing  but  a  complete  rescission  of  every 
cause  of  offence  could  save  them,  and  that  they  would  not  have  dared  to  at- 
tempt, even  had  they  thought  of  it. 

Pownall  had  proposed  the  repeal  of  the  duties;  but  the  ministry  was 
changed  before  it  was  accomplished,  and  Lord  North,  a  "  king's  friend,"  was 
head  of  a  new  one,  when  in  March,  1770,  it  took  place.  Pownall  tried,  but 
ineffectually,  to  get  the  duty  on  tea  included  in  the  Act.  Measures  like 
this  only  produce  greater  distrust;  concessions  accompanied  by  the  idle 
reassertion  of  the  very  propositions  in  question,  made  grudgingly,  and  only 
under  strong  pressure  from  without,  betray  malignancy  as  well  as  feebleness, 
and  arouse  greater  indignation  than  strong,  open  tyranny.  The  non-im- 
portation resolutions  were  laid  aside,  except  in  respect  of  tea,  and  tranquillity 
was  apparently  restored  ;  but  beneath  all  outward  show,  the  determination  to 
resist,  even  to  the  death,  grew  stronger  daily ;  and  any  one  who  could  have 
watched  the  movements  of  the  colonists,  must  have  anticipated  the  speedy 
occurrence  of  an  outbreak  fiercer  than  any  of  the  preceding,  and  which 
would  perhaps,  in  its  issue,  finally  decide  the  controversy* 

The  affair  of  the  letters  of  Hutchinson  next  occurred,  and  not  only  was  all 
Massachusetts  moved  by  the  discovery  of  the  wicked  falsehoods  and  counsels 
the  governor  had  given  to  his  employers  at  home,  but  the  philosophic 
Franklin,  insulted  in  the  grossest  manner  by  the  bought  eloquence  of  Wed- 
derburn,  laid  aside  the  suit  he  wore,  until  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  donning 
it  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Versailles.  The  burning  of  the  Gaspe*  revenue 
schooner  also  happened,  and  added  to  the  mutual  exasperation  of  the 
colonies  and  the  mother-country.  At  the  suggestion  of  Samuel  Adams,  cor- 
responding committees  were  instituted  by  the  patriots  throughout  the  pro- 
vinces. Dr.  Warren  was  now  added  to  the  band  of  determined  spirits, 
who  at  Boston  watched  the  growth  of  liberty;  and  Otis,  who  had  gained 
such  eminence  in  it,  sank  into  imbecility  in  consequence  of  injuries  received 
in  a  rencontre  with  a  revenue  commissioner,  and  was  lost  to  the  cause. 
We  find  the  names  of  Kichard  Henry  Lee  and  Ethan  Allen,  also,  in  dif- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  549 

ferent  provinces,  and  for  different  reasons,  well  known  amongst  the  provincial   chap. 
partisans. 


We  now  approach  the  crisis  of  the  revolution.  Prompted  by  the  East  to  rtfe 
India  Company,  and  not  unwilling  to  try  whether  audacity  would  not  carry 
it  against  the  resolutions  not  to  import  or  consume  any  tea,  the  British  go- 
vernment empowered  that  Company  to  send  several  cargoes  of  tea  to  the 
colonies,  with  an  agreement  that  such  a  draw-back  should  be  allowed  as 
would  enable  them  to  beat  any  smuggler  out  of  the  market.  But  no  sooner 
did  the  news  of  this  plan  reach  Boston,  than  public  meetings  were  held, 
which  branded  as  "  enemies  to  their  country  "  all  who  should  aid  or  abet 
the  landing  or  selling  of  the  expected  tea.  Most  of  the  consignees  were  ter- 
rified by  the  resolutions  adopted,  and  gave  up  their  appointments ;  but  some, 
who  were  related  to  or  friendly  with  the  governor,  hoping  to  be  supported 
by  the  military,  determined  to  receive  the  tea,  and  offer  it  for  sale,  in  spite 
of  the  prohibition  of  the  people.  The  ships  arrived,  and  the  patriots,  fearing 
that  if  the  cargoes  were  once  warehoused  the  opposition  would  give  way, 
adopted  decisive  measures,  and,  disguised  as  Mohawks,  boarded  the  vessels  as 
they  lay  in  the  harbour,  under  the  very  guns  of  the  armed  ships,  and  emptied 
the  whole  of  the  chests  into  the  harbour.  At  New  York,  a  similar  scene,  but 
on  a  smaller  scale,  was  enacted.  At  Charleston,  there  were  no  purchasers 
for  the  tea  that  was  got  safely  into  store.  Lord  North  was  not  slow  in  meet- 
ing this  challenge  of  the  New  Englanders  ;  but  not  understanding,  even  yet, 
the  nature  of  the  case  respecting  which  he  was  legislating,  or  supposing 
that  if  Boston  were  crushed  the  spirit  of  rebellion  would  be  laid,  he  pro- 
cured the  enactment  of  three  Acts,  by  which  Boston  harbour  was  closed,  and 
the  seat  of  government  removed  to  Salem ;  the  charter  of  the  colony  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  was  abrogated ;  and  any  one  (like  the  picket-guard  in  the 
"  Boston  massacre  ")  who  should  be  indicted  for  capital  crime,  committed  in 
aiding  the  magistracy,  should  be  tried,  not  in  Massachusetts,  but  in  another 
colony,  or  in  Great  Britain.  Some  of  the  old  friends  of  the  colonies,  as  Barre* 
and  Conway,  wavered  in  their  opposition  to  these  measures  ;  but  Rose  Fuller, 
Burke,  Pownall,  Johnstone,  Dowdswell,  Dunning,  and  Fox  spoke  against 
them  powerfully,  though  in  vain.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  opposed  them ; 
and  Lord  Chatham,  under  the  shelter  of  whose  name,  as  head  of  the  adminis- 
tration, the  duties  had  originally  been  proposed  by  Townsend,  raised  his 
voice  against  the  taxation  of  America  once  more.  General  Gage,  moreover, 
was  made  governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  it  was  thought  that  a  few 
frigates  would  be  enough  to  overawe  the  provincials  into  submission  to  these 
statutes. 

But  it  was  oil,  not  water,  that  the  minister  had  thrown  upon  the  conflagra- 
tion. The  other  commercial  cities  might  possibly  have  been  willing  to  see 
Boston  humiliated,  and  never  have  lifted  their  hand  to  help  her ;  but  they 
had  always  regarded  their  charters  as  inviolable  compacts  between  the  king 
and  his  people ;  and  if  one  of  these  might  be  set  aside  by  parliament,  they 
saw  that  no  province  could  consider  its  constitution  safe.     Whilst  in  the 


550  HISTORY    OP    AMERICA. 

chap,   provision  for  the  trial,  in  Britain,  of  persons  accused  of  murder  committed  in 
'  America,  they  discerned  an  indemnity  for  every  one,  who  might  avail  him- 


toi783.  self  of  a  plausible  pretext  for  putting  to  death  any  person  on  whom  the 
government  looked  with  an  unfriendly  eye.  In  Great  Britain,  these  invasions 
of  the  liberties  of  fellow-subjects  were  regarded  with  unconcern,  if  not  with 
satisfaction.  English  people  in  general,  unhappily,  care  little  about  the  in- 
ternal state  of  the  distant  possessions  of  the  crown.  Not  suifering  now  from 
the  rod  themselves,  they  abetted  parliament  in  laying  it  upon  others,  and  did 
not  perceive  that,  had  the  experiment  succeeded,  they  must  themselves  have 
smarted  next,  under  the  degradation  and  the  pain  of  a  similar  infliction. 

The  patriots  of  Massachusetts  availed  themselves  of  the  machinery  of  the 
corresponding  committees,  which  had  been  organized  to  resist  the  "  Stamp 
Act ; "  and  the  unanimity  of  the  feeling  expressed  respecting  the  late  Acts, 
boded  ill  to  the  British  power  in  America.  Two  thoughts  grew  more  and 
more  distinct  in  all  persons'  minds  continually, — the  necessity  of  non-inter- 
course with  the  mother  country,  and  of  a  Congress  to  watch  over  the  safety 
of  the  provinces.  The  new  governor  of  Massachusetts  convened  the  assem- 
bly at  Salem,  according  to  the  recent  statute ;  but  it  had  scarcely  met,  than 
he  discovered  that  it  was  about  to  pass  motions  in  direct  defiance  of  the 
authority  he  represented,  and  he  dissolved  it.  But  the  members  were  able 
to  nominate  deputies  to  meet  the  committees  of  the  other  colonies  at  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  ensuing  autumn,  before  he  dispersed  them.  Encouraged  by 
which,  delegates  were  chosen  by  all  the  other  provinces,  except  Georgia,  for 
the  contemplated  Congress.  To  oppose  these  threatening  appearances,  Gage 
had  gradually  concentrated  in  his  government  seven  regiments;  and  re- 
moving the  seat  of  government  from  Salem  back  to  Boston,  he  fortified  Boston 
Neck,  and  seized  the  powder  in  the  arsenal  at  Charlestown.  The  provincials, 
on  their  side,  flew  to  arms,  and  soon  not  only  organized  a  body  of  irregular 
skirmishers,  but  in  Massachusetts  alone  raised  an  army  of  12,000  men,  and 
formally  resolved  to  attack  the  British  troops,  if  they  marched  in  field  equip- 
ment beyond  Boston  Neck. 

At  the  time  appointed,  almost  all  the  delegates  appeared  at  Philadelphia, 
and  the  remainder  did  not  long  delay.  Beside  the  leaders,  whose  names 
have  been  mentioned  already,  there  were  present  Roger  Sherman  and  Silas 
Deane  from  Connecticut,  John  Jay  from  New  York,  William  Livingston  of 
New  Jersey,  Galloway  of  Pennsylvania,  Caesar  Rodney  and  George  Bead  of 
Delaware,  Samuel  Chase  of  Maryland,  two  Rutledges  from  South  Carolina, 
and  George  Washington  from  Virginia.  The  same  moderation  and  order 
which  had  marked  the  assembling  of  this  Congress,  characterized  its  proceed- 
ings during  the  eight  weeks  that  it  sat.  It  issued,  first  of  all,  a  "  Declaration 
of  Colonial  Rights  ;"  then  instituted  an  "  American  Association,"  for  non-im- 
portation and  non-intercourse,  till  grievances  should  be  redressed ;  and 
lastly,  agreed  upon  a  petition  to  the  king,  an  address  to  the  British  people, 
with  memorials  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  the  Canadians  ;  and  it  is  remarkable, 
that  whilst  in  these  documents,  which  were  drawn  up  with  great  judgment 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  551 

and  ability,  the  Congress  resisted  the  pretensions  of  parliament,  they  were  by  Chap. 

no  means  directed  against  the  crown.     In  the  provinces  these  manifestoes '— 

produced  the  happiest  effects,  giving  stedfastness  to  the  general  purpose  of  to  i>83. 
resisting  every  encroachment  upon  their  rights ;  and  in  the  old  country,  they 
were  followed  by  effects, — similar,  in  that  the  most  general  was  a  demand  for 
the  declaration  of  war, — but  unlike  in  this  respect, — that  it  was  against  free- 
dom and  the  common  rights  of  British  subjects,  that  the  sword  was  required 
to  be  drawn.  This  Congress  was  the  first  of  those  assemblies,  which  aided 
so  effectually  in  the  organization  of  democracy  in  America,  by  habituating 
the  patriots  to  yield  obedience  to  the  recommendations  of  a  body,  possessed 
of  no  legal  or  other  power  to  enforce  them,  solely  from  regard  to  the  common 
good,  and  that  instinct  of  order  which  characterizes  the  modern  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  It  broke  up  with  the  understanding  that  another  should  be  held  in  the 
following  spring,  if  circumstances  seemed  to  require  it. 

The  government  of  the  British  empire  had  thus  pushed  matters  so  far, 
that  the  only  alternative  was  the  concession  of  the  whole  ground  of  quarrel, 
or  civil  war.  Or  more  truly,  although  not  perceived  by  many,  the  alternative 
was  this, — the  independence  of  the  colonies,  with  or  without  war.  Had  the 
councils  of  the  king  been  directed  by  wisdom  and  justice,  we  can  well  be- 
lieve that  a  treaty  of  Versailles, — without  the  frightful  argument  of  years  of 
bloodshed  and  fratricidal  strife,  to  demonstrate  its  necessity, — without  the  long 
and  (as  yet)  unexhausted  train  of  evils  for  America,  for  France,  for  Britain, 
nay,  for  the  civilized  world,  which  in  close  succession  proceeded  from  that 
insane  and  wicked  contest,  which  was  chosen, — would  have  been  adopted. 
Some  voices  were  raised  in  parliament,  and  in  the  country,  against  the  course 
into  which  affairs  were  now  hurrying  every  day  with  quicker  step ;  but  both 
reason  and  eloquence  were  employed  in  vain.  The  majority  of  the  nation 
desired  war, — the  ministry  desired  war, — and  the  king,  forgetting,  or  not 
knowing,  that  his  private  feeling  ought  to  have  no  greater  weight  in  affairs 
of  government,  than  that  of  his  meanest  subject, — the  king,  too,  wished  for 
war ;  and  such  was  the  temper  of  that  age,  that  his  desire  not  only  precipi- 
tated the  contest,  but  delayed  its  close.  Scarcely  one  man  in  all  Britain  per- 
ceived that  success,  in  such  a  case,  must  of  necessity  be  suicidal,  and  that  in 
defeat  alone  lay  the  promise  of  good,  which  was  lessened  and  dimmed  by 
every  day's  procrastination.  This  can  be  seen  now,  and  it  has  been  proved 
that  the  loss  of  the  United  States  has  been  such  a  gain  to  their  father-land, 
that  the  acquisition  of  the  whole  Western  continent  could  scarcely  have  com- 
pensated the  lack  of  it.  "When  all  the  rivalries  and  jealousies,  the  seeds  of 
which  were  so  thickly  sown  by  the  war,  are  rooted  out  of  both  peoples, — who 
can  estimate  the  benefits  they  may  confer  upon  each  other  ?  But  we  ought 
not  to  leave  out  of  sight  that  wider  view  of  this  matter,  which  is  presented 
by  the  consideration,  that  over  all  the  movements  of  men  below,  the  eye  of 
God's  providence  watches,  and  that  His  hand  so  controls  and  guides  them, 
that  not  only  does  "  the  wrath  of  man  praise  "  Him,  but  out  of  man's  foolish- 
ness and  sin,  He  brings  to  pass  new  manifestations  of  His  glory.     Were  it 


552  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  not  for  thoughts  like  these,  the  page  of  history  would  be  a  sickening  study ; 

■ and  from  such  a  display  of  the  madness  of  a  government  and  a  nation,  as  the 

to  1*783.  American  revolutionary  war,  every  undepraved  mind  would  turn  away  in 
disgust. 

The  purpose  of  our  review  of  this  struggle  in  the  present  chapter,  makes 
it  unnecessary  for  us  to  enter  into  any  detail  of  the  military  operations  which 
followed ;  and  in  a  subsequent  chapter  we  shall  particularly  notice  the  his- 
tory of  the  Congress  and  the  Confederation ;  here  we  aim  at  nothing  beyond 
the  distinct  indication  of  the  various  steps  by  which  the  American  revolution 
was  effected,  that  the  history  of  the  United  States,  as  an  independent  and 
federal  republic,  which  is  to  follow,  may  be  the  more  distinctly  pictured,  and 
more  completely  grasped  by  our  readers. 

In  February,  1775,  the  provinces  were  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  re- 
bellion ;  and  about  the  same  time,  Franklin  returned  to  America,  to  aid  per- 
sonally in  the  impending  conflict.  Hostilities  were  actually  commenced  by 
the  affair  of  Lexington,  on  April  the  19th,  the  result  of  which  not  a  little 
encouraged  the  patriots.  More  energetic  proceedings  were  adopted ;  Con- 
gress assembled  again  in  May,  and  assumed  and  exercised  an  undisputed 
sovereignty  throughout  the  thirteen  provinces  which  it  represented.  And 
the  British  force  in  Boston,  now  blockaded  by  the  armed  colonists,  was  soon 
afterwards  reinforced  by  Generals  Howe,  Burgoyne,  and  Clinton,  and  the 
troops  under  their  command.  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  were  honourably 
distinguished,  by  being  exempted  from  an  offer  of  pardon,  on  the  uncon- 
ditional submission  of  the  provincials  ;  and  the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  on  the 
16th  of  June,  showed  that  the  aim  and  the  rifle  of  the  hunter,  when  directed 
by  the  spirit  of  the  patriot,  were  as  dangerous  as  the  firelock  and  bayonet  of 
the  disciplined  regular,  actuated  by  the  spirit  of  the  professional  soldier  alone. 
Hopkins  and  Ward,  Putnam  and  Greene,  Arnold  and  Warner,  with  many 
another,  statesman  or  warrior,  came  forward  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  The 
intrigues  of  the  royalists,  the  temporizers,  the  mercenary,  and  the  fearful, 
were  defeated  by  the  depth  and  the  universality  of  the  determination  now 
fixed  unchangeably  in  the  hearts  of  the  colonists,  either  to  achieve  their 
liberty,  or  to  perish  in  the  attempt.  In  June,  Washington  was  chosen  com- 
mander-in-chief; and  Ward,  Lee,  Schuyler,  Putnam,  Montgomery,  Gates, 
and  some  half  dozen  more  were  generals,  major,  brigadier,  and  adjutant,  un- 
der him.  The  conduct  and  the  result  of  the  war  justified  these  appointments. 
"  Defensive  warfare  required  a  Fabius,  not  a  Csesar,"  says  Heeren ;  and  we 
may  add,  that  as  it  was  pro  mis  et  focis  that  the  patriots  fought,  not  only  a 
Fabius,  but  one  in  whom  the  warrior  should  never  obscure  the  citizen,  was 
especially  demanded.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  good  indirectly  accom- 
plished, during  this  war,  by  Washington,  amidst  straits,  and  surrounded  by 
difficulties,  seemingly  insuperable,  simply  by  preventing  the  commission  of 
injuries,  and  keeping  continually  before  the  minds  of  the  entire  army,  that 
their  function  was  to  prevent  bloodshed,  rather  than  to  slay  ;  and  to  save,  not 
to  spoil  the  country.     Next  after  Cromwell's  invincible  Puritan  army,  in  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  553 

annals  of  true  and  ever-living  renown,  stands  this  of  the  patriots  of  the   chap. 

American  provinces.     And  in  the  person  of  its  chief,  one,  and  that  perhaps '• — 

the  principal,  aspect  of  the  idea  for  which  they  took  up  arms,  gradually  be-    to  iVs3. 
came  incarnated : — during  the  following  ten  or  fifteen  years,  at  least,  he  was 
the  "  hero  "  of  the  Western  world. 

The  unsuccessful  Canadian  expedition  was  the  only  really  aggressive  move- 
ment of  the  colonists  ;  and  before  it  was  brought  to  a  close,  in  March,  1776, 
the  leaguer  of  Boston  compelled  Howe  (who  had  superseded  Gage)  to  eva- 
cuate the  town.  In  the  interim,  the  first  proof  of  the  inefficiency  of  the 
Congress  had  come  to  light ;  and  had  not  patriotism  supplied  the  remedy, 
that  first  campaign,  from  the  absence  of  any  central  and  commanding  author- 
ity, would  have  been  fruitless,  and  might  even  have  ended  the  war.  We 
must  pass  over  the  Various  indications  of  faint-heartedness,  and  of  falsehood 
to  the  cause,  which  tried  the  souls  of  Washington  and  the  leaders  of  Con- 
gress. But  we  may  mention  Tryon,  formerly  governor  of  North  Carolina, 
as  one  of  their  most  skilful  and  persevering  enemies ;  and  Timothy  Ruggles, 
as  one  of  the  most  indefatigable  royalists  of  Boston.  On  the  patriot  side, 
Pinckney,  Reed,  Mifflin,  and  others,  afterward  of  more  note,  became  known. 
And  privateering  was  licensed  by  Congress  in  self-defence.  The  plans  of 
Lord  North  for  carrying  on  the  war  added  to  the  energy  of  the  provincials, 
and  disposed  many  in  Britain,  who  had  been  indifferent,  to  feel  real  concern 
for  them ;  and  we  may  especially  mention  the  hire  of  the  Hessian  troops,  the 
employment  of  the  Indians  of  Canada,  and  the  compulsion  of  naval  prisoners 
to  serve  against  their  country,  as  having  this  effect.  These  measures  showed 
what  might  be  expected  if  the  colonists  were  subdued,  and  armed  them  with 
new  courage  to  resist.  In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  Long  Island  was  captured 
by  the  British,  and  New  York  given  up  to  the  invaders. 

Whilst  these  matters  were  proceeding,  a  total  and  final  separation  from  the 
mother  country  began  to  be  publicly  discussed.  And  Thomas  Paine,  by  his 
pamphlet  entitled  "  Common  Sense,"  contributed  more  powerfully  than  any 
other  writer  or  leader,  to  make  the  independence  of  the  provinces  popular 
amongst  the  provincials.  The  ravages  effected  by  Lord  Dunmore,  an  ex- 
governor,  in  Virginia,  and  a  reactionary  insurrection  in  North  Carolina, 
spread  the  desire  for  independence  in  the  southern  provinces.  The  pro- 
visional assemblies  of  the  various  colonies  discussed,  and  even  acted  upon, 
the  purpose  to  separate  from  Britain ;  and  the  continental  Congress  at  last 
took  the  subject  up.  Committees  were  appointed,  debates  and  conferences 
held,  and  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  "  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  the 
Thirteen  United  States,"  the  draft  of  which  was  penned  by  Thomas  Jefferson, 
was  adopted  and  signed  by  the  members  of  Congress.  It  will  be  observed 
that  in  this  document,  which  sets  forth  the  grievances  of  the  colonists  in  such 
warm  and  glowing  colours,  parliament  is  not  once  mentioned,  nor  is  the  con- 
nexion of  the  provinces,  or  of  their  quarrel,  with  it  once  alluded  to ;  the  acts 
of  oppression  referred  to,  are  treated  as  acts  of  the  king,  in  combination  with 
others,  for  the  overthrow  of  their  liberties.     This  indicates  a  complete  change 

4  b 


554:  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  af.  in  the  grounds  of  resistance,  from  those  held  out  at  the  commencement ;— but 

• - —  the  change  was  one  of  growth ;   by  miserable  experience,  the  patriots  had 

to  1783.  learned  the  true  source  of  their  wrongs,  and  to  disregard  the  pedantic  formal- 
ities of  the  monarchical  constitution,  which  stave  off  from  the  sovereign  the 
responsibility  of  his  own  acts.  We  are  reminded  of  the  progress  from  the 
formality  of  the  long  parliament,  which  made  war  for  the  king  against  his 
person,  to  the  solemnity  of  the  high  court  of  justice,  and  the  scaffold  at 
Whitehall.  In  both  cases,  many  invaluable  lives  would  have  been  spared, 
had  things  been  called  by  their  right  names  from  the  first,  and  dealt  with 
accordingly. 

The  evacuation  of  New  York  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  imme- 
diately preceded  the  most  gloomy  passage  of  the  war.  Washington  was  com- 
pelled to  retreat  through  the  Jerseys,  with  such  haste,  and  in  such  complete 
destitution  and  disarray,  that  the  people  hastened  to  make  their  peace  with 
the  victors ;  and  had  Howe  maintained  discipline  in  his  army,  that  province, 
at  least,  would  have  been  lost  to  the  Union.  But  the  violence  and  excesses 
the  British  troops  indulged  in,  irritated  the  inhabitants  to  such  a  degree,  that 
thirst  for  revenge  took  the  place  of  their  recent  loyalty ;  and  the  ultimate 
consequences  of  the  victory  were  more  disastrous  for  the  conquerors  than  for 
the  vanquished  Americans.  The  splendid  success  of  the  patriots  at  Trenton, 
was  the  beginning  of  a  new  stage  in  the  conflict.  But  before  the  end  of 
another  year,  this  was  eclipsed  by  the  capture  of  Burgoyne  and  his  whole 
army,  by  Gates,  at  Saratoga :  yet  the  glory  of  this  triumph  was  impaired  by 
the  loss  of  Philadelphia,  which  the  British  took  possession  of,  about  the  same 
time.  One  result  of  the  capitulation  of  Burgoyne,  was  an  alliance  between 
France  and  the  United  States.  Silas  Deane  had  gone  to  that  country  a  year 
Defore,  and  Franklin  and  Arthur  Lee  had  joined  him  there  as  agents  and 
residents,  should  they  be  acknowledged.  Arms  and  stores  had  been  sent 
to  America,  and  the  services  of  several  distinguished  soldiers  obtained,  the 
Marquis  de  La  Fayette  being  the  most  eminent,  both  by  rank  and  historic 
renown.  But  no  open  recognition  took  place  till  the  beginning  of  1778, 
when,  contrary  to  the  inclination  of  the  king,  the  Comte  de  Vergennes,  his 
prime  minister,  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  United  States,  and 
formed  a  treaty  of  alliance  and  commerce  with  them.  Great  Britain  neces- 
sarily regarded  this  as  a  declaration  of  war,  and  thus  the  strife  was  extended 
to  the  old  world.  Spain  was  very  soon  involved  in  the  contest,  as  an  ally  of 
France,  and  Holland  was  afterwards  drawn  in ;  whilst  the  Northern  States 
shared  in  it,  after  their  own  fashion,  by  forming  themselves  into  an  "  Armed 
Neutrality."  The  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  Spain,  and  Hol- 
land, was  carried  on  chiefly  by  sea,  and  it  spread  as  far  as  distant  Hindustan : 
the  naval  force  of  the  last-named  power  was  irremediably  crippled  by  it,  and 
though  the  others  gained  some  victories  in  the  end,  the  supremacy  of  the  sea 
remained  with  their  great  antagonist. 

This  portion  of  the  subject  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  rapid 
review ;  we  need,  therefore,  only  observe  the  marvellous  combination  of  cir- 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  555 

cumstances  which  procured  for  the  republicans  of  America  such  allies, — with-  chap. 

out  whose  aid,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  this  effort  to  conquer  their  freedom ' — 

must  have  been  fruitless.  Not  only  was  there,  as  ever,  the  old  jealousy  of  to  i>83. 
Britain  at  the  heart  of  France,  and  that,  aggravated  by  the  recent  loss  of  the 
Canadas ;  but  under  the  sway  of  an  absolute  monarch,  there  had  sprung  up 
what  was  fondly  believed  to  be  a  passion  for  liberty.  Philosophism,  with 
Voltaire  for  its  hierophant,  had  offered  to  break  every  fetter  from  the  human 
soul,  and  the  slight,  mercurial  people,  enchanted  by  the  magnificence  of  its 
promises,  had  eagerly  caught  at  the  hopes  it  inspired.  They  did  not  suppose 
that  the  court  and  its  sinecure  offices  would  be  abolished ;  nor  that  their 
splendours  and  sumptuosities  would  be  abridged ;  nor  that  rich  bishoprics 
and  fat  benefices  would  be  done  away  with ;  it  was  licence  that  they  dreamed 
of,  not  liberty ;  and  all  the  fine  sentimentalisms  about  freedom,  which  were 
uttered,  were  words,  mere  words.  It  was,  however,  as  this  philosophic  pas- 
sion for  liberty  was  approaching  its  climax,  that  Silas  Deane  and  Benjamin 
Franklin  besought  the  aid  of  France  to  realize  in  America,  what  was  then  on 
every  one's  tongue  ; — a  war  with  Britain  was  sure  to  be  popular  ; — so  what 
could  a  philosophic  ministry  do,  save,  after  becoming  hesitation,  commit  the 
king  and  the  country  to  such  a  contingency,  for  the  sake  of  assisting  so  good 
a  cause?    It  was  done,  and  the  issue  of  it  was — the  French  Revolution. 

Simultaneous  with  this  alliance,  was  Lord  North's  proposal  for  conciliation, 
which  gave  up  the  whole  of  the  original  ground  of  the  dispute,  but  main- 
tained the  supremacy  of  the  mother  country ;  in  the  course  of  the  discussion 
of  which,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  old  Earl  of  Chatham,  who  had  so  often 
opposed  the  taxation  of  the  Americans,  now,  in  opposition  to  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  denounced  the  relinquishment  of  the  colonies  almost  with  his 
dying  breath.  Congress  would  not  listen  to  any  proposals  for  peace,  which 
did  not  recognise  the  independence  of  the  nation.  In  the  autumn,  the  French 
fleet  appeared  off  the  coast  of  the  United  States,  and  co-operated,  though  not 
very  efficiently,  with  the  patriots.  Not  till  the  end  of  two  years  did  any  land 
forces  reach  America.  During  the  interval,  except  the  evacuation  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  a  few  trifling  engagements  and  marauding  descents  upon  the 
coast,  the  Southern  States  were  the  seat  of  war ;  Charleston  was  taken  in 
May,  1780;  and  Gates  defeated  by  Cornwallis  in  the  following  August. 
Gloom  once  more  overspread  the  cause  of  freedom.  Greene,  who  succeeded 
Gates,  maintained  a  doubtful  contest  with  Lords  Cornwallis  and  Rawdon ; 
and  at  length  Washington  was  entreated  to  join  the  southern  army,  and  strike 
a  decisive  blow.  Aided  by  the  French  auxiliaries,  he  succeeded  in  surround- 
ing Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  and  forcing  him  to  capitulate,  in  October,  1781 ; 
and  thereupon  the  last  hope  entertained  in  Britain  of  coercing  the  Americans 
into  submission,  vanished.     The  war  was,  in  effect,  finished. 

In  our  hasty  notice  of  this  period  of  the  struggle,  many  points  of  great 
interest,  not  only  in  connexion  with  the  history  in  general,  but  especially  with 
the  object  of  our  review,  have  been  omitted.  We  will  glance  at  some  of 
them;    others  will  be  considered  in  another  chapter  in  this  book.      One 

4  b  2 


556  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

c  h^a  p.  historical  parallel  is  worthy  of  regard.  In  the  first  part  of  the  war,  the  pro- 
— •    —  vincial  soldiers  were  bound  to  serve  only  for  limited  terms,  just  as  the  mili- 

to  1783.  tary  vassals  were  in  feudal  times  (from  which,  in  fact,  this  custom  concerning 
the  militia  was  derived) ;  and  in  consequence,  many  a  battle  was  only  half 
won,  and  many  a  victory  not  followed  up,  because  the  days  or  months  of  ser- 
vice were  concluded.  In  this,  as  in  so  many  other  respects,  the  United 
States  have  passed,  in  a  few  years,  through  the  stages  of  growth,  which  occu- 
pied centuries  in  the  European  nations.  The  sudden  development  of  the 
material  resources  of  the  country  required  by  the  war,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  manufacture  of  arms  and  ammunition;  and  again,  of  the  manufactures 
required  for  clothing  the  troops ;  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  without  men- 
tion. The  attention  given  to  agriculture,  in  all  the  districts  unvisited  by 
actual  warfare,  is  another  fact  to  be  noted.  The  over-issue  of  paper  money, 
the  only  means  seemingly  available  by  Congress  for  the  support  of  the  war, 
and  its  prodigious  depreciation,  together  with  the  establishment  of  the  u  Bank 
of  North  America,"  will  be  remarked  on  subsequently ;  as  will  the  elevation 
of  the  Congress  into  a  Federal  Government,  which  was  necessary,  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  constituted  the  thirteen  colonies  into  as  many 
States,  and  the  powers  assigned  to  the  "  Committees  of  Safety."  The  devia- 
tion from  all  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare,  and  the  insolent  tone  adopted  by 
the  British,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  struggle,  together  with  the  insuffi- 
cient force  employed  to  secure  the  end  proposed,  must  be  assigned  as  reasons 
for  the  obstinacy  with  which  the  patriots  held  out ;  whilst  they  forcibly  im- 
press us  with  their  necessity  for  independence  of  a  parent  state,  which  could 
so  misesteem  dependencies  such  as  the  North  American  provinces  had  been. . 
The  intrigues  to  deprive  Washington  of  the  chief  command  suggest  many 
instructive  reflections.  They  were  not  the  only  display  of  that  petty  species 
of  military  ambition,  which  proverbially  characterizes  citizens  turned  soldiers, 
and  which  aims  not  at  the  superior  glory  attainable  by  the  higher  duties  of 
the  most  elevated  rank,  nor  yet  at  the  possession  of  power,  which  may  be 
wielded  so  as  to  aggrandize  him  who  has  it,  at  the  expense  of  others,  and  of 
the  public  morality  of  the  state  ; — but  only  envies  the  higher  pay  and  greater 
personal  distinction, — the  taller  feather  in  the  cap,  the  more  richly  laced  coat, 
and  more  mouth-filling  title.  The  absence  of  the  larger  military  ambition, 
of  which  Napoleon  is  the  most  recent  type,  in  the  officers  of  the  patriot  army, 
is  one  very  remarkable  feature,  and  is  eminently  characteristic  of  the  man- 
ners of  the  men  who  composed  it.  Another  trait  of  American  character, 
which  was  brought  to  light  by  far  too  frequently  and  prominently,  is,  accord- 
ing to  Washington,  who  mourned  over  both  it  and  its  effects, — avaricious 
selfishness.  It  is  true  that  it  did  not  so  characterize  the  combatants  and  the 
partisans  of  freedom  in  the  United  States,  as  to  be  attributable  to  them  above 
all  others  in  the  world; — examples,  of  a  flagrant  sort,  might  be  found  in 
armies  of  much  more  aristocratic  pretensions ; — but  it  appeared  in  a  peculiarly 
coarse  and  revolting  form ;  and  it  was  manifested  under  the  shadow  of  the 
noblest  banner,  save  one,  that  a  people  can  raise.     Narrowly  considering  it, 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  557 

we  are  struck  with  the  fact,  that  men  of  this  stamp  icon  the  day,  and  must  be  chap. 

reckoned  the  van  of  the  army  of  liberty  in  recent  times.     Taken  in  con ' — 

nexion  with  the  species  of  military  ambition  displayed,  we  perceive  it  is  the  to  iVs3. 
peculiar  faults  of  the  citizen-class,  and  of  the  trading  order  amongst  them, 
that  we  are  contemplating ;  and  when  we  turn  and  inquire  to  whom  the 
world  owes  the  achievement  of  the  victories  of  liberty  in  earlier  ages,  we  find 
that  it  was  by  such  men  as  these  that  they  were  won.  The  brilliant,  grace- 
ful audacity  of  those  who  have  regarded  themselves,  and  been  regarded  by 
others,  as  the  elite  of  mankind,  has  over  and  over  again  enslaved  whole  em- 
pires ;  and  it  is  to  the  solid,  heavy,  ungraceful,  money-loving  burgher  class, 
that  they  have,  over  and  over  again,  owed  their  deliverance.  The  United 
States  were  created  by  men  of  the  middle  class,  (according  to  the  social  scale 
of  the  free  states  of  the  old  world,) — and  they  have  remained  an  empire  of  the 
middle  class.  The  free  cities  of  Germany,  Italy,  and  Spain,  in  the  mediaeval 
period,  and  England  in  the  times  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Protec- 
torate, are  the  only  approximations  to  parallels,  which  history  can  show,  from 
the  days  of  Athens  and  Sparta,  and  the  early  ages  of  the  Eternal  City. 

One  point  more  may  be  touched  upon  here,  but  more  fully  noticed  after- 
wards ;  in  the  latter  years  of  the  war,  while  the  colonies  were  painfully  con- 
verting themselves  into  States,  there  appeared  amongst  them,  in  manifold 
shapes,  a  peculiar  kind  of  jealousy  of  one  another,  particularly  if  they  were 
contiguous.  To  this  feeling  we  ascribe  the  anti-federalism  of  the  Union, 
which  is,  as  we  shall  see,  no  purer  republicanism  than  federalism,  and  has 
reference  less  to  the  first  principle  of  a  state,  than  to  the  embodiment  of  its 
power  of  self-government.  And  finally,  though  we  cannot  pretend  to  give  a 
complete  list  of  eminent  persons  on  the  side  of  the  patriots,  some  names  must 
be  given,  were  it  only  to  show  the  elements  which  were  preparing  for  future 
party-discussions  and  combinations,  and  that  in  this  instance  the  people,  and 
not  the  great  men,  were  the  real  leaders.  Amongst  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  beside  those  who  have  already  been  noticed, 
we  find  Dr.  Bartlett  of  New  Hampshire,  R.  T.  Paine  of  Massachusetts, 
Samuel  Huntington  of  Connecticut,  General  Floyd  of  New  York,  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  of  New  Jersey,  Morris,  Rush,  and  Clymer  of  Pennsylvania,  Charles 
Carroll  of  Carrolltown  from  Maryland,  Benjamin  Harrison  of  Virginia,  Gwin- 
nelt  and  Walton  of  Georgia ;  Henry  Laurens,  one  of  the  presidents  of  the 
continental  Congress,  who  was  imprisoned  by  the  British,  when  on  an  em- 
bassy to  Holland,  and  his  son ;  Trumbull,  Hawley,  Palfrey,  Hanson,  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  Madison  and  Monroe,  and  Edmund  Randolph;  Generals 
St.  Clair,  Lincoln,  Howe,  Smallwood,  Moultrie,  Clinton,  Wayne,  Stark, 
Sullivan,  Mercer,  Stirling,  and  the  Baron  Steuben,  an  old  soldier  of  the  king 
of  Prussia,  and  Count  Rochambeau,  three  Lameths, — with  many  another, 
yoarcely  less  distinguished,  are  honourably  commemorated  in  the  annals  of 
the  aera  of  the  revolution.  Most  of  them  we  shall  meet  again  and  again,  in 
the  following  chapters,  for  they  were  the  public  men  of  the  new-born  States. 

From  the  time  when  Cornwallis  surrendered,  the  British  were  cooped  up 


558  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  in  New  York,  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  and  could  do  no  more  towards  the 

'——  end  for  which  they  had  been  sent  across  the  Atlantic,  than  engage,  from  time 

to  1788.  to  time,  in  petty  expeditions  for  forage  or  plunder.  The  ministry  at  home 
determined  to  carry  on  a  "  war  of  posts ; "  but  the  people,  who  had  entered 
so  warmly  into  the  projects  for  reducing  "  our  subjects"  to  obedience  by 
armed  force,  now  found  that,  while  the  "cost"  of  the  war  was  prodigious, 
the  results  were  absolutely  nothing ;  and  that  chord,  which  never  is  wanting 
in  the  hearts  of  nations  that  have  gained  and  preserved  any  amount  of  po- 
litical freedom,  vibrated  in  sympathy  with  the  manly  music  which  the 
American  patriots  beat  out  so  loudly  and  clearly.  Early  in  1782,  Lord  North 
was  left  in  a  minority  on  the  question  of  the  termination  of  hostilities,  put  by 
General  Conway ;  but  the  king  clung  with  characteristic  obstinacy  to  his 
scheme  for  subjugating  the  States.  The  Commons  therefore  declared,  that 
whosoever  should  advise  his  Majesty  to  any  further  prosecution  of  offensive 
war  against  the  colonies  of  North  America,  should  be  considered  a  public 
enemy.  This  produced  the  demission  of  Lord  North  and  his  coadjutors,  who 
were  followed  by  a  ministry  under  Lord  Rockingham,  and  on  his  death  by 
one  under  Lord  Shelburne.  Measures  of  pacification  soon  made  rapid  pro- 
gress, for  all  parties,  save  the  king,  were  well  inclined  to  end  the  war ; — pro- 
visional articles  were  signed  on  the  30th  of  November,  in  the  same  year,  and 
the  treaty  of  Versailles,  by  which  Great  Britain  recognised  the  independence 
of  her  revolted  dependencies,  and  the  United  States  took  their  place  as  a  free 
sovereignty  amongst  the  nations  of  the  civilized  world,  without  one  dissen- 
tient voice,  was  definitively  signed  on  the  3rd  of  September,  1783. 

Thus  was  terminated  a  struggle,  which  ranks  first  amongst  those  of  the 
latest  centuries,  in  virtue  of  the  vastness  and  beneficial  character  of  its  effects 
upon  the  affairs  of  mankind.  The  questions  argued,  and  the  determinations 
reached,  by  the  long  and  dreadful  wars  which  arose  out  of  the  French 
Revolution,  excepting  that  which  Dumouriez  so  triumphantly  settled  at 
Valmy,  related  to  governing  persons  and  families,  and  the  allowable  limits  of 
their  ambition,  in  respect  of  each  other ;  the  interests  of  the  people  appeared 
in  them  mainly  as  the  stalking-horse  of  the  pretensions  of  sovereigns,  being 
referred  to  only  when  discomfited  despots  could  by  no  other  spell  raise 
armies  to  fight  their  battles  and  gain  their  private  ends.  The  condition  of 
Europe  at  this  moment,  (June,  1852,)  is  the  proof  of  what  we  allege  on  this 
hand ;  and  of  the  other  branch  of  the  assertion,  the  following  chapters  of  this 
History,  in  which  Anglo-Saxondom  of  North  America  will  figure,  not  in  a 
state  of  dependency,  nor  in  revolt,  but  as  an  independent  republican  con- 
federation, will  be  the  continuous  demonstration  :  while  it  exhibits  under  new 
forms,  full  of  meaning  for  the  politician,  the  philosopher,  and  the  philan- 
thropist alike,  the  phenomena  of  the  growth  and  progress  of  a  State.  In  this 
Book  we  shall  describe  the  process  by  which  its  government  was  organized ; 
and  he  who  had  been  its  chief  captain  in  war,  called  to  show  himself  its  lead- 
ing citizen  in  peace ;  to  consolidate  the  authority  which  was  now  needed  to 
preserve,  amidst  the  contests  of  political  parties,  the  liberty  which  bad  been 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  553 


achieved  by  the  shock  of  arms  ;  and  to  give  a  breathing  time,  during  which    chap. 

opinions  might  be  discussed,  and  institutions  tried,  and  men  become  known ■ — 

to  the  people  and  to  one  another,  and  the  infancy  of  the  nation  so  passed    to  iVs3. 
as  to  be  an  augury  of  good  for  its  advancing  age,  and  a  time  which  all  its 
children  should  look  back  upon  with  gladness  and  bless. 


A.  D.  1783. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  UNITED  STATES'   TERRITORY,    AND  THE   RACES   INHABITING  IT,   IN   1783.— SKETCHES   OP 
SOCIETY  AND   MANNERS   DURING  AND   AFTER  THE    WAR. 

Before  we  proceed  with  our  narrative  of  what  befell  after  the  war,  it  will  be  chap. 
advisable  to  ascertain  the  physical  character  of  the  country,  which  was  the 
theatre  of  the  operations  of  the  new  nation  ;  and  the  ethnological  peculiarities 
of  the  races,  both  dominant  and  subject,  which  now  commenced  their  inde- 
pendent career  amongst  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  For  these  conditions,  far 
more  innuentially  than  the  circumstances  originating  a  free  state,  determine 
its  subsequent  course.  After  such  a  training  as  the  Anglo-Americans  had 
received,  and  being  separated  from  the  mother  country  by  so  sharp  a  struggle, 
with  such  a  country  as  was  allotted  to  them — of  fertile  and  varied  soil,  well 
wooded,  and  beneath  a  not  inhospitable  sky,  rich  in  almost  every  kind  of 
mineral  treasure,  intersected  by  rivers  of  prodigious  size  and  length,  and  as 
to  its  coast,  indented  with  many  a  secure  and  spacious  harbour, — abounding 
not  less  in  scenes  and  spectacles,  which  can  educe  and  nurture  all  that  is 
most  human  in  man, — the  silent  gloom  of  virgin  forests,  the  thundering  roar 
of  waterfalls,  luxuriant  prairies,  wood-crowned  mountains,  winters  of  sub- 
arctic severity,  summers  of  almost  tropical  heat ;  — what  must  not  be  antici- 
pated respecting  a  people,  in  whom  the  blood  of  almost  every  branch  of  the 
vast  Indo-European  family,  distinguished  for  enterprise  and  skill,  is  mingled, 
when  it  shall  have  gained,  by  years  of  heroic  effort  and  endurance,  a  History  ? 
The  boundaries  of  the  old  colonies  do  not  now  concern  us,  nor  their 
changes ;  the  original  extent  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  was  fixed, 
by  the  Treaty  of  1783,  in  the  following  manner.  The  eastern  boundary  was 
declared  to  be  a  line  drawn  due  north,  from  the  source  of  the  river  St.  Croix 
to  the  highlands  dividing  the  rivers  feeding  the  St.  Lawrence  from  those 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic ;  the  St.  Croix  river,  and  the  Atlantic  shore,  from 
its  mouth  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary,  including  (generally)  all  islands 
within  twenty  leagues  of  the  shores,  due  east.  On  the  south,  the  old  line 
was  kept, — the  St.  Mary  river,  a  line  direct  from  its  source  to  the  fork  of  the 
Flint  river  and  the  Appalachicola,  the  latter  to  the  31st  parallel  N.  Lat.,  and 


A.  D.  1783. 


560  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  along  that  parallel  westward  to  the  Mississippi.  This  magnificent  stream 
formed  its  western  border ;  and  the  northern  was  a  line  drawn  along  the 
highlands  between  the  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  river  system  of 
the  middle  Atlantic,  from  the  eastern  boundary  line,  described  before,  to  the 
north-western  head  of  the  Connecticut  river  ;  and  along  it  to  the  forty-fifth 
parallel  N.  Lat. ;  thence  due  west  to  the  Iroquois  river,  to  Lake  Ontario,  along 
the  middle  of  the  long  chain  of  rivers  and  lakes  to  Lake  Superior ;  through 
it,  passing  above  the  islands  Phelipeaux  and  Royal,  to  the  Lake  of  the  "Woods, 
and  from  its  north-western  part  due  west  to  the  Mississippi. 

It  was  subsequently  discovered,  that  a  line  due  west  from  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods  would  never  touch  the  Mississippi;  but  that  error  occasioned  no  trouble, 
although  it  supplied  an  excuse  for  the  alteration  of  the  whole  of  the  western 
boundary.  Far  otherwise  did  it  prove  with  respect  to  the  line  forming  the 
north-eastern  boundary.  The  treaty  of  "  amity  and  commerce,"  of  1794,  ap- 
pointed commissioners  to  settle  which  was  the  St.  Croix  river,  and  to  ascertain 
the  latitude  and  longitude  of  its  source  and  of  its  embouchure ;  but  an  ex- 
planatory article,  added  in  1796,  released  them  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
task,  and  enjoined  the  erection  of  a  monument  at  the  source,  by  the  joint  care 
of  the  United  States'  government  and  the  governors  of  the  adjacent  British 
provinces,  by  whom  also  it  was  to  be  kept  in  repair.  Not,  however,  till  the 
end  of  sixty  years  after  the  first  description,  was  that  portion  of  the  boundary 
line  definitively  settled  ;  and  then  by  a  compromise,  and  not  according  to  the 
terms  of  the  original  treaty. 

The  extent  of  the  tract  included  within  that  earliest  description  of  the 
United  States,  may  be  estimated  by  the  following  approximate  measure- 
ments. Its  length  from  north  to  south  varied  from  about  1200  miles  near  the 
Mississippi,  to  about  750  miles  south  of  Lake  Erie  :  and  its  breadth,  east  and 
west,  which  is  about  900  miles  immediately  under  that  lake,  sinks  to  about 
600  miles  at  the  frontiers  of  Florida.  The  length  of  a  diagonal,  drawn  from 
south-west  to  north-east,  is  full  1700  miles,  and  of  one  from  south-east  to 
north-west,  about  1400  miles.    It  contains  more  than  800,000  square  miles. 

In  every  region,  the  mountains  are  the  physical  feature  of  the  first  import- 
ance, because  they  determine  both  the  general  direction  of  the  river-courses, 
and  the  grand  outline  of  the  coast.  Such  a  feature  in  the  territory  ceded  to 
the  United  States  in  1783,  are  the  Appalachian  mountains.  This  system  con- 
sists of  a  long  plateau  of  table-land,  crowned  by  numerous  parallel  chains,  of 
which  about  four  attain  the  average  height  of  2000  or  2500  feet.  It  commences 
in  the  present  State  of  Alabama,  and,  by  a  gently  curved  course,  runs  between 
Tennessee  and  the  Carolinas,  bounds  Kentucky  on  the  east,  crosses  Virginia, 
Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York,  skirts  the  western  edge 
of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  sends  one  ridge  through  Vermont,  and  an- 
other through  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  and  ends  in  the  highlands  south  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.  The  entire  length  of  the  range  is  about  1200  miles,  and  its 
breadth  in  Pennsylvania  about  200  miles.  Nearer  to  the  Atlantic  lies  the 
Blue  ridge,  which  is  traceable  from  Georgia  to  New  York ;  and  thence  is 


A.  1).  1783. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  561 

continued  by  the  Catskill  Mountains  to  the  Green  Mountains,  which  gave  chap. 
tneir  name  to  Vermont,  and  were  so  called  from  being  wooded  to  their  very- 
summits  ;  and  to  the  White  Mountains  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  where 
are  the  loftiest  peaks  of  the  entire  system,  Mount  Washington,  6652  feet 
high,  and  Mounts  Adams,  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  each  above  5000  feet  in 
height.  The  Kittatinny,  or  the  Blue  Mountains,  are  the  second  parallel ; 
they  extend  from  Maryland  to  New  Jersey.  Next  come  the  Alleghanies, 
which  form  the  main  ridge,  and  attain  their  greatest  height  in  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania,  being  generally  about  3000  or  4000  feet  high,  and  at  one  point, 
the  Black  Mountain,  6420  feet.  To  the  west  are  the  Laurel  and  Chestnut 
ridges ;  but  neither  they,  nor  any  of  the  other  chains  of  lesser  height  and 
note,  require  specific  mention. 

The  geological  structure  of  this  mountain  system  varies  considerably  in 
different  parts  of  it.  North-west  of  the  Hudson,  it  consists  chiefly  of  granite 
and  other  pyrogeneous  rocks,  with  the  metamorphosed  strata  called  gneiss, 
mica  slate,  &c,  resting  on  them,  and  penetrated  by  them.  A  band  of  similar 
kind  runs  along  the  entire  eastern  side  of  the  range  ;  and  constitutes  the  edge 
of  a  species  of  "  basin,"  which  is  but  partially  explored,  but  which  shows, 
within  the  "  outcrop  "  of  systems  of  strata,  contemporaneous  with  the  Silurian 
beds  of  Great  Britain,  some  of  the  most  goodly  developments  of  the  coal 
formation  which  the  world  possesses.  One  "  field  "  stretches  from  Pennsyl- 
vania to  Alabama,  720  miles  in  length,  is  280  miles  in  breadth  in  one  part, 
and  covers  above  60,000  square  miles.  One  seam  of  coal,  10  feet  in  thick- 
ness, has  been  traced  continuously  over  an  area  of  14,000  square  miles  ! 
Another  "  field  "  lies  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in  Illinois,  In- 
diana, and  Kentucky ;  and  is  about  300  miles  long  by  150  broad.  Beside 
building-stone  and  slate  of  every  variety,  iron,  lead,  copper,  and  even  gold, 
in  various  quantities,  are  found. 

Owing  to  this  peculiarity  of  geological  structure — the  parallel  ridges  being 
in  fact  the  edges  of  upturned  strata,  all  of  them  capable  of  being  broken  down 
into  fine  and  productive  soil,  the  scenery  of  the  Appalachians  is  in  a  remark- 
ably degree  peaceful,  as  well  as  picturesque.  Not  only  in  that  part  of  the 
range  to  which  allusion  has  been  made,  but  almost  throughout,  and  especially 
on  the  western  slopes,  they  are  clothed  with  the  most  luxuriant  vegetation. 
And  though,  except  in  Vermont,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  the  forests  of 
spruce  and  hemlock  on  the  heights  are  impassable,  from  their  closely  inter- 
twined branches,  yet  the  spaces  cleared  of  trees  are  most  insignificant,  when 
compared  with  the  vast  extent  of  unbroken  woodland ;  where  the  hickory,  the 
sugar,  and  other  kinds  of  maple,  are  mingled  with  magnolias,  liriodendrons, 
laurels,  and  others  characteristic  of  the  country,  and  the  different  degrees  of 
latitude. 

From  this  high  land  the  surface  slopes  northerly  and  westerly  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Lakes,  and  to  the  Mississippi ;  and  easterly  and  southerly 
to  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  latter  region  is  comparatively 
narrow,  the  granitic  rocks  reaching  to  the  coast  in  New  England,  while  at  the 

4  c 


A.  D. 1783. 


562  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  Hudson  the  ocean  almost  washes  the  feet  of  the  mountains  themselves.  But 
from  that  point  it  grows  wider,  and  in  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  is  divided 
into  two  portions,  the  higher  one,  nearer  the  mountains,  being  the  extension 
of  their  pyrogeneous  base,  and  the  lower,  next  the  coast,  of  modern  and  even 
alluvial  origin.  In  Georgia  this  Atlantic  slope  expands  to  a  width  of  about 
200  miles  ;  and  it  sweeps  round  by  the  south-western  extremity  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  blends  with  the  great  plain  of  "  the  father  of  waters.''  The  allu- 
vial tract  commences  at  Cape  Cod  and  the  islands  adjacent,  includes  Long 
Island,  a  large  portion  of  the  Jerseys,  and  nearly  all  Delaware,  attains,  in 
Georgia,  a  width  of  about  60  miles,  and  reaches  its  maximum  of  development 
in  Florida  and  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi.  This  maritime  level,  which  is 
characterized  by  vast  morasses,  such  as  the  Dismal  Swamp,  Cypress  Swamp, 
and  those  of  Florida,  and  by  the  presence  of  long  flat  islands  and  sand-banks, 
near  the  coast ;  is  divided  from  the  higher  region  by  a  series  of  cliffs,  over  which 
the  numerous  rivers,  flowing  from  the  Appalachians,  are  tumbled  in  cascades, 
to  find  their  way  along  tranquil  and  scarcely  inclined  channels  to  the  sea. 

This  low  country  is  thickly  covered  with  the  pitch-pine,  and  the  swamps 
are  overgrown  with  trees  of  the  fir  tribe.  Rice  and  maize  are  grown  there 
extensively,  and  in  many  parts  cotton  and  tobacco  are  raised :  and  much  of 
it  that  now  only  produces  malaria,  might  be  converted  into  rich  arable  land 
by  draining.  The  upper  belt,  from  the  cliffs  almost  to  the  mountain  summits, 
has  generally  a  fine  strong  soil,  producing  cotton,  tobacco,  rice  and  maize, 
wheat  and  other  grain,  abundantly.  Fruits  of  the  usual  subtropical  kinds 
thrive  in  both  regions  ;  and  the  pine-barrens  of  Georgia  yield  grapes  of  large 
size  and  excellent  flavour.  Sugar  is  grown  all  along  the  southern  portion  of 
this  tract. 

The  western  slope  of  the  Appalachian  range  is  considered  one  of  the  finest 
portions  of  the  States.  It  falls  by  a  more  gentle  declivity  than  the  eastern 
slope,  and  is  about  300  miles  in  width  at  the  mid-point,  where  the  Ohio  flows 
into  the  Mississippi.  In  the  higher  portions  its  general  character  is  wood- 
land ;  but  lower  it  becomes  a  magnificent  prairie,  varied  by  gently  rising  hills, 
or  bolder  "  bluffs,"  with  scattered  tracts  of  forest ;  and  forms  a  country  of  such 
promise,  that  one  of  equal  "  capability  "  can  hardly  be  named.  The  climate 
and  vegetation  of  this  wide  tract  differ  greatly  from  those  of  the  other  side  of 
the  mountains ;  its  mineral  resources  fas  we  have  shown)  are  much  greater, 
and  the  facilities  afforded  by  its  unrivalled  water  communication,  point  it  out 
as  the  possible  scene  of  future  revolutions,  not  such  as  we  have  spoken  of, 
effected  by  a  short  and  deadly  struggle,  but  of  the  peaceful  sort,  extending 
through  centuries,  and  conveying  in  their  progress,  as  well  as  in  their  consum- 
mation, blessings  unbounded  to  men.  At  the  time  our  story  has  reached,  the 
Pennsylvanians  alone  can  be  said  to  have  entered  this  country,  but  we  shall 
soon  see  the  "  pioneers  "  of  the  civilized  triumphs  not  yet  reached,  going 
forth ; — brave  and  hardy,  rude  in  speech,  but  strong  in  hand,  the  "  forlorn 
hope  "  of  industrial  armies,  the  commencement  only  of  whose  march  has  even 
now  been  made. 


A.  D. 1783. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  563 

We  have  said  that  the  Atlantic  coast -line  conforms  in  general  to  the  range  chat 
of  the  elevated  region  of  the  United  States'  territory :  and  that  the  extension 
of  the  eastern  level  southward  consists  of  comparatively  modern  and  alluvial 
accretions.  As  far  as  the  alluvial  beds  are  concerned,  the  oceanic  currents 
would  in  good  part  enable  us  to  explain  them,  were  it  needful ;  but  this  allu- 
sion must  suffice  ;  for  the  relation  of  the  river-valleys  to  the  line  of  elevation 
requires  to  be  noticed. 

From  the  Delaware  to  the  Alabama  all  these  valleys  are  such  as  constantly 
accompany  an  extended  upheaval,  like  that  which  formed  the  Appalachians  ; 
being  in  fact  the  transverse  fractures,  arising  from  the  want  of  tenacity  in  the 
substances,  forced  from  their  original  horizontal  position.  Those  from  the 
Hudson  to  the  St.  Croix  run  nearly  due  north  and  south,  and  by  that  peculiarity 
are  separated  from  the  other  Atlantic  streams.  But  a  more  strongly  marked 
division  appears  in  the  fact,  that  the  tract  they  run  through  lies  beyond  the 
edge  of  the  "  basin  "  of  carboniferous,  Devonian,  and  Silurian  rocks,  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  and  is  composed  almost  entirely  of  those  of  another  kind. 
They  must,  apparently,  be  ascribed  to  an  upheaval  of  a  different  age  from  that 
which  produced  those  to  the  south  of  them. 

Most  of  the  streams  on  the  other  side  of  the  central  ridge,  we  attribute  to 
the  same  age  with  it :  but  the  simplicity  of  the  system  has  been  interfered 
with  by  the  geological  events,  whose  monuments  are  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  those  huge  rivers  which  pour  their  voluminous  waters  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico ;  and  the  system  of  lakes,  or  inland  seas,  connected  with  the  St.  Law- 
rence. Had  there  not  been  this  cause  to  produce  so  great  a  change  in  the 
aspect  of  these  valleys,  the  fact  that,  on  this  side  of  the  ridge,  they  pass  not 
through  crevices,  rent  in  the  granitic  foundation  of  the  series,  but  through  the 
softer  and  tougher  limestones,  &c,  overlying  it,  would  lead  us  to  expect  that 
they  should  not  be  perpendicular  to  the  line  of  elevation,  but  sometimes  coin- 
ciding with  it,  and  at  other  times  crossing  it,  according  to  the  varying  cohe- 
siveness  of  the  strata ;  should  form  river-courses  now,  running  between  the 
parallel  chains  of  the  range,  and  now  through  openings  from  one  valley  to 
another,  till,  in  the  less  disturbed  portion,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  trace  the 
conditions  which  had  determined  the  direction  of  the  fractures.  Such  a  fissure 
is  that  in  which  the  Ohio  flows.  The  junction  of  this  with  the  Mississippi 
has  produced  one  of  the  most  splendid  examples  of  a  river  system  which  our 
globe  presents.  On  both  sides  of  the  mountains,  but  on  the  Atlantic  side  in 
particular,  these  rivers  afford  such  an  amount  of  water-power  as  can  be  found 
in  few  other  countries,  in  a  similarly  narrow  space. 

The  climate  of  this  wide  but  compact  territory  is  extremely  diversified. 
Extending  from  31°  to  about  45°  N.  Lat.,it  presents  a  most  remarkable  con- 
trast with  the  lands  lying  under  the  same  parallels  in  the  old  world.  The 
lines  of  equal  summer  and  winter  temperature  range  so  as  to  show  a  higher 
average  temperature  to  the  west  of  the  Appalachians,  than  on  the  Atlantic 
slope;  and  with  them  Humboldt's  Isothermal  lines  agree.  At  the  most 
southerly  part,  both  winter,  summer,  and  annual  averages  are  nearly  identical 

4  c  2 


564  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  with  those  of  the  Barbary  States  of  Africa,  and  the  southern  part  of  Spain, 
— p  1783  which  are  in  the  same  latitude.  Higher  up,  although  the  range  of  equal 
summer  heat  remains  nearly  the  same  in  both  hemispheres,  that  of  equal 
winter  cold  diverges  so  widely  from  the  parallels  of  latitude,  as  to  place  New 
York  on  a  line  with  the  Fseroe  Islands,  and  Vermont  and  Maine  with  Iceland 
and  the  North  Cape  !  The  winters  are,  in  fact,  so  cold,  that  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi,  the  Delaware  and  the  Potomac,  in  the  latitude  of  the  south  of 
Italy,  are  frozen  over  for  some  weeks  every  winter.  Another  characteristic 
is  the  large  annual  quantity  of  rain,  compared  with  Europe  ;  which  is,  how- 
ever, accompanied  by  so  much  more  rapid  an  evaporation,  that  the  atmosphere 
is  habitually  drier  than  that  of  Europe.  The  changes  from  summer  to  winter, 
and  from  winter  to  summer,  are  also  more  sudden  than  in  the  old  world. 
The  south-eastern  angle  is  occasionally  subject  to  hurricanes,  being  included 
in  the  district  of  the  West  Indian  rotatory  storms!  The  only  causes  of  these 
peculiarities  of  climate,  which  require  notice  here,  are  the  Gulf  Stream,  and 
the  current  from  the  Arctic  Ocean,  nearer  to  the  Atlantic  coast  ;  and  the  ex- 
tent of  uncleared  and  undrained  land  in  the  States.  Considerable  climato- 
logical  changes  in  some  regions  have  occurred  in  the  memory  of  man;  and 
others,  more  remarkable,  will  be  observed  continually,  as  ever  wider  tracts 
are  brought  under  the  plough. 

In  1783,  little  more  than  the  physical  description  of  the  surface  was  appli- 
cable to  the  country  belonging  to  the  Union.  Although  most  of  the  States 
(and  Connecticut  amongst  them)  laid  claim  to  indefinite  prolongation  east- 
ward, Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  alone  had  actually  occupied  any  of  the 
inland  slope  of  the  mountains.  The  area  of  the  thirteen  original  States, 
including  Maine  and  Vermont,  more  than  three  times  the  extent  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  had  a  population  of  not  more  than 
two  millions  and  a  half ;  which  will  show  how  imperfectly  the  land  had  been 
taken  possession  of.  Occasional  intimations  will  be  afforded  of  the  industrial 
progress  of  the  people;  and  the  steps  by  which  the  "  backwoods  "  were 
gradually  parcelled  out,  and  converted  into  flourishing  States,  will  necessarily 
appear.  We  will  therefore  note  in  this  place,  the  point  from  which  this  pro- 
gress takes  its  departure,  as  definitely  as  we  can  from  the  materials  collected 
by  various  statists  of  America  and  Great  Britain. 

The  first  employments  to  which  enterprise  was  directed  by  the  occupants  of 
the  United  States'  territory,  were  fisheries  and  navigation  :  the  early  settle- 
ments being  all  made  along  the  shores  of  the  ocean,  and  upon  its  creeks  or 
navigable  rivers.  It  is  not  therefore  surprising  that,  for  a  time,  agriculture 
should  not  attract  more  industry  than  was  required  to  produce  the  necessaries 
of  life.  So  long  as  the  colonies  retained  their  feeling  of  dependence,  (and  it 
is  the  same  with  the  existing  colonies  of  Great  Britain  lying  north  of  the 
Union,)  the  efforts  of  the  settlers  seem  to  have  been  directed  to  the  immediate 
realization  of  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  return  to  England ;  and  agriculture 
was  less  esteemed  than  trade,  because,  though  its  profits  were  more  certain, 
a  greater  amount  of  bodily  labour  and  a  longer  time  were  necessary  to  obtain 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  565 

them.     They  who  addicted  themselves  to  agriculture,  being  compelled  to  do  c  n  a  p. 
much  work  themselves,  were  also  regarded  as  lower  in  rank  than  traders,  in 


the  social  scale  which  established  itself  in  the  new  country. 

But  when'that  sense  of  dependence  became  weaker,  and  living  was  found 
both  possible  and  agreeable,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Atlantic,  greater  at- 
tention was  bestowed  upon  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  more  of  the  capital  of 
the  country  was  embarked  in  what  was  a  safer  investment,  if  not  so  speedily 
remunerative  as  the  petty  commerce  which  could  be  carried  on.  That  class- 
feeling  did  not,  however,  immediately  die  out,  being  directly  supported  by 
the  employment  of  servile  labour  in  the  South.  New  England  and  Pennsyl- 
vania were  of  course  the  first  to  give  to  agriculture  its  proper  place,  and  to 
prove  the  benefits  of  so  doing.  "  The  husbandman  is  in  honour  there,"  wrote 
Franklin  at  the  time  we  are  speaking  of.  And  although  the  systems  of  culti- 
vation pursued  (if  indeed  they  may  be  called  systems)  were  rude  enough,  there 
was  a  stimulus  imparted  to  the  exercise  of  intelligence  and  skill ;  wealth  was 
obtained,  and  an  indomitable  spirit  of  independence  was  cherished ;  the  fruits 
of  all  which  appeared  in  the  course  and  in  the  issue  of  the  revolutionary  war. 
Not  till  the  realization  of  independence,  in  1783,  was  the  sugar-cane  intro- 
duced into  the  country ;  and  before  that  time  very  little  cotton  was  grown. 
But  at  the  peace,  there  was  at  once  infused  into  this  branch  of  national  industry 
such  vigorous  and  active  health,  that  it  seemed  "  like  the  work  of  magic,"  to 
those  who  witnessed  the  change. 

To  agriculture  was  added  the  breeding  and  rearing  of  live  stock :  at  first 
consisting  mainly  of  pigs,  which  could  take  care  of  themselves,  and  of  oxen, 
which  were  valuable  for  draught.  Little  attention  was  paid  to  the  variety  or 
breed ;  that  being  a  refinement  of  the  grazier's  craft,  which  was  incompatible 
with  the  circumstances  and  the  character  of  the  American  farms.  Generally  the 
timber  of  the  "  clearings,"  which  was  not  required  for  the  buildings  and  farm- 
steading  of  the  cultivators,  was  burnt  for  manure  ;  but  on  the  margin  of  streams 
of  sufficient  size,  much  was  felled,  and  floated  down  to  the  mouth,  and  sold  for 
building  purposes  of  every  kind,  and  for  fuel.  The  rearing  of  the  silkworm 
may  be  mentioned  here,  as  a  kindred  occupation,  which  was  greatly  promoted 
by  Dr.  Franklin. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  fisheries,  which  were  most  extensively  car- 
ried on  by  the  New  Englanders.  The  right  of  fishing  on  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland, was  specially  guaranteed  by  the  third  article  of  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles  ;  and  it  was  by  the  firmness  of  John  Adams,  who  knew  the  value 
of  this  to  the  New  England  States,  that  it  was  acknowledged.  Before  the 
revolution  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  population  had  been  engaged  in 
this  pursuit ;  and  though  it  was,  of  necessity,  suspended  by  the  war,  it  was 
not  renounced.  But  some  years  elapsed  ere  it  was  taken  up  again  with  the 
old  energy  and  success.  Massachusetts  and  its  neighbours  also  employed  most 
hands  in  the  herring  and  mackerel  fisheries ;  and  before  the  war  a  great  number 
of  men  and  of  vessels  were  annually  engaged  in  the  whale  fishery,  both  in  the 
north  and  in  the  southern  sea.     The  rivers  yield  salmon  and  shad  in  sufficient 


A.  D. 1783. 


566  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  abundance  to  make  the  capture  of  them  ?.n  important  item  in  the  trade  of  the 
colonies  ;  and  this  was  not  altogether  prevented  during  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence. The  lake-fisheries  were  not  developed  at  the  time  we  have  reached. 
The  whalers  used  sometimes  to  take  a  few  seals,  to  make  up  their  cargo ; 
and  this  was  in  addition  to  the  regular  fur  trade,  maintained  with  the  Indians 
and  the  hunters  and  trappers,  who  frequented  the  wild  region  between  the 
lakes,  the  Alleghanies,  and  the  Mississippi. 

The  existence  of  coal-fields  of  inconceivable  extent  and  value,  and  of  various 
metals,  in  the  territory  under  consideration,  has  been  noticed  above.  Iron 
had  been  long  wrought  in  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia ;  being 
smelted  by  means  of  the  forest  fuel.  Much  vexation  had  been  occasioned 
by  the  narrow  policy  adopted  by  Great  Britain  respecting  this  ;  repeated  Acts 
and  Regulations  having  been  made  to  prevent  the  exportation,  and  even  the 
working  of  the  iron,  lest  the  interests  of  the  British  iron-masters  should  be 
injured ;  but,  in  the  end,  some  relaxation  of  the  stringent  rules  had  been  ob- 
tained. In  the  course  of  the  war,  it  was  natural  that  an  eiFort  should  be  made 
to  force  these  works  into  greater  activity ;  and,  in  consequence,  on  the  return 
of  peace,  this  branch  of  trade,  along  with  others,  languished.  Coal  is  first 
spoken  of  about  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  war ;  but  not  till  a  later 
period  was  it  known  how  rich  in  this  important  material  promoter  of  civiliza- 
tion the  States  were.  Lead,  copper,  gold,  &c,  were  not  discovered  at  the  time 
we  have  reached. 

The  earliest  mention  of  manufactures  in  the  United  States,  occurs  in  con- 
nexion with  the  diminution  of  the  value  of  the  cattle  which  the  New  Englanders 
bred,  and  sold  or  exchanged,  so  as  to  supply  themselves  with  all  the  woollen  and 
linen  cloth  they  required.  Their  means  being  reduced  by  a  reduction  in  price, 
amounting  to  20  per  cent  per  head  of  their  live  stock,  they  resolved  upon  the 
importation  of  cotton  wool  from  "  the  West  Indian  and  Wine  islands,"  and  the 
breeding  of  sheep,  and  cultivation  of  hemp  and  flax,  and  "  soon  found  out  a  way 
to  supply  themselves."  The  other  colonies  followed  the  example  of  the  energe- 
tic offspring  of  the  Puritans ;  Great  Britain,  however,  or  more  truly  her  govern- 
ors, interfered  with  these  new  industrial  efforts,  and  endeavoured  to  suppress 
all  self-helpfulness  that  threatened  to  nurture  a  capability  for  independence  : 
the  Board  of  Trade  recommending  the  encouragement  of  "  such  manufactures 
and  products  as  might  be  of  service  to  Great  Britain,  and  more  particularly 
of  the  production  of  all  kinds  of  naval  stores."  Woollen  cloths  were  not  to 
be  carried  for  sale  out  of  the  colony  in  which  they  were  made.  The  manu- 
facture of  hats  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  particularly  "  alarming  ;"  and 
not  only  was  the  exportation  of  them  to  the  mother  country  prohibited,  but 
the  transportation  of  them  from  one  colony  to  another,  by  "  horse,  cart,  or 
other  carriage,"  was  forbidden  ;  and  negroes  might  not  make  them  at  all ! 
Factories  of  every  kind  were  deemed  "  a  common  nuisance,  and  were  required 
to  be  abated  within  thirty  days  after  the  evidence  of  their  existence  should  be 
adduced,  under  a  penalty  of  £500." 

How  much  such  impolitic  and  selfish  severity  must  have  assisted  in  exciting 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  567 

and  keeping  up  the  spirit  of  resistance,  which  ended  in  the  Treaty  of  Ver-   chap. 

sallies,  can  be  imagined.     Human  nature,  as  Mr.  Macgregor  observes,  could ■ — 

not  be  expected  to  endure  kindly  such  intolerable  oppression,  as  the  effort  "  to 
prevent  a  whole  people  from  following  any  branch  of  industry."  It  became 
a  sign  of  patriotism,  even  before  the  war,  to  wear  and  to  use,  as  far  as  possible, 
only  the  productions  of  native  skill  and  labour.  And  whilst  it  continued,  the 
manufacture  of  home-made  woven  cloth,  both  linen  and  woollen,  which  farmers 
and  others  spun,  wove,  bleached,  and  dyed,  at  their  own  dwellings,  greatly  in- 
creased. The  non-importation  resolutions  of  the  colonies  are  noticed  as  fur- 
nishing a  stimulus  to  their  native  manufactures.  The  existence  of  iron 
foundries  has  been  mentioned ;  they  also  received  an  impulse  from  the  war ; 
and  indeed,  before  that  time,  cannon  had  been  cast  for  the  siege  of  Louisburgh, 
in  spite  of  imperial  prohibitions.  How  the  peace  and  its  concomitant 
circumstances  affected  this  essential  element  of  national  well-being,  will  soon 
appear. 

Very  scanty  information  respecting  the  commerce  of  the  North  American 
colonies,  before  the  last  quarter  of  the  17th  century,  Mr.  Macgregor  tells  us, 
has  been  procured.  At  that  time,  however,  "  they  supplied  the  sugar  plant- 
ations with  cattle,  hogs,  flour,  timber,  slaves,  and  other  lumber :  and  in  '  time 
of  dearth,'  the  plantations  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  sup- 
plied even  Britain  and  Ireland  with  corn."  The  trade  with  the  West  Indies 
was  most  unwisely  interfered  with  by  the  "  Molasses  Act  "  in  1733,  which 
imposed  almost  prohibitive  restrictions  on  it ;  although  its  proceeds  were  near- 
ly all  remitted  to  England  in  payment  for  manufactures.  But  so  profitable  a 
commerce  as  this  was,  could  not  be  suppressed ;  after  being  paralysed  for  a 
time,  it  revived,  and  flourished ;  till  in  1765,  as  has  been  related,  it  was 
almost  annihilated  by  "  the  wicked  interference  of  Mr.  Grenville ;  "  who  con- 
verted the  British  war-ships  and  their  gallant  commanders  into  revenue-vessels, 
and  "  preventive-officers,"  for  the  enforcement  of  the  restrictive  navigation 
laws.  We  spoke  of  the  contraband  trade  which  was  carried  on  with  the  Sugar 
islands  ;  an  intimation  of  the  extent  and  value  of  this  appears  in  the  Treaty, 
one  article  of  which  stipulates  that  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  which 
was  the  "  postern  "  entrance  to  the  entire  Union,  should  be  free  to  the  British. 
How  valuable  a  trade  this  with  the  thirteen  colonies  was  for  Britain,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact,  that  the  averages  of  the  ten  years  1761 — 1770,  show 
exported  from  the  colonies  to  the  mother  country,  native  commodities  of  the 
value  of  about  four  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  ;  and  imported  from  Britain, 
goods  valued  at  about  eight  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  :  while  the  supplies 
being  paid  for  by  the  profits  of  the  trade  with  the  West  Indies,  and  with  Spain 
and  Portugal, — which  was  opposed  to  the  strict  interpretation  of  the  "  Navi- 
gation Laws,"  and  especially  to  that  of  Mr.  Grenville, — shows  how  far  more 
wise  the  removal  of  the  former  disabilities  would  have  been,  than  the  enhance- 
ment of  them  by  the  "  Sugar  Act,"  and  the  other  arrangements  which  have 
been  before  referred  to.  The  interruption  of  this  promising  commerce  by  the 
war  does  not  need  to  be  related  ;  and  in  other  chapters  of  this  book  we  shall 


II 

A.  D. 1783. 


568  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  tell  of  the  disastrous  period  for  trade  intervening  between  the  return  of  peace 
and  the  establishment  of  the  new  Federal  Constitution  of  1789  ;  which  im- 
parted such  an  impulse  to  every  branch  of  national  enterprise  and  industry. 

Allusions  have  been  made  to  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  back  country, 
which  the  carrying  of  the  boundary  line  from  the  north-west  course  of  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  due  west  to  the  source  of  the  Mississippi,  (as  was  done  in 
the  Treaty  of  Versailles,)  showed.  And  it  is  well  known  that  the  region  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi  had  then  been  very  partially  explored. 
But  beyond  that  mighty  stream  there  lay  a  tract  of  country,  of  twice  the  ex- 
tent, to  the  east  of  that  boundary  line,  which  the  Indians  only,  with  perhaps  a 
solitary  hunter,  had  ever  crossed.  It  spread  out  there  towards  the  setting 
sun,  in  rich  rolling  prairies,  in  bare  deserts  overlooked  by  bold  inland  cliffs 
and  headlands,  and  watered  by  the  vast  Missouri,  and  its  hundred  daughter- 
streams,  concealing  untold  mineral  wealth ; — it  rose  into  lofty  and  rugged 
mountains  of  double  and  triple  range,  enclosing  long  and  sterile  valleys,  com- 
municating with  no  sea,  and  overhung  by  peaks  of  11,000  feet,  and  more,  in 
height ;  and  fell  rapidly  away  towards  the  distant  Pacific,  near  which  a 
coast  range  of  low  elevation  formed  a  smaller  valley,  that  in  these  late  years 
has  proved  to  be  an  Eldorado,  surpassing  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  first  ad- 
venturers in  the  New  World.  All  was  then  as  now  it  is ;  but,  saving  the 
indefinite  claims  of  Spain  in  the  far  west,  and  the  region  bordering  upon  the 
States,  not  long  before  ceded  by  France  to  that  power,  it  was  entirely  unknown 
and  uncared  for ;  and  in  it  lay  hid,  what  even  now  is  but  most  dimly  disclosed 
to  those  who  have  contemplated  the  probable  course  of  coming  events — the 
remoter  future  of  the  United  States. 

Of  infinitely  greater  interest  and  moment  is  the  inquiry  into  the  races 
composing  the  newly  established  empire.  For,  given  a  country  in  which  a 
nation  can  be, — what  it  shall  be  depends  upon  itself,  its  capabilities  for  doing 
and  enduring,  its  courage  and  its  truthfulness.  Greece  is  now  little  other 
than  it  was  in  olden  time,  but  modern  Hellas  has  no  glories  ;  and  Italy, — its 
natural  features  are  unchanged,  but  who  fears  that  any  one  of  its  tribes  should 
break  forth  and  subdue  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  and  rule  them  with  a  rod 
of  iron  ?  This  is  not  the  place  to  contrast  the  vast  "  Teuton  Kindred  "  with  the 
other  allied  branches  of  the  human  species,  nor  to  point  out  the  distinctions  be- 
tween that  section  to  which  the  possession  of  the  territory  we  have  surveyed 
has  been,  by  God's  providence,  allotted,  and  those  which  have  made  no  such  a 
figure  in  the  world's  history  as  it  has,  or  whose  part  was  played  out  before  it 
fully  appeared  upon  the  stage.  It  will  scarcely  be  possible,  in  the  space  assign- 
able to  the  subject,  to  intimate,  except  in  the  most  general  way,  its  peculiar 
characteristics,  and  to  show  how  it  has  become  the  most  cosmopolitical,  and  in 
consequence  the  sovereign  family  of  mankind.  This  we  will  endeavour  to  do, 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  understanding  the  story  of  the  growth  of  the  Anglo- 
American  power  to  the  present  day,  but  also  that  we  may  a  little  forecast  its 
prospective  advance,  and  especially  may  anticipate  the  process  by  which  repara- 
tion will  at  length  be  made  to  the  subject  races,  both  Indian  and  African,  for 


A.  I).  1783. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  569 

all  the  wrongs  they  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  their  European  conquerors    c  h  a  p. 
and  taskmasters. 

It  is  now  incontrovertibly  established,  that  no  unmingled  race  ever  emerged 
from  its  primaeval  savagery;  and  that  such  a  one,  having  been  raised  to  any 
height  in  civilization,  if  left  to  itself,  invariably  relapses  into  barbarism.  The 
African  nations  may  be  pointed  out  as  illustrations  of  the  former  statement, 
and  the  aborigines  of  America  of  the  latter.  We  are,  notwithstanding,  ac- 
customed to  speak  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  as  if  it  were  homogeneous,  much 
in  the  same  way  as  the  Athenians,  in  defiance  of  the  old  legends,  in  which 
their  pre-historic  movements  were  related  with  a  most  slender  disguise,  styled 
themselves  autochthones.  For  though  before  the  landing  of  the  crews  of 
those  "  three  keels  "  on  Thanet  island,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  of  oar 
era,  the  Saxons  may  have  been  as  pure  a  race,  as  when  first  "  fashioned  in  the 
depths  of  Time, c  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea '  or  elsewhere,  out  of  '  Harz- 
gebirge  rock,'  or  whatever  other  material ; "  certainly,  from  that  time  their 
whole  history,  down  to  the  present  day,  is  one  of  mixtures  and  crossings.  But 
there  were  at  least  three  different  tribes  of  Saxons,  who  joined  in  the  conquest 
of  Britain  ;  and  the  conquered  people,  not  to  mention  "  the  mixed  multitude  " 
left  behind  by  the  Bomans,  consisted  of  two  clearly  distinguishable  divisions, 
the  Gael  and  the  Kymry,  after  we  have  left  out  of  the  account  the  Belgians,  and 
Loegrians  and  others,  which  may  have  been,  alone  or  chiefly,  topographical  de- 
signations. Then  followed  hordes  of  Teutonic  origin,  Danes  and  North-men, 
pagans  all,  who  fought  their  way  to  alliances  with  their  enervated  kinsmen  ; 
and  Flemings,  of  less  warlike,  but  not  less  sturdy,  temper  :  and  chiefest  of  all, 
for  effect  upon  race,  came  the  civilized  North-men,  from  the  opposite  coast  of 
the  Frankish  kingdom,  and  took  unto  themselves  by  armed  might  the  rule  of 
this  fair  island  of  the  Saxons.  Who  can  tell  what  other  diverse  elements  were 
infused  into  this  composite  race  ?  It  truly  is,  as  one  well  versed  in  the  sub- 
ject has  said,  "  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  in  the  universe,  an  ag- 
glomeration of  all  races,  and  all  divisions  of  the  one  blood,  of  which  were 
made  the  nations  of  the  world."  The  insular  position  of  the  hive  whence 
such  countless  swarms  have  issued,  "  to  replenish  the  earth  and  to  subdue  it," 
unquestionably  has,  in  no  slight  degree,  conduced  to  the  more  perfect  fusion 
of  these  numerous  and  heterogeneous  ingredients  ;  and  of  them  the  old  Teu- 
tonic one  has  been  most  influential  in  determining  the  character  of  the  whole. 
And  this  is  the  actual  genesis  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  ;  and  so  many  different 
bloods  have  entered  into  the  composition  of  the  "  true-born  Englishman." 

•  "  To  this  English  people,"  says  Mr.  Carlyle  behind  the  mask  which,  next 
after  that  of  the  immortal  "  Professor  of  Things  in  General  "  at  Weis^nichtwo, 
appears  to  be  his  favourite,  that  of  Herr  Professor  Sauerteig,  "  to  this  English 
people,  in  World-History,  there  have  been,  shall  I  prophesy,  two  grand  tasks 
assigned  ?  Huge-looming  through  the  dim  tumult  of  the  always  incommensura- 
ble present  time,  outlines  of  two  tasks  disclose  themselves  :  the  grand  industrial 
task  of  conquering  some  half  or  more  of  this  terraqueous  planet  for  the  use  of 
man  ;  then,  secondly,  the  grand  constitutional  task  of  sharing,  in  some  pacific 

4  D 


A.  D. 1783. 


570  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  endurable  manner,  the  fruit  of  said  conquest,  and  showing  all  people  how  it 
might  be  done.  These  I  will  call  their  two  tasks,  discernible  hitherto  in 
World-History :  in  both  of  these  they  have  made  respectable  though  unequal 
progress.  Steam-engines,  ploughshares,  pick-axes ;  what  is  meant  by  con- 
quering this  planet,  they  partly  know.  Elective  franchise,  ballot-box,  repre- 
sentative assembly;  how  to  accomplish  sharing  of  that  conquest,  they  do 
not  so  well  know."  "  On  the  industrial  side,"  this  writer  places  the  sailing 
of  the  "  poor  little  ship  Mayflower,  of  Delft-Haven :  poor  common-looking 
ship,  hired  by  common  charter-party  for  coined  dollars ;  caulked  with  mere 
oakum  and  tar  ;  provisioned  with  vulgarest  biscuit  and  bacon ; — yet  what  ship 
Argo,  or  miraculous  Epic  ship  built  by  the  sea-gods,  was  other  than  a  foolish 
bumbarge  in  comparison  !  Golden  fleeces  or  the  like  these  sailed  for,  with  or 
without  effect ;  thou  little  Mayflower  hadst  in  thee  a  veritable  Promethean 
spark ; — the  life-spark  of  the  largest  nation  on  our  earth, — so  we  may  already 
name  the  Transatlantic  Saxon  nation."  Of  the  "  constitutional "  task- work  of 
this  same  "  Transatlantic  Saxon  nation  "  Mr.  Carlyle  takes  no  notice ;  that 
is,  however,  one  principal  theme  in  this  History.  And  now  let  us  observe 
the  further  mixtures  of  this  predestined  race,  after  the  little  Mayflower,  with 
its  industrial  "  Promethean  spark,"  had  reached  the  shores  of  Massachusetts 
Bay. 

Of  the  settlements  of  the  Dutch  at  New  Netherlands,  and  of  the  Swedes  at 
New  Sweden ;  and  of  the  certainty  that  from  the  Spanish  plantations  to  the 
south,  and  from  the  French  colonies  on  both  north  and  south,  stragglers,  more 
or  fewer  in  number,  would  find  their  way  into  the  territory  of  the  States ;  it 
is  not  needful  to  make  more  than  this  passing  mention.  For  the  mass  of  the 
colonists  of  that  tract  came  from  the  British  Isles,  and  most  of  all  from  Eng- 
land. At  the  period  of  the  foundation  of  the  colonies,  the  English  people 
were,  more  decidedly  than  now,  separated  into  two  classes ;  the  burgher  and 
small-freeholder  class,  in  which  Saxon  blood  prevailed,  and  which  affected 
Puritanism,  and  under  the  form  of  religious  liberty,  with  stern  and  all-sacri- 
ficing affection,  loved  freedom  itself;  and  the  class  above  that,  calling  itself 
"  Cavalier,"  and  boasting  descent  from  the  Norman  vassals  and  grooms  and 
horse-boys,  who  were  changed  into  noblemen  by  the  victory  at  Hastings ;  to 
whom  Puritanism  was  an  unendurable  abomination.  Virginia,  the  Carolinas, 
and  Maryland  received  the  emigrants  of  the  latter  class.  "  The  grantees  of 
those  colonies  were  principally  high  in  rank,  noble  by  title,  and  followers  of 
the  court.  Hither  flocked  Cavaliers  at  all  times,  and  especially  when  Puri- 
tanism bore  sway  at  home ;  they  brought  thither  feudal  tenures,  and  the  law 
of  primogeniture  ;  there  they  established  the  religion  of  the  court,  and  there 
they  founcl  or  introduced  the  same  kind  of  society  as  that  to  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  at  home  ;  they  formed  a  landed  aristocracy,  could  live 
without  labour,  command  obsequious  servants  and  slaves,  enjoy  the  royal 
sport  of  hunting,  and  again  act  the  parts  of  the  Norman  nobles  under  the  early 
successors  of  William  the  Conqueror."  On  the  other  hand,  "  New  England 
was  settled  by  the  Puritans.     In  these  colonies  again  appeared  the  Anglo- 


A.  D. 1783. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  571 

Saxon  complexion,  tenures,  and  dialect,  with  less  admixture  than  had  existed  chap. 
elsewhere  for  centuries.  Habits  of  serious,  devout  contemplation,  and  of  pro- 
found thought ;  a  slight  proneness  to  superstition ;  a  willingness  to  labour ; 
fortitude  to  endure ;  and  firmness,  and  even  obstinacy,  of  purpose, — distin- 
guished the  settlers  of  that  region,  and  perhaps  also  those  of  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania." 

"  At  this  time,"  writes  Hale,  from  whom  we  have  borrowed  these  last 
paragraphs,  "  Ireland  had  not  begun  to  overflow  upon  America.  Scotland 
sent  some  of  her  worthiest  children,  and  every  colony  welcomed  all  who 
came.  From  Holland  and  Germany  migrated  families  and  associated  com- 
panies, and  the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  bear  witness  to  their 
skill  and  success  in  agriculture ;  to  their  industry,  economy,  and  thrift.  The 
bigoted  Louis,  misnamed  the  Great,  drove  thousands  of  French  Protestants 
into  exile  ;  the  best  of  them  came  to  America ;  their  descendants  have  illus- 
trated the  annals  of  Carolina ;  and  Jay,  Boudinot,  and  Bowdoin  have,  by 
their  services  and  munificence,  well  rewarded  the  northern  colonies  for  the 
protection  afforded  to  their  ancestors."  Of  these  elements,  however,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  speak  particularly ;  as  they  could  not  perpetuate  their  generic 
distinctions,  but  were  speedily  incorporated,  leaving  only  their  family  names, 
with  (occasionally)  a  peculiarity  of  countenance,  to  mark  them  as  having 
once  been  members  of  a  separate  race. 

More  deserving  of  notice  is  the  difference  between  the  people  of  the 
Northern  and  those  of  the  Southern  States.  In  the  course  of  the  Kevolu- 
tionary  war,  this  was  manifested  in  the  most  characteristic  manner.  Hildreth 
tells  us,  that  "  in  the  regiments  from  the  States  south  of  New  England,  there 
was  the  usual  marked  distinction  between  officers  and  men.  The  officers  were 
all  of  the  class  calling  themselves  (  gentlemen ; '  the  soldiers,  for  the  most 
part,  were  a  very  inferior  set.  In  the  New  England  regiments,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  large  part  of  the  officers  were  farmers  and  the  sons  of  farmers,  who 
hardly  pretended  to  gentility,  and,  except  by  the  temporary  possession  of 
commissions,  were  hardly  distinguished  from  a  large  proportion  of  those  who 
served  in  the  ranks.  The  '  gentlemen '  of  the  Middle  States  [those,  with  the 
exception  of  Georgia,  which  then  were  designated  Southern]  turned  up  their 
noses  at  these  plebeian  officers,  with  as  much  contempt  as  had  ever  been  ex- 
hibited by  the  {  gentlemen  '  of  the  British  regiments  of  the  line,  when  called 
upon  to  co-operate  with  colonial  levies."  "  To  such  a  height  did  these  jeal- 
ousies rise,  and  so  openly  did  they  exhibit  themselves,  that  Washington  felt 
obliged  to  reprobate  them  in  general  orders."  Very  distressing  it  doubtless 
was  to  these  "  gentles  "  of  the  South,  to  fight  for  freedom  under  generals 
"  with  woollen  night-caps  under  their  hats  ; "  but  one  would  think  that  such 
a  feeling  would  have  been  more  consonant  with  the  hauteur  of  the  Rocham- 
beaus,  Bouilles,  Lameths,  Lafayettes,  and  other  representatives  of  France, 
who  had  "  drawn  their  swords  in  this  sacred  quarrel  of  mankind."  It  is  m 
another  way  now,  that  this  affectation  of  aristocratic  descent  displays  itself, 
as  is  well  known ;  one  less  dignified  by  far,  and  that  smacks  far  more  of  the 

4  d  2 


A.  D.  1783. 


512  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  fussy  pride  of  the  parvenu,  than  of  the  refined  insouciance  that  bespeaks  the 
inheritor  of  "  blue  blood."  We  must,  however,  remark  that  this  class  has 
diminished  so  greatly,  that  it  constitutes  an  inconsiderable  fraction  of  the 
twenty- five  millions,  which  now  people  the  United  States ;  and  does  not  com- 
municate a  tinge  to  the  peculiar  variety  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  which  has 
grasped  the  empire  of  the  New  World. 

Turning  now  from  the  ruling  to  the  enthralled  races,  we  are  immediately 
confronted  by  some  of  the  most  difficult  and  most  interesting  questions,  in 
the  whole  range  of  the  science  of  Ethnology.  The  influence  of  the  civilized 
upon  the  barbarous  races  ;  the  absorption  of  the  latter  in  the  former,  or  their 
extermination  by  them,  according  to  the  width  of  the  interval  between  them, 
and  to  their  relation  to  the  climate,  soil,  &c.  of  the  region ; — these  are  the 
problems  and  phenomena  which  are  presented  to  us  in  this  branch  of  our 
subject.  Our  space  will  not  allow  us  to  do  more  than  indicate  the  illustra- 
tions, or  solutions,  afforded  by  the  instances  before  us ;  but  that  will  be  quite 
sufficient  for  our  main  purpose,  which  is,  to  show  to  our  readers,  at  the  outset 
of  the  History  of  the  United  States  as  a  recognised  power,  the  materials  for 
national  strength,  and  the  sources  of  national  weakness,  then  existing ;  that 
the  development  of  the  former,  and  the  manifestations  of  the  latter,  may  ap- 
pear in  their  true  light,  and  afford  all  the  instruction,  both  politically  and 
individually,  which  they  are  able  to  impart. 

The  Aborigines  of  the  whole  of  the  western  continent  are  related  to  each 
other  by  certain  broad  and  striking  peculiarities  ;  the  poly  synthetic  character 
of  their  various  dialects  being  one  of  the  most  remarkable.  They  differ  very 
greatly,  however,  in  some  respects ;  and  it  is  only  by  comparing  the  distinc- 
tive traits  of  the  different  tribes  together,  and  then  contrasting  them  with 
those  of  some  other  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  human  family,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  Indo-European,  that  their  closer  relation  to  each  other  is  per- 
ceived. The  Mongolian  form  of  skull  prevails  ;  and  is  indeed  the  type  of 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  colder  parts  of  North  America ;  those  of  the  mors 
temperate  regions  departing  from  it  by  regular  gradations,  till  some  nearly 
approach  the  Caucasian  variety.  The  roots  of  their  words  also  present  some 
that  resemble  those  of  the  Tatars. 

We  cannot  stay  to  distinguish  the  red  men  of  the  territory  of  the  Union 
from  the  more  degraded  races  lying  to  the  north  of  them,  or  from  the  more 
advanced  nations  inhabiting  Mexico  and  Peru ;  it  will  be  enough  to  describe 
them  as  they  are  or  have  been.  Their  copper  colour  is  one  mark  invariably 
present ;  they  are  also  characterized  by  their  long,  black,  coarse,  but  not 
redundant  hair,  and  by  the  absence  of  such  growth  of  beard  as  is  common 
to  the  people  of  the  eastern  hemisphere.  The  result  of  their  intercourse  with 
Europeans  has  been  to  alter  the  physical  appearance  of  some  tribes  entirely ; 
colour,  features,  hair,  &c.  all  growing  more  near  the  Saxon  type.  In  the 
pure  breeds,  the  forehead  is  low,  the  eyes  long,  and  sloping  upwards  towards 
the  temples  ;  the  profile  prominent,  and  well  marked ;  and  the  lower  parts  of 
the  face  rather  delicately  formed.     All  the  different  nations  have  used  paint, 


A.  D.  1783. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  573 

for  ornament,  distinction,  &c.  &c. ;  amongst  all,  the  females  hold  a  servile  chap, 
and  degraded  position  ;  and  beside  a  very  vague  and  almost  inoperative  be- 
lief in  the  existence  of  a  "  Great  Spirit,"  they  have  been  used  to  reverence 
as  Manitous,  human  beings  possessed  of  any  extraordinary  skill  or  power, 
and  have  cultivated  a  kind  of  Fetichism  in  the  making  and  use  of  charms 
and  amulets.  They  lived  by  hunting,  and  employed  the  rudest  weapons, 
both  for  the  chase  and  in  war,  until  the  introduction  of  the  rifle,  the  axe,  and 
the  knife,  of  civilized  men.  Their  garments  they  formed  of  skins,  and  some 
nations  wove  a  sort  of  coarse  cloth  from  wool,  or  hair,  and  vegetable  fibre. 
Canoes  they  formed  from  the  trunks  of  trees,  partly  by  fire,  partly  by  the  axe  ; 
and  their  wigwams  they  most  usually  constructed  of  poles,  and  skins,  or  bark, 
so  as  to  be  easily  removable.  They  were  as  indolent  as  savages  always  are, 
except  when  hunger,  or  wrath,  or  revenge  excited  them  to  activity  ;  and  the 
patience  and  endurance,  the  keenness  of  bodily  sense  and  exquisite  cunning, 
they  displayed  on  such  occasions,  seemed  rather  allied  to  brutal  instinct  than 
to  human  intellect.  They  were  sensual  too,  as  uncultivated  man  ever  is ;  but 
not  voluptuous,  the  rigours  of  their  climate  not  allowing  the  indulgence  of 
that  form  of  vice. 

The  kind  of  intercourse  which  the  colonial  settlers  would  have  with  such  a 
people  can  be  imagined.  They  were  overreached  by  the  superior  craft  of 
the  white  men,  and  destroyed  by  his  more  deadly  arms ;  they  were  slowly 
consumed  by  the  use  of  strong  drink,  which  white  men  taught  them  to  relish, 
and  by  frightful  diseases,  which  they  introduced.  Coarse  lust  degraded  them; 
mercantile  cupidity  enslaved  them,  and  wore  them  out  in  the  vain  attempt 
to  extort  by  the  lash  the  performance  of  tasks  their  savage  souls  contemned ; 
and  a  few,  who  saw  in  them  human  beings,  endeavoured  (though  far  too 
coldly  for  success)  by  preaching,  and  instruction  in  the  arts  and  decencies  of 
life,  to  force  them  from  their  barbarism.  They  are  fast  disappearing  from 
the  land,  whose  rivers  and  mountains,  nay,  whose  cities  and  States,  bear  the 
soft  musical  names  their  forefathers  long  ago  gave  to  them,  or  themselves 
boasted  in.  One  entire  tribe  has  perished  within  the  last  generation ;  the 
whole  have  lately  been  transferred  to  the  tract  west  of  the  Mississippi,  to 
pursue  a  mode  of  life  equally  removed  from  civilization  and  from  wildness, 
and  one  by  one  to  disappear.  This,  which  is  the  universal  doom  of  such, 
ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  cause  for  sentimental  sorrow.  The  worth  of  a 
nation  alone  entitles  it,  or  can  enable  it,  as  a  nation,  to  continue  in  existence. 
These  have  had  none,— not  even  a  history.  They  related  only  puerile  and 
ridiculous  legends  respecting  the  ineffaceable  monuments  of  the  former  glories 
of  their  race  ;  around  which  they  encamped  and  hunted,  greater  strangers  to 
their  meaning  than  the  white  men  themselves.  They  could  teach  nothing  to 
their  kind ;  they  have  failed  to  learn  any  thing  from  them,  (although  the 
entire  blame  of  this  may  not  be  attributed  to  them  alone,)  except  arts  of  de- 
struction and  debauch.  Opinion  and  law  alike  prohibited  intermarriage  with 
the  invaders  of  their  ancestral  hunting-grounds.  They  have  contributed  by 
unallowed  alliances  only,  with  Europeans  almost  as  rude  as  themselves,  an 


574  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  insignificant  share  to  the  new  Anglo-Saxon  race  ;  and  it  is  as  the  result  of 
ir83  such  alliances,  that  most  of  the  tribes  now  in  being  have  survived  the  changes 
of  habit  and  abode,  to  which  they  have  been  compelled  to  submit. 

At  the  time  we  speak  of,  between  1783  and  1789,  and  for  some  years  after- 
wards, there  dwelt  in  the  territory  of  New  York  the  famous  Six  Nations,  viz. 
the  Senecas,  the  Mohawks,  the  Onondagas,  the  Cayugas,  the  Oneidas,  and 
the  Tuscaroras ;  with  whom  the  United  States  made  treaties,  in  1784  and 
1789,  allotting  to  them  the  land  lying  on  Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie,  and  above 
Pennsylvania ;  and  there  some  of  them  continued  to  dwell  until  the  removal 
of  all  the  red  men  into  the  western  territory.  These  nations  belonged  to 
the  Iroquois,  or  Huron,  section ;  and  were  the  most  numerous  and  powerful 
of  the  race,  at  that  time,  and  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Union.  The  rem- 
nants of  the  once  more  extensive  nation  of  the  Delawares,  the  Lenni-Lenape, 
and  the  Wyandots,  a  Huron  tribe,  dwelt  to  the  west  of  Pennsylvania,  upon 
Lake  Erie ;  and  in  the  north-western  angle  of  the  States'  possessions  were 
found  the  Ottawas,  the  Miamis,  the  Potowatomies,  the  Winnebagoes,  the 
Sacs,  the  Menomonies,  and  the  Chippeways.  To  the  south,  bordering  on  the 
Mississippi,  were  the  villages  of  the  Peorias,  the  Illinois,  the  Kaskaskias,  the 
Iowas,  the  Kiekapoos,  and  the  Shawanees.  And  nearer  to  the  borders  of 
Florida,  lived  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws,  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks. 
Other  smaller  divisions  there  were,  but  too  inconsiderable  to  be  of  any  ac- 
count in  so  general  a  statement  as  this  :  and  many  of  the  nations  enumerated 
were  known  by  other  titles.  In  the  course  of  the  History,  all  dealings  with 
these  races,  in  any  way  affecting  their  fortunes,  or  those  of  their  conquerors, 
will  be  duly  noticed. 

The  other  subject-race  in  the  United  States,  are  the  Negroes  and  their 
descendants  ;  the  original  stock  of  which,  unmingled  with  the  blood  of  the 
whites,  and  unaffected  by  contact  with  civilized  man,  still  exists,  scarcely 
changed  from  what  it  was  when  the  Portuguese  commenced  the  slave-trade, 
in  "Western  Africa.  Excepting  the  few  who  have  obtained,  by  self-purchase, 
or  by  manumission,  a  stinted  and  precarious  freedom,  these  unhappy  beings 
are  all,  and  always  have  been  in  this  land,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  de- 
tested word, — Slaves.  We  have  not  here  to  discuss  the  rectitude,  or  per- 
missibility, of  this  "  institution,"  as  it  is  called ;  those  questions  have  long 
been  decided  by  every  honest  heart,  the  whole  world  over ;  nor  are  there 
now  any  classes  of  men  hardy  enough  to  treat  them  as  "  open  questions," 
save  the  actual  buyers  and  sellers  of  their  kind,  and  those  too  numerous 
divines,  to  whom  whatever  is  is  right.  We  are  now  engaged  solely  by  the 
scientific  problem,  of  the  mutual  influence  of  races, — even  when  brought  to- 
gether in  despotic  and  servile  relations, — in  modifying  each  other.  And  it 
must  not  be  supposed,  that  the  only  example  of  this  process,  which  the  world 
has  seen,  or  sees  at  this  day,  is  the  one  before  us.  The  question  might  be 
satisfactorily  elucidated  by  references  to  countries  and  nations  of  the  Old 
World  alone  ;  but  the  possibility  of  affording  illustrations  of  our  general 
History,  incidentally,  renders  it  desirable  to  confine  our  observations  to  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  575 

phenomena,  (in  themselves  so  profoundly  interesting^,  and  in  their  bearing  chap. 

upon  the  future  course  of  the  nation  of  such  vast  moment,)  as  displayed  in ~ 

the  Middle  and  Southern  States  of  America. 

The  philosophical  writer  whom  we  have  quoted  above,  respecting  the 
genesis  of  the  existing  Anglo-Saxon  race,  asks  why  other  "  bloods  "  should 
not  be  mingled  with  it,  beside  those  which  have  already  co-operated  in  its 
formation.  "  Can  any  man  tell,"  he  inquires,  "  why  India,  or  Africa,  or  the 
Antilles,  should  not,  by  something  like  the  contrary  of  [colonial]  policies 
hitherto  pursued  [by  England],  be  studded  over  with  populations  of  swarthy 
Englishmen,  born  to  the  climate,  and  boasting,  like  the  Jew  of  Tarsus,  of 
being  citizens  of  no  mean  city,  under  a  wider  than  Roman  rule?"  "  One 
single  thing,"  he  adds,  "  bars  the  vast  prospect  open  to  a  true  statesman's 
view ; — the  brutish  instinct  of  race,  which  the  vulgar  man  shares  with  the 
rat  miscalled  of  Norway,  prompting  him  to  see  in  all  who  differ  from  him  by 
a  shade  of  colour  or  a  cast  of  fur,  objects  for  bloodsucking,  instead  of  ma- 
terials for  a  country's  political  and  commercial  greatness."  And  he  justly 
complains  that  the  English  rulers  have  not  given  "  to  races  at  the  world's 
extremes,  the  same  fair  play  that  was  given  to  their  rugged  ancestors." 

Whether,  however,  governments  take  upon  themselves  the  regulation  of 
these  matters  or  not,  the  final  result  invariably  is  disappearance  of  the  feebler 
race  in  the  stronger.  Where  the  ruder  people  is  admitted  to  the  enjoyment 
of  political  freedom,  it  forms  a  distinct  caste,  between  which  and  the  more 
powerful  class,  either  in  consequence  of  statutory  enactment,  or  from  universal 
prejudice,  there  is  not,  what  the  old  Romans  called,  connubium,  or  inter- 
marriage ; — and  where  personal  freedom  alone  is  conceded,  the  same  dis- 
qualification exists,  but  in  a  more  intense  degree,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  Free 
States  of  the  Union,  where  this  feeling  prevails  in  respect  of  both  the  Indian 
and  the  African  races.  The  intermixture  is  not,  however,  prevented  thereby ; 
it  either  takes  place  in  an  illicit  manner  amongst  the  lower  orders,  or,  if 
legally,  brings  social  degradation  ;  and  it  entirely  depends  upon  the  vigour  of 
the  life  in  the  proscribed  class,  whether  it  shall- eventually  obtain  by  force  a 
recognition  of  complete  equality  with  the  more  favoured  order,  as  the  ple- 
beians did  at  Rome ;  or  shall  gradually  disappear  from  the  face  of  the  earth, 
as  the  red  men  are  vanishing  away.  In  the  Slave  States,  where  both  personal 
and  political  freedom  are  denied  to  the  coloured  races,  it  is  only  theoretically, 
or  for  party  purposes,  or  in  respect  of  legalized  intermarriage,  that  "  amalga- 
mation "  has  been  denounced.  It  is  (for  the  most  part  illicitly)  carried  on 
openly ;  and  the  fruits  are  manifesting  themselves  now,  in  so  large  an  infusion 
of  European  blood  into  the  slaves,  that  vast  numbers  of  them,  in  physical 
peculiarities,  are  undistinguishable  from  their  masters ;  and  in  the  rapidly 
progressive  diminution  of  the  free  population,  both  in  proportion  to  that  of 
other  States,  and  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  slaves ;  so  that,  sooner  or 
later,  unless  measures  characterized  by  the  largest  wisdom  interfere,  the  domi- 
nant but  effete  race  must  be  extinguished  by,  or  rather  merged  in,  the  now 
subject  one,  which  will  call  itself,  and  with  infinitely  better  right  than  either 


II 

A.  D. 1783. 


576  HISTORY    OP    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  the  Greeks  or  Romans^  of  the  last  two  thousand  years,  have  boasted  of  their 
Hellenic  and  Latin  ancestry — the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  And  very  remarkable  it 
is  to  see,  how  the  substitution  of  a  physical  for  a  political  distinction,  between 
the  "  aristocracy  "  and  the  "  commonalty  "  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  States, 
and  the  nearer  approach,  in  consequence,  to  simple  human  relations  between 
them,  (although  it  is  effected  by  retroceding  from  the  position  taken  up  by  the 
Northern  States,  who  will  not  advance  beyond  the  mere  negation  of  slavery,) 
has  afforded  the  means  by  which,  in  the  course  of  nature,  the  monstrous 
wrong  done  by  the  original  settlers  from  England,  of  claiming  lands  which 
they  were  incapable  of  cultivating,  will,  in  due  time,  be  rectified ;  a  race  fitted 
for  the  climate  will  be  put  into  indefeasible  and  undisputed  possession  of 
them  ;  and  a  "  new  era,"  for  that  which  is  the  only  stationary  (or,  more  truly, 
retrograde)  portion  of  the  Union,  shall  begin. 

One  other  fact  respecting  the  people  of  the  United  States,  which  has  been 
emphatically  styled  their  "  feat  in  history," — on  which  Dr.  Franklin  dwelt 
with  all  the  earnestness  and  delight,  that  one,  who  had  born^no  small  part  in 
the  founding  of  such  a  nation,  might  be  expected  to  show, — deserves  particu- 
lar notice  ;  and  we  will  state  it  in  Franklin's  own  words.  "  The  population," 
he  says,  "  doubles  itself  by  natural  propagation  every  twenty -five  years,  and 
will  double  yet  faster,  by  the  accession  of  strangers,  as  long  as  lands  are  to 
be  had  for  new  families :"  a  prediction  which  has  been  already  abundantly 
verified.,  And  now  we  may  collect  a  few  sketches  of  the  manners  of  the 
times,  from  the  letters  and  writings  of  actors  in  them. 

Dr.  Sullivan,  in  his  "  Familiar  Letters  "  on  "  the  Public  Men  of  the  Revo- 
lution," has  given  us  one  or  two  very  characteristic  and  entertaining  pictures. 
After  describing  the  person  of  Governor  Hancock,  he  proceeds, — "  Dress  was 
adapted  quite  as  much  to  be  ornamental  as  useful.  Gentlemen  wore  wigs 
when  abroad,  and  commonly  caps  when  at  home.  Hancock  was  dressed  in 
a  red  velvet  cap,  within  which  was  one  of  fine  linen.  The  latter  was  turned 
up  over  the  lower  edge  of  the  velvet  one  two  or  three  inches."  Franklin,  in 
one  of  his  earliest  letters  from  Paris,  contrasts  his  "  thin  grey  straight  hair, 
that  peeped  out  under  his  only  coiffure,  a  fine  fur  cap,  which  came  down  his 
forehead  almost  to  his  spectacles,"  with  the  "  powdered  heads  "  of  the  gentry 
and  courtiers  round  him.  Dr.  Sullivan  continues, — "  He  [Hancock]  wore  a 
blue  damask  gown,  lined  with  silk ;  a  white  stock,  a  white  satin  embroidered 
waistcoat,  black  satin  small-clothes,  white  silk  stockings,  and  red  morocco 
slippers.  It  was  a  general  practice  in  genteel  families  to  have  a  tankard  of 
punch  made  in  the  morning,  and  placed  in  a  cooler  when  the  season  required 
it.  Visitors  were  invited  to  partake  of  it.  At  this  visit,  Hancock  took  from 
the  cooler  standing  on  the  hearth  a  full  tankard,  drank  first  himself,  and  then 
offered  it  to  those  present."  The  writer  ascribes  to  this  "  very  general  prac- 
tice of  drinking  punch  in  the  forenoon  and  evening  by  all  who  could  afford 
it,"  "  the  common  disease  of  gout,"  with  great  apparent  justice.  "  There  are 
more  books,"  he  adds,  "  more  thinking,  and  more  interchange  of  thoughts 
derived  from  books  and  conversation,  at  present,  than  there  were  fifty  years 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  577 

ago.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that  society  is  wiser  and  happier  than  it  was,  from   chap. 

being  better  instructed.     Some  persons  may  be  of  opinion  that  if  social  inter- ■ — 

course  is  on  a  better  footing  now  than  formerly,  it  is  less  interesting,  less  cor- 
dial than  heretofore."  And  he  notes  the  "  increase  of  numbers  and  of 
wealth,"  which  might  tend  to  the  production  of  selfishness,  "  and  to  stifle  ex- 
pansion of  generous  feelings."  In  provincial  circles,  which  all  in  America 
were  before  the  war,  there  is  always  less  formality  and  greater  heartiness  than 
in  those  of  a  metropolis.  Men  do  not  in  them  so  tc  rub  each  other's  angles 
down,"  as  to  "  merge,  in  form  and  gloss,  the  picturesque  of  man  and  man." 
And  at  the  time  the  writer  made  these  observations,  each  principal  city  in  the 
States  had  become  a  metropolis ;  and  beside  numbers  and  wealth,  society  in 
them  was  subjected  to  the  influence  of  officialism ;  which  of  itself  would  be 
enough  to  lower  social  intercourse  to  a  commonplace  perfunctoriness,  level 
with  its  own  ideal  of  human  intercommunications. 

Other  interesting  and  minute  traits,  chiefly  of  Boston  society,  are  depicted 
by  this  biographical  historian.  "  There  were  families  who  were  affluent  and 
social.  They  interchanged  dinners  and  suppers.  The  evening  amusement 
was  usually  games  at  cards.  Tables  were  loaded  with  provisions.  Those  of 
domestic  origin  were  at  less  than  half  the  cost  of  the  present  time.  The  busy 
part  of  society  dined  then,  as  now,  at  one ;  others  at  two  o'clock ;  three 
o'clock  was  the  latest  hour  for  the  most  formal  occasions.  There  were  no 
theatrical  entertainments  ;  there  was  a  positive  legal  prohibition.  There 
were  concerts.  There  were  subscription  assemblies  for  dancing,  and  it  re- 
quired a  unanimous  assent  to  gain  admission.  Dress  was  much  attended  to 
by  both  sexes.  Coats  of  every  variety  of  colour  were  worn,  not  excepting 
red ;  sometimes  the  cape  and  collar  were  of  velvet,  and  of  a  different  colour 
from  the  coat.  Minuets  were  danced,  and  contr6  dances.  Cotillions  were  of 
later  date.  They  were  introduced  by  the  French  who  were  refugees  from  the 
West  India  islands.  Marriages  and  funerals  were  occurrences  of  much  more 
ceremony  than  at  the  present  day.  The  bride  was  visited  daily  for  four  suc- 
cessive weeks.  Public  notice  was  given  of  funerals,  and  private  invitations 
also.  Attendance  was  expected  ;  and  there  was  a  long  train  of  followers,  and 
all  the  carriages  and  chaises  that  could  be  had.  The  number  of  the  former 
in  town  was  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve.  There  were  no  public  carriages 
earlier  than  the  beginning  of  1789 ;  and  very  few  for  some  years  afterwards. 
Young  men,  at  their  entertainments,  sat  long  and  drank  deep,  compared  to 
the  present  custom.  Their  meetings  were  enlivened  with  anecdote  and  song. 
There  were  two  Latin  schools."  Four  academies  are  reckoned  up  in  New 
England.  "  It  was  a  common  practice  for  clergymen  to  receive  boys  into 
their  families  to  prepare  them  for  college."  Two  or  three  "  boarding-schools  " 
for  females  are  remembered.  "  The  moral  condition  of  society  among  the  well- 
informed  (so  far  as  is  seen  on  the  surface)  is  greatly  improved.  There  is 
more  occupation  of  various  sorts.  In  one  respect  there  is  a  change  of  im- 
measurable value  ;  that  is,  in  the  intercourse  of  parents  and  children.  It  is 
very  possible  that  there  are  more  who  prefer  the  strict  discipline  of  former 

4  K 


A.  D.  1783. 


578  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  days;  and  who  believe  that  as  much  of  substantial  benefit  has  been  lost  as 
^gained  in  the  changes  which  have  occurred.  If  this  be  so,  it  arises  from  the 
quality  of  education,  and  not  because  there  is  more  of  it." 

Funeral  pomps  fell  into  disuse  in  consequence  of  the  non-importation  reso- 
lutions. But  finery  in  dress  seems  not  to  have  been  regarded  by  all  as  an  in- 
dication of  feeble  patriotism.  Franklin,  in  1779,  writing  from  France  to  his 
daughter,  commends  her  industry  in  spinning  and  making  table-cloths,  &c; 
u  but,"  he  proceeds,  "  the  latter  part  of  the  paragraph,  that  you  had  sent  for 
linen  from  France,  because  weaving  and  flax  were  grown  dear,  alas !  that  dis- 
solved the  charm;  and  your  sending  for  long  black  pins,  and  lace,  and  feathers  ! 
disgusted  me  as  much  as  if  you  had  put  salt  into  my  strawberries."  John 
Adams  in  like  manner  laments  that  his  country-women  sent  to  France  for 
"  modes,  gewgaws,  and  tea ! "  "  Cards,"  says  Franklin  in  a  letter  written 
after  his  return  to  America,  "  we  sometimes  play  here  in  long  winter  evenings, 
but  it  is  as  they  play  at  chess,  not  for  money,  but  for  honour,  or  the  pleasure 
of  beating  one  another.  As  to  public  amusements,  we  have  neither  plays  nor 
operas,  but  we  had  yesterday  a  kind  of  oratorio ;  and  we  have  assemblies, 
balls,  and  concerts,  besides  little  parties  at  one  another's  houses,  in  which  there 
is  sometimes  dancing  and  frequently  good  music  ;  so  that  we  jog  on  in  life  as 
pleasantly  as  you  do  in  England,  any  where  but  in  London  ;  for  there  you 
have  plays  performed  by  good  actors.  That  however  is,  I  think,  the  only  ad- 
vantage London  has  over  Philadelphia." 

John  Adams  furnishes  us  with  some  glimpses  of  the  state  of  things  in  Phila- 
delphia a  few  years  earlier.  He  thinks  they  must  leave  off  sugar  and  wine 
and  rum  ;  for  "  loaf-sugar  is  only  four  dollars  a  pound  here,  and  brown  only 
a  dollar  for  the  meanest  sort,  and  ten  shillings  for  that  a  little  better !  Every 
body  here  is  leaving  off  loaf-sugar,  and  most  are  laying  aside  brown.  As  to 
rum  and  wine,  give  me  cider  and  I  would  compound."  In  another  letter  he 
gives  a  more  amusing  account.  "  Prices  current — Four  pounds  a  week  for 
board,  besides  finding  your  own  washing,  shaving,  candles,  liquors,  pipes,  to- 
bacco, wood,  &c.  Thirty  shillings  a  week  for  a  servant.  It  ought  to  be  thirty 
shillings  for  a  gentleman  and  four  pounds  for  the  servant,  because  he  generally 
eats  twice  as  much,  and  makes  twice  as  much  trouble.  Shoes,  five  dollars  a 
pair  ;  salt,  twenty-seven  dollars  a  bushel.  Butter,  ten  shillings  a  pound. 
Punch,  twenty  shillings  a  bowl.  Salt  water  is  boiling  all  round  the  coast,  and 
I  hope  it  will  increase.  As  to  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  &c,  we  must  leave  them 
off.  Whisky  is  used  here  instead  of  rum,  and  I  don't  see  but  it  is  just  as  good. 
If  I  could  get  cider,  I  would  be  content." 

But  better  by  far,  as  characteristic  of  the  times  and  of  the  people,  is  the 
following,  addressed  by  Adams  to  his  children  from  Paris,  in  the  year  of  the 
peace.  "  Boys  !  if  you  ever  say  one  word  or  utter  one  complaint,  I  will  dis- 
inherit you.  Work,  you  rogues,  and  be  free.  You  will  never  have  so  hard 
work  to  do  as  papa  has  had.  Daughter  !  get  you  an  honest  man  for  a  hus- 
band, and  keep  him  honest.  No  matter  whether  he  is  rich,  provided  he  be 
independent.     Regard  the  honour  and  the  moral  character  of  the  man  more 


A.  D. 1783. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  579 

than  all  other  circumstances.  Think  of  no  other  features  but  those  of  the  chap. 
soul,  no  other  riches  but  those  of  the  heart.  An  honest,  sensible,  humane 
man,  above  all  the  littlenesses  of  vanity  and  extravagances  of  imagination, 
labouring  to  do  good  rather  than  be  rich,  to  be  useful  rather  than  make  a 
show,  living  in  a  moderate  simplicity  clearly  within  his  means,  and  free  from 
debts  and  obligations,  is  really  the  most  respectable  man  in  society,  and  makes 
himself  and  all  about  him  the  most  happy."  Notwithstanding  which  old- 
fashioned  advice,  he  could  on  another  occasion  say,  "  the  cookery  and  man- 
ner of  living  here,  [Paris,  under  the  old  regime •/■]  which  you  know  Americans 
were  taught  by  their  former  absurd  masters  to  dislike,  is  more  agreeable  to 
me  than  you  can  imagine." 

From  these  authentic  remarks  we  may  gain  some  knowledge  of  the  in- 
terior qualities  of  the  people  which  was  now  about  to  commence  a  career 
hitherto  untried  in  the  world.  We  may,  without  censoriousness,  believe  that 
both  Franklin  and  Adams  regarded,  with  somewhat  too  favourable  an  eye, 
the  elements  of  character,  on  which  they  had  risked  their  all,  and  relied  solely 
for  the  realization  of  their  magnificent  hopes  respecting  the  future.  Yet,  so 
long  as  it  is  possible  for  any  one,  clear-sighted  and  prudent  as  Franklin,  to 
say  of  a  country — "  Every  man  in  America  is  employed ;"  "  an  idle  man  there 
is  a  rarity ;"  "  there,  an  expensive  appearance  hurts  credit,  and  is  avoided  ;" 
so  long  may  the  largest  expectations  be  indulged  respecting  its  future  prosper- 
ity. Thus  he  spoke  of  the  land  for  whose  emancipation  he  had  toiled ;  and 
of  its  people  he  said,  in  his  exultation  at  what  he  saw  them  achieve,  and  in 
his  ardent  and  hopeful  longing  respecting  their  future,  "  Only  a  virtuous 
people  are  capable  of  freedom" 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE   CON8EQXJENCES   OP  THE    WAR  TO  THE   ROYALISTS   AND  THE  REFTJOEES — TO   THE   PATRIOTS. — 
DISCONTENT    AND   INSURRECTION.— INEFFICIENCY   OF   CONGRESS. 

During  the  agony  of  such  a  contest  as  the  Anglo-Americans  had  maintained  c  ha  p. 
with  their  mother  country,  and  which,  by  the  providence  of  God,  had  ended  A  p  jyM 
in  the  signal  triumph  of  the  cause  of  liberty,  little  thought  was  bestowed  upon    to  1787. 
the  cost — of  the  conflict,  should  they  be  defeated — of  the  victory,  should  suc- 
cess crown  their  efforts.     They  indeed  had  felt  it,  whose  homes  were  deso- 
lated by  the  loss  of  father,  or  son,  or  brother,  ravished  from  them  by  the 
bloody  hand  of  war ;  they  had  felt  it,  whose  accustomed  means  of  gaining 
their  daily  bread  had  been  quite  cut  off;  and  they  also,  upon  whom  rested 
the  conduct  of  the  struggle, — Washington,  scarcely  daring  to  unbosom  himself 

4  s  2 


580  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  to  his  most  trusty  comrades, — Franklin,  labouring  to  convert  into  the  mate- 
—  rial  support  of  men  and  money,  the  lightly-spoken  encouragement  of  the 

to  i*787.  persifleurs  of  France, — the  leaders  of  Congress, — the  governors  of  the  States 
which  were  the  seat  of  active  warfare, — they  could  see  that  another  struggle, 
and  one  which  they  hoped  would  not  require  the  unsheathing  of  the  sword, 
must  follow,  as  soon  as  they  had,  by  the  sword,  established  their  independ- 
ence. No  sooner  was  the  pressure  of  that  agony  lightened  by  the  suspension 
of  hostilities,  than  the  second  contest  began ;  and  almost  before  the  army  had 
dispersed,  and  the  arts  of  peace  had  resumed  their  place  in  the  regards  of 
those  who  had  unwillingly  taken  up  the  soldier's  part,  it  was  seen  by  all  men 
of  how  serious  a  nature  it  would  be. 

This  new  struggle  was  two-fold.  It  was  at  first,  in  appearance,  directed 
mainly  and  most  urgently  against  the  social  and  financial  difficulties,  entailed 
by  those  years,  in  which  so  many  of  the  sources  of  national  wealth  had  been 
stopped ;  and  by  the  too  liberal  use  of  that  succedaneum  for  it,  (which  was, 
in  fact,  the  pretence  of  having  discovered  the  materials  of  wealth  in  the 
national  poverty,)  the  issue  of  paper-money.  But  more  deeply,  and,  as  it 
seemed,  only  in  consequence  of  the  impossibility  of  getting  rid  of  the 
difficulties  in  which  the  new-born  nation  was  involved,  it  was  a  struggle  for, 
and  against,  a  strong  and  central  unitary  government,  for  the  thirteen  States. 
Nothing  could  have  staved  off  the  first  part  of  this  fresh  contest,  even  for  an 
hour,  when  once  it  was  evident  that  fortune  favoured  the  patriots.  And 
though  we  can  conceive  the  possibility  of  circumstances  arising,  which  would 
have  held  the  second  in  abeyance  for  a  season,  it  was  a  question  of  such  vital 
interest  to  the  States,  and  its  bearing  upon  the  realization  of  the  good  they 
had  made  such  prodigious  sacrifices  to  acquire  was  so  intimate,  that  it  was 
in  the  highest  degree  auspicious,  in  regard  to  the  results  to  be  reached,  that 
its  discussion  should  not  be  postponed,  and  that  it  should  be  proposed  to  the 
people  in  a  practical  and  concrete  form,  and  not  as  an  appeal  to  their  judg- 
ment upon  the  contending  theories  of  political  perfectionists.  It  is  the  first 
portion  of  this  intestine  strife  that  we  shall  have  to  consider  now,  and  we 
shall  see  that  it  proved  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things  to  determine  it, 
prior  to  the  settlement  of  the  second  question,  which  thus  took  the  first  place 
in  the  public  regard.  How  that  question  was  settled,  the  subsequent  chapters 
will  declare. 

Before  we  speak  of  the  consequences  of  the  war,  however,  a  small  matter 
remains  to  be  mentioned,  which,  as  an  indication  of  the  temper  of  the  people 
and  of  the  army  alike,  is  highly  interesting  and  instructive.  This  was  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  Indignant  democrats  connected  this  inno- 
cent affair  with  the  proposal  made  a  few  years  earlier,  on  the  part  of  some  officers, 
who  found  Congress  much  more  ready  to  promise  than  to  perform,  and  far  more 
fruitful  in  debates  than  in  cash,  to  strike  for  a  monarchy,  and  to  make  George 
Washington  king ;  and  with  other  demonstrations  on  the  part  of  these  citizen- 
soldiers;  unwise  indeed,  but  not  unnatural,  considering  the  difficulty  they 
experienced  in  obtaining  any  assured  hope  of  ever  receiving  their  pay. 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  581 

To  commemorate  their  assumption  and  exercise  of  the  profession  of  arms,  then,    c  h  a  p. 

the  officers,  in  their  cantonments  on  Hudson's  river,  before  their  separation  by — 

the  dissolution  of  the  army,  instituted  a  society,  which  they  named  after  the  to  i787. 
old  legendary  hero  of  Rome,  who  was  said  to  have  left  his  plough  to  defend 
his  country.  The  members  of  this  society  were  to  be  designated  by  a  ribbon 
(of  deep  blue  edged  with  white)  and  a  medal  with  an  emblematical  device. 
Beside  perpetuating  the  memory  of  the  war,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  principles 
they  had  fought  for,  it  was  intended  to  commemorate  the  amicable  union  of  the 
officers,  and  to  be  the  means  of  affording  assistance  to  those  who  might  at  any 
time  be  in  necessitous  circumstances,  or  to  their  families ;  and  for  that  purpose, 
a  month's  pay  was  deposited  by  each  member  on  his  admission. 

So  far  little  fault  could  reasonably  be  found  with  it.  Franklin  did, 
indeed,  indulge  in  a  little  raillery  respecting  the  device  and  the  motto  of 
their  "  order."  He  told  them  that,  since  the  nine  universities  of  the  States 
could  not  furnish  better  Latin,  it  was  a  pity  that  the  mottoes  were  not  in 
English.  It  was  a  representation  of  Cincinnatus  summoned  from  the  peaceful 
to  the  martial  field ;  and  around  it  stood  inscribed,  Omnia  reliquit  servare 
rempublicam.  Other  devices  and  mottoes  adorned  the  member's  certificate. 
The  "  order  "  was  an  eagle  displayed,  surrounded  by  a  laurel  wreath,  and 
bearing  the  before-mentioned  device,  all  of  gold  and  enamel.  Franklin 
wittily  objected  to  the  selection  of  the  bald  eagle  as  the  representation  of  his 
country,  because  it  looked  too  much  like  a  turkey ;  and  was,  moreover,  a  bird 
of  bad  moral  character,  not  getting  his  living  honestly ;  and  (like  all  sharpers) 
generally  poor,  and  a  rank  coward.  The  turkey,  on  the  other  hand,  he  said, 
was  a  much  more  respectable  bird,  and  a  "  true  original  native  "  of  America, 
"  a  little  vain  and  silly,  'twas  true,"  but  a  bird  of  courage,  who  would  not 
hesitate  to  attack  a  British  grenadier,  if  he  entered  his  farm-yard  with  a  red 
coat  on. 

The  resemblance  to  the  European  orders  of  knighthood  might  have  been 
pardoned ;  but  the  founders  of  the  Society  unhappily  proposed  to  perpetuate 
it  by  making  the  distinction  hereditary ;  the  membership  descending  by  the 
eldest  male  representatives  of  the  first  bearer  of  the  honour ;  or  in  failure  of 
such,  by  "the  collateral  branches,"  who  might  be  judged  worthy.  The 
admission  of  eminent  civilians  was  also  contemplated.  This  part  of  the  scheme 
excited  the  liveliest  suspicions.  Jefferson  saw  in  it  an  ulterior  purpose  of 
violating  the  democratic  character  of  the  government,  by  the  introduction  of 
an  aristocracy.  The  Americans  generally  were  inclined  to  class  the  institu- 
tion with  those,  from  one  of  which  (monarchy)  they  had  been  so  recently, 
and  at  so  great  a  cost  delivered.  Little  was  said,  however,  until  the  chief 
justice  of  South  Carolina,  JEdanus  Burke,  sent  forth  a  pamphlet,  with 
the  epigraph,  "  Blow  ye  the  trumpet  in  Zion  ; "  in  which  he  gave  a  fancy 
sketch  of  all  the  mischiefs  which  an  aristocracy  inflicts  upon  a  community, 
and  charged  the  Cincinnati  with  the  intention  of  producing  such  evils  in 
the  new  State.  The  Americans  thought  that  the  alarmist's  fears  were  ex- 
aggerated. But  Mirabeau,  who,  with  Champfort's  aid,  translated  and  enlarged 


582  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

C  hi  P'  ^S  oroc^luref  making  it  a  vehicle  for  satire  against  orders  of  nobility  in  general, 
■    ~  1783  with  the   intention  of  aiding  in  "  the  Great  Revolution," — then   (as   they 

to  1787.  thought)  working  the  peaceful  regeneration  of  France, — he  and  the  demo- 
crats of  Europe  considered  that  "  the  curses  of  hereditary  aristocracy  "  had 
been  but  faintly  sketched  by  Judge  Burke. 

The  legislatures  of  several  of  the  States  thereupon  deliberated  concerning 
it,  and  unanimously  condemned  or  censured  its  principles.  "Washington  was 
carried  away  by  the  universal  panic.  And  as  the  first  annual  meeting  drew 
nigh,  it  was  resolved  by  a  large  majority  to  extinguish  the  offending  society. 
At  this  very  time,  the  spring  of  1784,  there  arrived  from  France  letters  from 
the  officers  who  had  reaped  unfading  laurels  in  the  New  "World,  cordially 
accepting  the  proffered  badges  of  union,  and  soliciting  the  extension  of  the 
honour  to  others ;  notifying,  moreover,  the  assent  of  the  French  king  to 
their  wearing  the  order.  It  was  impossible  to  carry  out  the  plan  for  ter- 
minating the  existence  of  the  Cincinnati,  without  insulting,  in  the  most  gra- 
tuitous way,  those  brave  men,  who  had  so  generously  aided  them  in  gaining 
their  freedom.  The  Society,  in  consequence,  was  not  abolished ;  but  the 
hereditary  part  of  the  plan  was  laid  aside ;  the  orders  were  forbidden  to  be 
worn  in  public,  except  by  the  European  members ;  (and  it  may  be  observed, 
that  the  king  of  Sweden  forbade  his  subjects,  who  had  received  them,  to 
appear  in  them  publicly,  because  they  were  too  republican  in  their  sugges- 
tions ;  whilst  in  aristocratic  France,  the  most  envied  of  all  distinctions  was 
this  bald-eagle  badge  of  the  Cincinnati ; )  the  funds  were  deposited  with  the 
legislatures  of  the  different  States ;  and  their  meetings  were  made  triennial 
instead  of  annual. 

Even  these  changes,  radical  as  they  were,  did  not  satisfy  the  more  ardent 
democrats  ;  and  although  some  members  of  the  Society  have  survived  to  this 
day,  the  institution  has  always  been  regarded  with  jealousy.  Not  one  of  the 
dangers  which  were  predicted  has  arisen  from  it,  but  not  the  less  have  those 
opposed  to  it  declared  that  some  might  yet  arise.  This  controversy  fore- 
shadowed most  distinctly  the  character  of  the  most  stirring  contests  in  the 
States  in  after  years  ;  and  possesses,  in  that  view,  an  interest  of  which,  in 
itself,  it  is  sadly  lacking. 

In  two  articles  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  Congress  recommended  the  restitu- 
tion of  the  rights  of  .Royalists,  if  they  had  not  been  forfeited  by  their  having 
borne  arms  against  the  United  States,  and  the  concession  of  leave  to  enter  the 
Union  freely  for  the  purpose  of  recovering  them ;  it  also  engaged  that  there 
should  be  no  further  confiscations  or  punishments  inflicted  on  those  who  had 
not  taken  the  patriot  side.  The  settlement  of  this  matter  occasioned  no  little 
trouble.  For  the  exasperation  of  the  Patriots  against  those  enemies  to  their 
country  was  justifiably  great.  The  British  army  never  inflicted  such  cruelties 
on  the  Americans  as  these  renegades  had  committed.  The  atrocities  of  Indian 
warfare  were  outdone  by  those  which  marked  their  inroads.  Nor  was  Lord 
North,  or  the  king  himself,  so  much  opposed  to  the  independence  of  the 
States  as  they  were.     New  York,  which  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  British 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  583 


power,  became  the  rendezvous  of  the  most  wealthy  and  influential  of  these  too   chai 


in. 


"  loyal "  subjects.  There  they  occupied  themselves  in  increasing  their 
means,  by  venturing  the  property  they  had  rescued  from  confiscation  in  torn?, 
privateering  or  contraband  trade ;  or  by  acting  as  sutlers  to  the  English 
forces ;  and  some  were  eminently  successful  in  these  operations.  There  too 
they  plotted  against  their  fellow-countrymen  with  such  malignancy  and  per- 
severance, that  it  is  believed,  with  great  show  of  reason,  that  the  war  might 
have  been  concluded  some  years  before  the  time  when  it  actually  ended,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  efforts  which  they  made  with  the  ministers  and  the  mili- 
tary commanders  to  prevent  the  peace.  The  correspondence  maintained  by 
some  of  them  with  one  of  their  number,  who  acted  as  a  medium  of  commu- 
nication between  them  and  the  ministry,  which  has  recently  come  to  light, 
displays  their  proceedings  in  the  worst  possible  light ;  and  fully  accounts  for 
the  feeling  which  prevailed  against  their  reinstatement  in  either  the  stations 
or  the  possessions,  they  had  forfeited  by  their  royalism. 

One  of  their  number  sketched  a  form  of  "  government,"  or  rather  of  revenge, 
which  he  considered  to  be  f  f  most  for  the  honour,  security,  peace,  and  interest 
of  Great  Britain,  and  also  for  the  happiness  and  safety  of  America,"  to  be 
adopted  "  when  America  submitted."  It  contained  no  fewer  than  ./foe  clauses 
of  exceptions  to  the  proclamation  of  pardon,  which  would  have  embraced 
every  patriot  of  the  least  note  and  station  ;  and  further  proposed  the  confisca- 
tion of  the  estates  of  all  "  the  rebels."  It  was  too  much  to  expect  that,  im- 
mediately on  the  peace  being  proclaimed,  they  who  had,  in  spite  of  such 
varied  opposition,  and  at  such  heavy  expense,  achieved  their  freedom,  should 
be  disposed  to  welcome  back  the  very  men,  whose  treachery  and  intrigue 
had  added  so  much  to  the  price  they  had  paid  for  liberty,  and  should  be 
willing  to  admit  them  to  a  share  of  the  privileges,  which  they  had  done  their 
best  to  prevent  them  from  ever  attaining. 

Franklin,  one  of  the  coolest  heads  on  the  patriot  side,  defended  the  resent- 
ment expressed  against  the  Tories ;  and  expressed  the  firm  belief  that,  with 
some,  the  opposition  arose  from  a  conviction  that  no  reliance  could  be  placed 
upon  their  oaths  ;  and  that  the  effect  of  receiving  them  would  be  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  very  anarchy  and  confusion,  with  which  they  falsely  charged  the 
new  governments. 

Several  thousands  consequently  found  themselves,  when  the  British  were 
about  to  evacuate  New  York,  practically  outlaws ;  and  no  course  remained 
for  them  but  to  leave  the  country,  which  they  had  with  so  parricidal  a  spirit 
attacked  for  the  purpose  of  enslaving.  Many  found  a  refuge  in  the  British 
possessions,  to  the  north  and  south  of  the  United  States ;  and  others  betook 
themselves  to  England.  Franklin  alleges  that  they  were,  in  many  instances, 
incited  to  royalism  by  the  expectation  of  sharing  in  the  confiscations  pro- 
nounced against  the  patriots  by  the  original  declaration  of  war ;  and  urges 
that  they  had  a  claim  for  indemnification  from  the  British  government.  "  I 
think,"  he  says,  "  that  even  a  hired  assassin  has  a  right  to  his  pay  from  his 
employer;  and  it  seems  more  reasonable  that  the  expense  of  paying  these 


584  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    should  fall  upon  the  government  who  encouraged  the  mischief  done,  rather 


A.  D. 1783 


than  upon  us  who  suffered  it."  It  appears,  that  after  about  eight  years 
'toira!-  the  examination  of  the  claims  of  the  refugees  was  completed.  Four  thousand 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  claims  were  admitted  ;  and  the  total  sum  allowed 
to  the  claimants  was  £3,293,455.  A  considerable  reduction  was  made  from 
all  claims  exceeding  £10,000;  and  they  were  paid  in  a  3J  per  cent,  stock.  A 
further  provision  of  £25,785,  for  pensions  to  two  hundred  and  four  claimants, 
as  a  compensation  for  the  loss  of  valuable  offices,  was  made  ;  and  thus  the 
whole  business  terminated. 

"  Certainly,"  wrote  Franklin,  "  they  must  be  happier  where  they  are, 
under  the  government  they  admire."  "  We  do  not  miss  them,  nor  wish  their 
return  ;  nor  do  we  envy  them  their  present  happiness."  Yet,  after  the  first 
indulgence  of  exacerbated  feeling,  a  wiser  and  more  wholesome  state  of  mind 
ensued.  The  laws  pronouncing  confiscation  and  forfeiture  against  the  Tories 
were  generally  repealed ;  and  many  unappropriated  estates  restored,  and 
others  recovered  by  legal  process.  A  few  of  the  refugees,  with  the  permission 
of  the  legislatures  of  the  Union,  returned  to  America ;  and  that  cause  of  dis- 
cord was,  eventually,  almost  wholly  forgotten. 

While  the  affairs  of  the  defeated  Royalists  were  being  thus  comfortably 
arranged,  the  patriots  found  that  the  joy  they  felt  at  having  accomplished 
their  freedom,  was  woefully  dashed  by  the  disastrous  ruin,  which  they  beheld 
on  every  side.  There  were  the  actual  devastations  resulting  from  the  war, — 
towns  and  dwellings  pillaged  and  destroyed;  fertile  and  smiling  tracts  of 
country  utterly  wasted ;  all  the  ravages  which  attend  hostile  occupation  and 
inroad.  The  consequences  of  the  abstraction  of  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
people  from  the  pursuits  of  peace,  for  seven  years,  also,  would  alone  have 
produced  sufficient  evil  in  a  community  like  that  of  the  States, — every  branch 
of  industry  must  have  been  as  if  spell-bound.  But  to  them  must  be  added  the 
positive  interruptions  of  both  trade  and  agriculture,  and  the  destruction  and 
spoliation  of  their  realized  or  half-realized  fruits ; — there  must  be  added  the 
endurance  of  want  and  disease  in  camp  and  hospital;  incapacitation  by 
wounds  ;  death  in  the  fight ;  captivity,  with  its  unspeakable  wretchedness, — 
for  the  British  did  not  observe  the  customs  of  civilized  warfare  towards  those 
whom  they  regarded  as  rebels ; — the  sufferings  of  those  at  home,  who  had  de- 
pended for  subsistence  upon  earnings  now  stopped ; — and  all  the  nameless 
miseries  attendant  upon  intestine  variance  and  strife.  Besides,  there  were 
the  debts, — of  Congress,  of  each  individual  State,  of  almost  every  person  ;— 
and  there  were  the  paper  currency,  and  the  results  of  its  prodigious  depreci- 
ation in  value ; — and  a  treaty  of  peace,  ratified  indeed,  but  not  yet  wholly 
carried  out ; — such  an  imbroglio  of  ills,  and  of  raw  materials  for  every  possible 
form  of  civic  mischief,  as  might  have  struck  dismay  into  the  hearts  of  most 
experienced  statesmen. 

We  must  notice  some  of  these  matters  particularly  ;  but  first  let  us  see  the 
spirit  of  the  men  who  had  to  deal  with  them.  It  will  no  longer  be  a  wonder 
to  us,  that  out  of  such  straits  the  newly-created  sovereignties  should  be,  not 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  585 

only  delivered,  but  made  to  gather  political  and  social  blessings,  greater  by   cha p. 
far  than  any  that  hope  pictured  to  them,  as  the  prize  and  guerdon  of  their  -  p  ^ 
protracted  struggle.     And  we  will  refer  to  the  correspondence  of  Benjamin    to  i>87. 
Franklin,  the  cheery  and  hale  octogenarian,  who  seems  to  have  renewed  his 
youth,  in  his   exultation  that  he  had  not  laboured  in  vain,  nor  spent  the 
strength  he  so  generously  put  forth,  for  nought. 

"  Your  newspapers,"  he  says,writing  to  a  friend  in  England,  "  are  filled 
with  accounts  of  distress  and  miseries  that  these  States  are  plunged  into  since 
their  separation  from  Britain.  You  may  believe  me,  when  I  tell  you  there  is 
no  truth  in  those  accounts.  I  find  all  property  in  lands  and  houses  aug- 
mented vastly  in  value ;  that  of  houses  and  towns  at  least  fourfold.  The 
crops  have  been  plentiful,  and  yet  the  produce  sells  high,  to  the  great  profit  of 
the  farmer.  At  the  same  time  all  imported  goods  sell  at  low  rates,  some 
cheaper  than  at  first  cost.  Working  people  have  plenty  of  employ,  and  high 
pay  for  their  labour.  These  appear  to  me  as  certain  signs  of  public  pros- 
perity. Some  traders  indeed  complain  that  trade  is  dead ;  but  this  pretended 
evil  is  not  an  effect  of  inability  in  the  people  to  buy,  pay  for,  and  consume 
the  usual  articles  of  commerce,  as  far  as  they  have  occasion  for  them ;  it  is 
owing  merely  to  there  being  too  many  traders  who  have  crowded  hither  from 
all  parts  of  Europe,  with  more  goods  than  the  natural  demand  of  the  country 
requires.  And  what  in  Europe  is  called  the  debt  of  America,  is  chiefly  the 
debt  of  these  adventurers,  and  supercargoes  to  their  principals  ;  with  which 
the  settled  inhabitants  of  America,  who  never  paid  better  for  what  they  went 
to  buy,  have  nothing  to  do.  As  to  the  contentment  of  the  inhabitants  with 
the  change  of  government,  methinks  a  stronger  proof  cannot  be  desired  than 
what  they  have  given  in  my  reception.  You  know  the  part  I  had  in  that 
change,  and  you  see  in  the  papers  the  addresses  from  all  ranks  with  which 
your  friend  was  welcomed  home,  and  the  sentiments  they  contain  confirmed 
yesterday  in  the  choice  of  him  for  president  [of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania],  by 
the  council  and  new  assembly,  which  was  unanimous,  a  single  voice  in  seventy- 
seven  excepted." 

In  other  letters,  written  about  the  same  time,  1786  and  1787,  he  adds  such 
traits  as  these.  "  There  are  in  every  part  of  our  country  incontestable  marks 
of  public  felicity.  We  discover,  indeed,  some  errors  in  our  general  and  par- 
ticular constitutions;  which  it  is  no  wonder  they  should  have,  the  time  in 
which  they  were  formed  being  considered.  But  these  we  shall  soon  mend. 
The  little  disorders  you  have  heard  of  in  some  of  the  States,  raised  by  a  few 
wrong-heads,  are  subsiding,  and  will  probably  soon  be  extinguished."  "  We 
have  no  doubt  of  being  able  to  discharge  more  speedily  the  debt  incurred  by 
the  war,  than  at  first  was  apprehended.  Our  modes  of  collecting  taxes  are, 
indeed,  as  yet  imperfect,  and  we  have  need  of  more  skill  in  financiering ; 
but  we  improve  of  that  kind  of  knowledge  daily  by  experience."  "  Our 
working  people  are  well  fed,  and  well  clad."  "  Buildings  in  Philadelphia 
increase  amazingly;  beside  small  towns  arising  in  every  quarter  of  the  country. 
The  laws  govern,  justice  is  well  administered,  and  property  as  secure  as  in 

4  F 


586  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

CY^P-  any  country  on  the  globe.     Our  wilderness  lands  are  daily  buying  up  by 
A  p  1783  new  settlers,  and  our  settlements  extend  rapidly  to  the  westward."     "  In 

to  1787.    short,  all  among  us  may  be  happy — who  have  happy  dispositions, — such  being 
necessary  to  happiness  even  in  Paradise." 

Nothing  can  better  exhibit  the  resolute  hopefulness  of  the  people,  than 
these  expressions  of  this  sagacious  and  prudent  and  experienced  man.  Some 
of  them  have  so  much  foresight  in  them,  that  they  seem  to  be  historic,  rather 
than  anticipatory.  Several  of  his  letters  dwell  upon  the  honours  of  his  re- 
ception, and  of  his  election  to  the  government  of  Philadelphia,  as  contradictions 
to  the  mendacious  assertions  of  those  who  wished  no  good  to  the  States ;  and 
Jefferson,  in  one  of  his  letters  from  Paris,  shows  that  he  too  regarded  the 
way  in  which  the  venerable  ambassador  should  be  greeted  on  his  return,  as 
a  token  incontestable  of  the  disposition  of  the  people  towards  the  new  state  of 
things.  Before  leaving  this  view  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in  America,  we 
may  insert  another  representation  of  the  temper  with  which  the  difficulties 
and  discouragements,  and  we  shall  soon  see  that  such  there  were  in  abund- 
ance, were  borne.  It  is  in  harmony  with  what  Franklin  says,  and  to  such  as 
have  any  knowledge  of  men  it  will  not  appear  out  of  keeping  with  the  pictures 
we  must  give.  At  the  same  time  the  writer  (Jefferson)  shows  his  own  temper 
and  disposition,  such  as  we  shall  see  't  to  be  subsequently.  In  1788,  he 
writes  to  a  correspondent  in  Italy,  "  General  Washington  writes  me,  that  in- 
dustry and  economy  begin  to  take  place  of  that  idleness  and  extravagance 
which  had  succeeded  the  close  of  the  icar" 

We  commence  our  more  minute  account  of  the  condition  of  the  country 
with  its  commerce.  This  had  suffered  most  severely  from  the  war,  because 
the  naval  force  of  the  British  had  always  been  so  far  superior  to  that  of  the 
Americans,  even  when  the  French  fleet  had  joined  them;  and  in  spite  of  the 
privateers.  It  will  be  found  that  the  financial  state  of  the  country  was  such 
as  to  make  it  impossible  at  once  to  take  full  advantage  of  the  peace.  Beside 
that,  their  own  shipping  was  quite  insufficient  for  their  requirements  ;  and 
their  domestic  trade  and  production,  and  their  agriculture  also,  had  been  so 
paralyzed,  that  they  had  little  to  offer  in  exchange  for  the  commodities  of  other 
nations.  And,  whilst  each  nation  imposed  whatever  restrictions  it  pleased 
upon  their  trade,  not  only  could  not  Congress  legislate  effectually  on  this 
matter,  but  it  could  not  obtain  commercial  treaties  from  many  states,  because 
of  its  limited  powers.  One  line  of  trade,  that  communicating  with  the  British 
West  Indies,  whence  great  profits  had  been  drawn,  was  now  quite  cut  off; 
and  the  "  Navigation  Laws,"  which  have  at  length  given  way  to  a  more  en- 
lightened policy,  prevented  their  ships  from  carrying  to  Britain  any  thing  ex- 
cept the  actual  produce  of  the  State  of  the  Union  to  which  each  belonged. 
The  whole  country  felt  the  loss  of  this  great  stimulant  of  active  national  life. 
Other  evils  were  noted.  Many  who  had  been  impoverished  by  the  war, 
embarked  the  remains  of  their  fortunes  in  commercial  speculations;  and 
along  with  those  whose  ancient  credit  with  English  merchants  was  not  im- 
paired, and  with  such  as  had  amassed  wealth  by  privateering,  commenced 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  587 

the  importation  of  British  goods.     But  they  were  forced  to  pay  in  specie,  and   chap. 

trouble  enough  arose  respecting  the  articles  they  introduced.     These  were : — 

chiefly  in  New  England,  Sullivan  tells  us,  matters  of  luxury ;  which  were  to  iisi. 
not  wanted,  and  for  which  the  buyers  in  most  cases  could  not  pay  :  the  usual 
embarrassments,  insolvencies,  and  prosecutions  followed ;  the  importers  made 
bad  debts,  and  gained  public  odium ;  while  importations  were  discountenanced, 
and  the  credit  of  the  States,  as  well  as  of  the  adventurers,  was  injured  in  the 
opinion  of  the  mercantile  world. 

It  is  of  the  greater  importance  to  remark  the  steps  that  were  taken  by  the 
United  States  now,  because,  by  a  remarkable  exception  to  the  general  law  of 
the  progress  of  nations,  the  mistake  in  commercial  legislation  which  really 
originated  at  this  conjuncture,  and  which  was  owing  in  part  to  the  habit  of 
imitation  of  England,  and  in  part  to  the  erroneous  supposition  that  the  only 
way  of  meeting  such  restrictions  on  free-trade  as  the  British  "  Navigation 
Laws,"  was  by  imposing  similar  restrictions  ; — this  mistake  has  been  per- 
petuated, and  that  with  an  increase  instead  of  a  diminution  of  its  magnitude, 
to  the  present  day ;  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  foreign  trade  of  the  Union, 
and  to  the  entire  prevention  of  the  spread  of  their  principal  political  lesson 
amongst  men.  We  might,  indeed,  place  the  beginning  of  this  grand  blunder 
at  an  earlier  period,  and  fasten  the  origin  of  it,  as  we  must  of  so  many  errors 
committed  by  America,  upon  Great  Britain;  although  the  blame  of  the 
continuation  of  it,  and  of  them,  must  rest  upon  the  former.  It  was,  however, 
in  the  non-importation  resolutions  that  the  commercial  policy  of  the  Union 
really  commenced;  and  those,  as  we  have  clearly  seen,  were  the  only  peace- 
able course  of  resistance  to  gratuitous  tyranny  open  to  the  colonists  at  the 
time  when  they  were  formed. 

"  Men  of  moderate  ambition,  and  frugal  habits,  like  Washington  and  many 
others,"  says  Mr.  Macgregor,  "  entertained,  no  doubt  with  pure  intentions, 
the  idea,  that  in  order  to  be  perfectly  independent,  they  must  produce  at 
home  every  thing  required  for  food,  raiment,  shelter,  convenience,  and  luxury." 
Jefferson  carried  this  feeling  to  the  farthest  point.  "  Were  I,"  he  writes,  "  to 
indulge  my  own  theory,  I  should  wish  [the  States]  to  practise  neither  com- 
merce nor  navigation,  but  to  stand,  with  respect  to  Europe,  precisely  on  the 
footing  of  China.  We  should  thus  avoid  wars,  and  all  our  citizens  would  be 
husbandmen."  Except,  one  would  think,  those  engaged  in  manufactures. 
But  this,  which  in  Jefferson  was  part  of  his  political  system,  in  Washington 
was  mere  simplicity  of  habit ;  and  needs  not  to  be  discussed,  or  we  might 
point  out,  by  comparison  with  the  old  country,  how  exactly  the  trading  policy 
of  the  United  States  represents  the  social  rank  of  its  first  framers.  Franklin, 
we  may  observe,  was  of  another  mind  ;  as  he  shows  in  his  humorous  story  of 
the  fine  cap,  which  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  at  Cape  May  had  from  Philadel- 
phia, and  so  dazzled  the  eyes  of  her  companions  at  meeting  with,  that  they  all  set 
to  knitting  worsted  mittens  for  sale  at  Philadelphia,  that  they  might  rejoice  in 
similar  finery. 

The  attempts  at  legislation  now  made,  which  had  for  their  object  the  pro- 

4  r  2 


588  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    tection  (as  it  was  and  still  is  believed)  of  the  commerce  of  the  Union,  and 
the  prevention  of  harmful  inconsistencies  in  the  enactments  of  the  different 


to  1787.  States,  were  these :  Congress  in  1783,  for  the  second  time,  "  recommended  "  the 
States  to  allow  them  to  lay  an  impost  of  5  per  cent,  on  all  imports,  for  twenty- 
five  years.  At  the  end  of  three  years,  nine  of  the  States  had  conditionally 
acceded;  three  others,  on  urgent  application  and  exhibition  of  the  pressing 
nature  of  the  Federal  need,  also  consented.  New  York  also  at  length  agreed 
to  the  recommendation ;  but  clogged  her  assent  with  such  conditions  as 
made  it  virtually  a  refusal ;  and  would  not  be  persuaded  to  modify  them.  In 
1784,  it  was  resolved  to  negociate  commercial  treaties  on  the  principle  of 
"  reciprocity  "  alone.  And  about  the  same  time  Congress  "  recommended  " 
that  they  should  be  invested,  for  fifteen  years,  with  power  to  close  their  ports 
against  all  vessels  coming  from  nations  not  having  a  treaty  with  them,  and  to 
pass,  as  to  all  nations,  an  act  resembling  the  too  famous  "  Navigation  Act." 

Before  the  assent  of  all  the  States  to  this  proposal  had  been  given,  the  con- 
victions of  the  leading  men  in  some  of  them,  concerning  the  exigency  of  the 
case,  had  outstripped  the  request  of  Congress.  The  importations  had  so 
astonishingly  exceeded  the  exportations,  that  it  grew  to  be  quite  a  popular 
plan  to  tax  them  ;  for  it  was  not  perceived  that  although  the  importer  in  the 
first  instance  pays  the  impost,  as  a  matter  of  course  he  reimburses  himself  by 
adding  just  as  much  or  something  more  to  the  price  of  his  goods,  and  in  the 
end  the  consumers  would  have  to  pay  the  duty,  which  they  had  regarded  as 
their  protection  against  the  foreigner.  After  various  resolutions  and  recom- 
mendations, the  assembly  of  Virginia,  on  the  21st  of  January,  1786,  at  the 
suggestion  of  some  commissioners  respecting  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac, 
who  had  visited  and  conferred  with  Washington  on  the  subject,  resolved  to 
appoint  delegates  and  to  invite  the  other  States  of  the  Union  to  nominate 
others  to  meet  them  at  Annapolis,  "  to  digest  the  form  of  an  act  for  investing 
Congress  with  such  powers  over  their  commerce  as  should  be  thought  ex- 
pedient; which  act  was  then  to  be  reported  to  the  assemblies  of  the 
several  States  for  their  adoption."  This  proposal,  as  we  shall  see,  resulted  in 
the  convention  for  the  revision  of  the  Federal  Constitution  of  the  States, 
the  necessity  for  which  was  made  most  plain  by  the  difficulties  which  at- 
tended every  attempt,  whether  well  or  ill  judged,  on  the  part  of  Congress, 
to  legislate  respecting  commerce. 

Negociations  preliminary  to  commercial  treaties  were  entered  upon  with 
Denmark,  Prussia,  Portugal,  and  Tuscany.  With  Prussia,  and  also  with  the 
emperor  of  Morocco,  treaties  were  actually  made;  but  even  France  held 
back  at  that  time  from  such  bonds  of  amity, — being,  in  fact,  not  a  little  dis- 
gusted at  the  inconsiderable  total  on  either  side  of  the  trade,  with  an  eye  to 
which  she  had  done  so  much  for  the  cause  of  freedom.  Other  states  of  Europe 
had  acknowledged  the  independence  of  America  ;  but  Spain  was  so  far  from 
following  up  that  commencement  of  friendship,  that  she  insisted  upon  lessen- 
ing the  territory  of  the  Union,  by  a  large  tract,  which  she  said  pertained  to 
Florida,  or  had  been  conquered  by  her  troops  ;  and  there  were  other  grounds 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  589 

real  or  pretended  for  disagreement.     The  trade  with.  China  and  the  British  chap. 
East  Indies  was  opened  soon  after  the  peace.  ' — 

•  AD    1783 

To  these  miscellaneous  facts,  all  tending  to  give  a  most  living  picture  of  to  i>87. 
the  condition  of  the  country,  we  may  add  two  respecting  New  England, 
which  will  show  how  deeply  the  most  enterprising  and  self-sacrificing  portion 
of  the  Union  suffered  from  the  revolutionary  war.  The  average  of  ten  years 
before  the  war  showed  about  650  vessels,  and  about  4400  men,  engaged 
annually  in  the  Massachusetts  cod-fishery ; — but  the  average  of  four  years 
after  the  war  gave  fewer  than  540  vessels  and  3300  men.  And  instead  of  the 
average  of  350,000  quintals  sent  to  Europe  and  the  West  Indies  yearly,  there 
were  no  more  than  250,150.  The  whale-fishery  of  the  same  State,  before  the 
war,  employed  on  an  average  of  four  years  above  300  vessels,  and  more  than 
4000  men,  and  produced  nearly  40,000  barrels  of  sperm  oil,  and  above  8500 
of  whale  oil.  The  average  of  two  years  after  the  war  shows  about  120  vessels 
and  1610  men  engaged,  and  less  than  8000  barrels  of  sperm,  but  rather  more 
than  13,000  barrels  of  whale  oil  produced ;  which  last  fact  shows  that  most  of 
the  whalers  were  sent  then  into  the  North  Sea,  near  home.  About  these 
articles  of  commerce  Jefferson  writes  to  the  charge  d'affaires  at  Madrid: 
(i  Before  the  war  these  States  [New  England]  depended  on  their  whale  oil, 
and  fish.  The  former  was  consumed  in  England,  and  much  of  the  latter  in 
the  Mediterranean.  The  heavy  duties  on  American  whale  oil,  now  required 
in  England,  exclude  it  from  that  market ;  and  the  Algerines  exclude  them 
from  bringing  their  fish  into  the  Mediterranean.  France  is  opening  her 
ports  for  their  oil ;  but  in  the  mean  while,  their  ancient  debts  are  pressing 
them,  and  they  have  nothing  to  pay  with." 

Nor  are  these  all  the  features  of  the  distressful  position  of  the  States,  during 
the  six  years  which  intervened  between  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  and  the  in- 
auguration of  the  Federal  Constitution  by  the  presidency  of  Washington. 
That  abundant  importation  of  European  goods,  and  their  sale  at  less  than  their 
cost,  which  Franklin  spoke  of  as  a  sign  of  prosperity,  although  it  was  really, 
on  the  part  of  the  merchants,  the  mere  getting  rid  of  old  stock  at  any  sa- 
crifice, and  seizing  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  absence  of  import  duty ; 
that  too  plentiful  and  cheap  importation  destroyed  the  demand  for  the  home 
manufactures,  which  the  non-intercourse  resolutions  and  the  demands  of  the 
war  had  originated.  And  so  completely  was  that  department  of  enterprise 
paralyzed,  that  every  effort  made  to  revive  it,  by  attempting  new  kinds  of 
manufacture,  and  on  a  larger  scale,  utterly  failed.  The  disbanding  and  the 
departure  of  the  two  armies,  also,  was  severely  felt  in  those  districts  the  pro- 
duce of  which  had  readily  been  disposed  of  in  the  camps.  And,  notwithstand- 
ing Franklin's  resolute  attribution  of  all  the  blame  to  the  "  supercargoes,"  we 
must  acknowledge  that,  both  as  a  consequence  of  military  life,  and  from  the 
mere  propinquity  of  the  armies,  in  which  carelessness  and  prodigality  of  ex- 
penditure are,  if  not  inevitable,  at  least  proverbial ;  and  also  from  the  circum- 
stance of  so  many  large  fortunes  being  made  by  successful  ventures  in  pri- 
vateering, or  by  fortunate  speculations  in  the  purchase  of  the  depreciated  paper- 


590  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  money,  or  by  others  of  the  nameless  and  less  honourable  ways  open  to  the 

—  unscrupulous  at  such  times ;  —  there  had  grown  up  habits  of  improvident 

to  1787.    luxury,  even  in  New  England ;  of  which  the  "  supercargoes,"  and  the  American 
dealers,  alike  took  advantage. 

Hence  resulted  numberless  private  debts ;  for  although  some  of"  the  Ame- 
ricans never  paid  better,"  there  were  too  many  who  had  not  wherewithal  to 
pay.  And  the  suits  in  all  the  courts  multiplied  so  greatly,  that  lawyers  be- 
came the  most  thriving  class  in  the  community,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
most  unpopular,  their  golden  harvest  springing  from  so  much  misery  in  the 
other  classes.  But  of  them  we  shall  speak  subsequently,  for  we  must  now 
direct  attention  to  another  most  potent  source  of  national  evil. 

The  blame  of  having  recourse  to  a  paper-currency,  consisting  of  bills  of 
credit,  for  the  redemption  of  which  property  was  pledged  which  was  either 
insufficient  or  incapable  of  being  realized,  does  not  in  the  first  instance  rest 
upon  the  men  of  the  Revolution.  A  hundred  years  before,1 — whilst  England 
was  the  actual  ruler, — this  perilous  expedient  had  been  resorted  to,  and  again 
and  again  it  was  adopted ; — with  what  consequences  one  fact  will  declare. 
The  colony  of  Massachusetts  received  from  the  British  treasury,  on  account 
of  the  expenses  of  the  Louisburg  expedition,  £183,000;  and  with  this  sum  it 
compounded  for  the  redemption  of  its  paper-money,  at  the  rate  of  less  than 
two  shillings" in  the  pound  sterling!  In  others  of  the  colonies,  however,  by 
means  of  taxes  imposed  especially  for  that  purpose,  the  bills  were  actually  re- 
deemed at  or  before  the  time  specified  for  their  repayment. 

When  the  war  of  Independence  broke  out,  Congress  had  no  money,  and  as 
commerce  was  stopped,  the  people  had  no  means  of  procuring  cash  for  the 
payment  of  the  taxes.  Loans,  and  the  issue  of  bills  of  credit,  were  the  only 
means  by  which  the  necessity  of  the  period  could  be  met.  In  1775,  an  issue 
of  3,000,000  dollars  was  made.  For  a  twelvemonth  the  paper-money  con- 
tinued equal  to  gold  and  silver ;  but  in  two  years  it  fell  to  half  its  nominal 
value,  in  three  years  it  was  worth  a  quarter  only,  in  nine  months  more  it  fell 
to  a  tenth,  and  in  the  six  months  after  that,  or  by  September,  1779,  (when  the 
issues  had  reached  160,000,000  dollars,)  one  silver  dollar  was  worth  twenty  in 
paper.  And  this  happened  although  Congress  had  made  the  bills  a  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  private  debts ;  and  had  declared  that  a  refusal  of  them 
should  cancel  the  debt  itself.  The  amount  of  the  issue  was  soon  after- 
wards raised  to  two  hundred  millions,  which  it  was  resolved  should  not  be 
exceeded ;  and  in  1780  and  1781  the  circulation  of  the  bills  entirely  ceased, 
after  they  had  been  depreciated  to  the  prodigious  degree  of  a  thousand  for  one, 
in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  The  redemption  at  par,  under  circumstances 
like  these,  was  of  course  an  impossibility,  nor  have  any  been  redeemed,  ex- 
cept at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  for  one,  under  the  funding  system  afterwards 
established. 

But,  beside  this  amount,  another  two  hundred  millions  is  supposed  to  have 
been  issued  by  the  separate  States,  which,  like  the  Federal  bills,  really  repre- 
sented not  more  than  about  36,000,000  dollars.      There  were  also  the  loans. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  ffl\ 

Forty- three  or  forty-four  millions  of  dollars  had  been  borrowed  by  Congress  ;   chap. 

of  which  some  ten  millions  had  been  lent  by  Europe,  chiefly  by  the  govern — — 

ment  of  France;  and  the  separate  States  had  borrowed  about  twenty-five    to  mr. 
millions  in  addition.     The  cost  of  the  war  was  thus  about  one  hundred  and 
forty  millions  of  dollars,  or  seventeen  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  for  each 
year. 

The  interest  upon  the  federal  loan  had  to  be  paid  by  requisitions  on  the 
different  States  ;  but  owing  to  the  ravages  of  the  war,  the  interruption  of  trade, 
the  depreciation  of  the  currency,  and  other  causes,  those  requisitions  were 
very  imperfectly  met ;  and  arrears  were  continually  accumulating,  to  the  great 
embarrassment  of  all  financial  operations.  It  appears  that,  in  direct  taxes, 
about  thirty  millions  of  dollars  were  paid  by  the  States  in  the  course  of  the 
war;  but  no  way  remained,  except  new  loans,  foreign  and  domestic,  to 
make  up  the  constantly  growing  deficiency.  In  1781,  some  assistance  was 
obtained  by  the  establishment  of  the  "  Bank  of  North  America,"  with  the 
moderate  capital  of  400,000  dollars,  by  Robert  Morris,  the  indefatigable  finan- 
cier;  whose  exertions  in  procuring  and  dispensing  the  means  of  carrying  on 
the  contest,  and  in  putting  an  end  to  the  ruinous  system  of  issuing  paper- 
money  which  represented  no  value,  deserve  this  marked  notice ;  although  it 
is  impossible  to  speak  of  them  in  detail.  "We  shall  mention  this  Bank  at  a 
later  period  of  our  history. 

The  exact  bearing  of  the  paper-currency  upon  the  affairs  of  Congress,  is 
pointed  out  by  Jefferson  thus.  "  It  will  be  asked,  how  will  the  two  masses  of 
continental  and  of  State  money  have  cost  the  people  of  the  United  States 
seventy -two  millions  of  dollars,  when  they  are  to  be  redeemed  now  [1786] 
with  about  six  millions  ?  I  answer,  that  the  difference,  being  sixty-six  millions, 
has  been  lost  in  the  paper  bills,  separately,  by  the  successive  holders  of  them. 
Every  one  through  whose  hands  a  bill  passed,  lost  on  that  bill  what  it  lost  in 
value  during  the  time  it  was  in  his  hands.  This  was  a  real  tax  on  him ;  and 
in  this  way  the  people  of  the  United  States  actually  contributed  those  sixty- 
six  millions  of  dollars  during  the  war,  and  by  a  mode  of  taxation  the  most 
oppressive,  because  the  most  unequal  of  all." 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  those  who  had  the  means  would  be  sure  to  buy  up 
the  bills  of  credit, — and  they  were  frequently  sold  at  the  prodigious  deprecia- 
tion of  five  thousand  for  one, — and  hold  them  in  expectation  of  their  redemp- 
tion by  the  government.  These  and  other  public  creditors,  discovering  the 
course  which  the  financial  affairs  of  the  States  were  taking,  naturally  became 
clamorous  for  pay  ;  and  Congress  neither  had  the  means  of  satisfying  them, 
nor  could  obtain  them ; — being  unable,  as  we  have  seen,  to  get  the  different 
States  to  attend  to  its  requisitions  for  their  quotas  of  the  common  debt,  or  to 
obtain  permission  to  impose  duties  upon  imports.  And  the  paralysis  of  its 
energies  was  not  long  in  making  itself  felt  throughout  the  country,  by  the  en- 
hancement of  all  the  ills,  by  which  it  was  itself  ultimately  occasioned. 

We  must  yet  add  to  this  complication  of  sources  of  mischief,  the  effects  of 
that  clause  in  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  which  stipulated  for  the  recovery  of  debts 


Ill 

A.D-1  "S3 


592  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  by  creditors  on  either  side.  Much  more  was,  necessarily,  owing  to  the  Brit- 
ish than  by  them ;  and  the  interest  on  this  had  been  accumulating  during  the 
war.  This  was  especially  the  case  amongst  the  planters  of  the  Southern  States  ; 
who  deluded  themselves  into  the  belief  that  the  war  had  cancelled  these  ob- 
ligations ;  and  who  now  found  themselves  vigorously  prosecuted  in  the  courts 
of  justice,  whilst  they  had  no  means  of  satisfying  the  judgments  in  money. 
Laws  to  stop  proceedings,  or  to  authorize  tenders  of  personal  property,  at 
appraised  values,  in  satisfaction  of  all  claims,  were  passed  in  some  States. 
Others  issued  more  paper-money,  and  thus  added  to  their  own  and  to  the 
general  distress. 

Another  article  of  the  Treaty  had  provided  for  the  evacuation  of  all  forts, 
&c,  held  by  the  British  within  the  United  States'  territory  :  but  under  colour 
of  enforcing  the  payment  of  proven  debts,  certain  of  these  posts  were  not 
given  up,  and  the  popular  suspicion  and  irritation  was  naturally  excited. 
There  had  been  an  attempt  made  to  recover  damages  for  the  occupation  and 
injury  of  houses,  &c.  by  the  British  and  their  partisans  in  the  course  of  the 
war;  and  the  feeling  against  England  was  greatly  inflamed  by  the  verdict  of 
the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  declaring  these  proceedings  illegal,  because 
contrary  to  the  Treaty  of  Peace.  John  Adams  was  despatched  to  Great  Bri- 
tain in  1785,  for  the  purpose  of  settling  this  dispute  ;  but  he  was  not  able  to 
effect  any  thing.  Jefferson  at  Paris,  where  all  his  anti-English  fervour  was 
kept  in  a  glow  by  the  sympathy  of  the  leading  statesmen,  not  only  considered 
it  the  design  of  Britain  to  injure  the  American  fur  trade  by  the  retention  of 
the  western  forts ;  but  even  gave  willing  ear  to  the  quidnuncs,  who  discovered 
in  Mr.  Pitt's  secret  armaments  in  1787,  a  design  for  regaining  possession  of 
the  lost  colonies  by  a  coup-de-main,  delivered  with  the  entire  military  and 
naval  force  of  the  nation. 

We  have  quoted  Franklin's  letters,  to  illustrate  the  invincible  hopefulness 
which  animated  the  citizens  of  the  States  in  the  first  years  of  their  freedom, 
when  surrounded  by  such  discouraging  circumstances  as  have  been  described. 
One  of  the  enactments  of  Congress,  in  the  very  height  of  its  financial  difficul- 
ties, will  display  that  spirit  even  more  forcibly.  It  adopted  a  scheme  pro- 
posed by  Jefferson,  for  a  monetary  system  for  the  Confederation.  The  scheme, 
suggested  in  opposition  to  one  put  forward  by  Gouverneur  Morris,  (which 
was  too  complicated  to  be  easily  described,  and  being  rejected  needs  only  to  be 
mentioned  in  passing,)  took  for  its  unit  the  "  dollar,"  as  the  coin  most  familiar  to 
the  Americans  ;  which  was  to  be  in  silver.  Decreasing  in  decimal  ratio,  it  pro- 
posed another  silver  coin,  equal  to  the  tenth  of  a  dollar ;  and  a  copper  coin,  ■ 
equal  to  the  hundredth  of  a  dollar,  to  be  called  a  "cent;"  whilst  increasing 
in  the  same  ratio,  it  projected  a  gold  coin,  to  equal  the  value  of  ten  dollars. 
A  federal  mint  was  forthwith  set  up,  but  such  was  the  poverty  of  these  brave 
projectors,  that  only  a  few  tons  of  cents  were  struck.  During  the  period  we 
are  considering,  several  of  the  States  issued  copper  coins,  varying  greatly  in 
weight  and  in  their  devices ;  and  a  few  silver  coins  were  struck  at  Annapo- 
lis.    It  was  not  till  after  some  years  that  Jefferson's  system  was  completely 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  593 

introduced,  and  all  the  different  kinds  and  denominations  of  money  in  cir-   chap. 
culation  driven  out  by  the  authentic  coinage  of  the  Union.  ■ — 

The  unhappy  consequences  of  the  war,  in  the  stagnation  of  every  species  to  1*787. 
of  productive  industry,  were  most  keenly  felt  in  the  Northern  States ;  where 
a  greater  proportion  of  the  population  was  entirely  dependent  upon  the  manu- 
factures, the  fisheries,  and  the  trade,  which  have  been  already  described.  It 
was  there  that  the  severity  of  the  legal  proceedings  for  the  recovery  of  debts 
seems  to  have  reached  the  highest  point.  One  lawyer  alone  is  said  to  have 
instituted  a  hundred  actions  in  one  court,  at  the  same  time.  The  sufferers,  in 
consequence,  naturally  looked  upon  the  professional  men  with  the  greatest 
dislike,  and  in  time  came  to  regard  them  as  the  causes  of  their  distress. 

The  attempt  to  levy  Federal  and  State  taxes  in  Massachusetts  raised  the 
excitement  to  a  higher  pitch.  From  the  lawyers  the  popular  indignation  was 
transferred  to  the  courts.  In  several  counties  meetings  were  held  to  promote 
the  redress  of  what  were  imagined  to  be  public  grievances.  And,  in  addition 
to  the  merciless  proceedings  of  the  lawyers,  there  were  other  grounds  of  com- 
plaint invented  for  the  occasion, — the  constitution  of  the  senate  of  the  State, 
the  governor's  salary,  and  petty  local  annoyances  which  ambitious  and  dis- 
contented men  magnified  into  unbearable  wrongs.  Soon,  from  this  peaceable 
discussion,  the  people  went  on  to  riotous  interference  with  the  courts  ;  which 
in  many  places  were  prevented  from  sitting.  In  New  Hampshire  an  attempt 
to  force  the  legislature  of  the  State  was  made  by  an  armed  mob.  Various 
concessions  were  made  in  Massachusetts ;  but  the  agitation  was  too  general, 
and  the  real  causes  too  deep,  for  sucK  remedies  to  be  of  any  avail ;  and  when 
the  militia  were  called  out,  they  had  too  much  sympathy  with  the  rioters 
to  justify  the  placing  of  any  reliance  upon  them  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
peace. 

Congress  perceived  the  importance  of  immediate  action ;  and  having  voted 
the  enlistment  of  thirteen  hundred  men,  under  the  plea  of  keeping  the  Indians 
of  the  neighbourhood  of  the  great  lakes  in  check,  it  authorized  a  loan  for 
their  support,  and  made  a  special  requisition  to  meet  it.  For  one  Daniel 
Shays,  who  had  been  a  captain  in  the  continental  army,  at  the  head  of  some 
thousand  or  more  armed  men,  had  occupied  Worcester,  in  Massachusetts, 
and  prevented  the  sitting  of  the  supreme  judicial  court  there ;  and  then,  with 
a  band  of  about  three  hundred,  did  the  same  at  Springfield;  but  did  not 
attempt  to  seize  the  arms  in  the  arsenal  there,  which  General  Shepherd  held 
for  Congress.  This  was  at  the  very  end  of  the  year  1786,  and  the  weather 
was  unusually  severe.  Bowdoin,  the  governor  of  the  State,  therefore,  now  raised 
a  force  of  four  thousand  four  hundred  men,  to  serve  for  thirty  days,  and  put 
them  under  the  command  of  General  Lincoln,  a  man  in  every  respect  fitted 
for  such  a  trying  duty. 

From  Boston,  where  the  insurgents  were  expected  every  day,  and  the 
citizens  held  themselves  in  constant  readiness  to  repel  an  attack,  Lincoln, 
in  the  latter  part  of  January,  1787,  marched  by  "Worcester  upon  Springfield, 
against  which  the   rebels   were  now   directing  more  vigorous  movements. 

4  o 


594  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.   Shepherd  had  about  a  thousand  of  western  militia  under  him ;  and  Shays  had 

"—  been  reinforced  by  about  four  hundred  men  under  one  Luke  Day.     Having 

to  1*787.  heard  that  Lincoln  was  advancing.  Shays  resolved  to  attack  Shepherd  at  once, 
and  on  the  afternoon  of  January  the  25th  approached  his  position,  expecting 
to  be  supported  by  Day,  who  was  posted  on  the  opposite  side  of  Springfield. 
As  the  insurgents  came  within  range,  Shepherd  demanded  their  object,  and 
was  told  that  they  meant  to  get  possession  of  the  arsenal ;  he  then  threatened 
to  fire  upon  them  if  advanced  nearer,  and  was  answered  by  the  idle  brag, 
that  that  was  what  they  wanted.  Supposing  that  the  General  would  not 
resist  a  superior  force,  Shays  pushed  on,  and  Shepherd,  hoping  to  prevent 
bloodshed,  having  pointed  two  guns  at  them,  and  ordered  his  cannoniers  to 
aim  above  their  heads,  commanded  them  to  fire.  The  harmlessness  of  the 
discharge  emboldened  the  insurgents;  and  the  General  unwillingly  caused 
the  guns  to  be  discharged  directly  at  the  column,  which  was  now  rushing  upon 
his  line.  Immediately  the  cry  of  "  murder  "  rose  from  the  rear  of  the  rebels  ; 
and  leaving  three  dead  and  one  wounded,  they  broke  and  fled,  in  spite  of 
every  effort  made  by  Shays  to  display  his  column,  and  lead  them  to  the  charge  ; 
nor  could  he  rally  them  till  they  reached  Ludlow,  which  was  full  ten  miles 
from  the  scene  of  action. 

The  insurgents  were  next  day  strengthened  by  the  arrival  of  a  fresh  force 
of  about  four  hundred  men,  under  Eli  Parsons;  and  Shepherd  made  pro- 
vision for  repelling  the  attack,  which  he  did  not  doubt  Shays  would  renew, 
before  relief  could  arrive.  But  at  noon  on  the  27th,  Lincoln's  army  came  in 
sight,  and  he  was  in  a  position  to  take  up  the  offensive.  Before  the  early 
night-fall  of  the  season,  Lincoln,  crossing  the  river  on  the  ice,  had  attacked 
Day  and  driven  him  towards  Northampton,  whilst  Shepherd  had  interposed 
between  Day  and  Shays  ;  the  latter  of  whom  now  retreated  to  Amherst,  in  a 
deplorable  state  of  destitution.  Thence,  finding  himself  followed  by  Lincoln, 
he  further  retreated  to  Pelham  hills,  and  his  pursuers  diverged  to  Hadley, 
that  the  men  might  be  protected  from  the  severity  of  the  weather.  On  the 
30th,  Lincoln  opened  negociations  with  Shays  by  a  firm  but  humane  letter, 
offering  to  intercede  for  the  insurgents  with  the  general  court,  if  they  would 
lay  down  their  arms,  and  resume  their  allegiance  to  the  State.  Shays,  in 
reply,  begged  for  a  suspension  of  hostilities  till  he  could  receive  an  answer 
to  a  petition  he  had  forwarded  to  the  court ;  but  Lincoln  having  no  authority 
to  comply  with  such  a  request,  peremptorily  refused. 

On  receiving  Shays'  petition,  and  learning  the  movements  of  the  army  they 
had  despatched  against  the  insurgents,  the  general  court  officially  declared 
the  existence  of  a  rebellion.  This  was  on  the  4th  of  February;  and  at  the 
very  time  they  made  the  proclamation  the  rebellion  had  actually  been  crushed. 
For,  on  the  3rd,  Shays,  reduced  to  the  greatest  straits,  fearing  an  attack 
from  Lincoln,  retreated  from  Pelham  to  Petersham.  The  General,  although 
not  fully  informed  of  this  fact  till  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  by  eight  o'clock 
was  in  pursuit ;  and  in  spite  of  the  cold  and  the  darkness,  in  spite  of  a  driving 
snow-storm,  which  early  in  the  morning  added  to  the  difficulties  of  the  night 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  595 

march  of  more  than  thirty  miles,  across  a  thinly  settled  country,  he  reached   chap. 
Petersham  at  nine  in  the  morning.  '- — 

This  unparalleled  achievement  was  followed  by  the  success  it  deserved.  U  iw. 
Lincoln's  men  were  wearied  and  half-frozen,  and  his  rear  was  five  miles 
behind  his  front ;  whilst  the  insurgents  were  concentrated,  and  had  passed 
the  night  in  rest  and  under  shelter  ;  but  they  did  not  venture  even  to  defend 
themselves.  A  hundred  and  fifty  were  taken  in  the  first  moments  of  surprise  ; 
the  remainder  fled,  almost  without  a  shot,  and  took  refuge  in  New  Hampshire, 
New  York,  and  Vermont ;  and  this  threatening  insurrection  was  extinguished. 

After  the  defeat  of  one  or  two  predatory  incursions  of  the  refugees,  a  com- 
mission was  appointed  to  give,  under  specified  conditions,  indemnity  to  all 
concerned  in  the  rebellion.  Nearly  eight  hundred  persons  were  pardoned ; 
and  of  fourteen  who  were  sentenced  to  death,  some  were  pardoned,  some 
escaped,  and  one  had  his  sentence  commuted  for  imprisonment  with  hard 
labour.  This  was  the  first  political  offence  under  the  new  regime;  and  it 
was  a  happy  augury  for  the  future  of  the  United  States,  that  not  a  drop  of 
blood  was  shed  judicially  in  expiation  of  it.  It  was  afterwards  observed,  that 
the  year  which  opened  so  menacingly,  not  only  for  New  England,  but  for 
the  whole  country,  witnessed  both  the  complete  suppression  of  that  formida- 
ble rebellion;  and  also  such  a  revival  of  industry  in  the  Northern  States,  as 
inspired  the  hope  that  ere  long  the  commercial  and  financial  difficulties  of  the 
country  might  be  entirely  surmounted ; — and  further,  saw  the  framing  of  that 
New  Constitution,  which,  whatever  be  its  faults,  has  promoted  the  harmony 
of  the  constituent  parts  of  the  Union,  and  aided  the  development  of  the  almost 
boundless  resources  of  the  land,  beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  its 
makers  and  advocates. 

In  fact,  the  conviction  became  general,  that  one  fundamental  cause  of  the 
unhappy  condition  of  every  branch  of  public  affairs,  was  the  total  want  of 
power  in  the  federal  government.  In  1785  Washington  wrote  to  Jay : 
t€  Many  are  of  opinion,  that  Congress  have  too  frequently  made  use  of  the 
suppliant,  humble  tone  of  requisition  in  applications  to  the  States,  when  they 
had  a  right  to  assert  their  imperial  dignity  and  command  obedience.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  requisitions  are  a  perfect  nullity  where  thirteen  sovereign,  independ- 
ent, efos-united  States  are  in  the  habit  of  discussing  and  refusing  compliance 
with  them  at  their  option.  Requisitions  are  actually  little  better  than  a  jest 
and  a  by-word  throughout  the  land.  If  you  tell  the  legislatures  they  have 
violated  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  invaded  the  prerogatives  of  the  confederacy, 
they  will  laugh  in  your  face.  What  then  is  to  be  dove  ?  Things  cannot  go 
on  in  the  same  train  for  ever." 

This  was  now  the  question  ;  and  it  was  felt  to  be  one  of  intense  interest. 
Some  feared,  and  a  few  hoped,  that  the  confederation  might  be  dissolved ; 
and  the  consequences  of  such  a  catastrophe  it  is  not  difficult  to  tell.  Some 
— but  they  were  a  small  number  indeed — thought  that  a  monarchy  was  the 
only  solution  of  their  perplexity.  No  one  could  surmise  what  was  the  desire 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  ivere  in  each  instance  here — the  State ;  and 

4oi 


596  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  ha  p.  who,  as  the  actual  sufferers  by  every  theory,  were  entitled  to  be  beard  in 
their  own  behalf. 


A.  D. 1783 

to  1787.  It  has  been  related  how  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  perceiving  the  necessity 
of  some  revenue  for  the  federal  government,  and  believing  that  Congress 
ought  to  be  able  to  protect  the  commerce  of  the  Union,  and  that  a  "  Naviga- 
tion Law  "  would  effect  this, — appointed  commissioners,  and  invited  the  other 
States  to  do  the  same,  that  a  "meeting  might  be  held  "at  Annapolis  to  consider 
these  grave  subjects.  Delegates  were  named  by  eight  out  of  the  thirteen 
States,  and  those  of  five  appeared  at  the  time  (September,  1786)  and  place 
fixed.  The  scanty  number,  the  threatening  condition  of  affairs, — the  dis- 
turbances in  Massachusetts  having  just  commenced, — and  the  progress  of 
public  opinion,  which  now  regarded  the  constitutional  rather  than  the  com- 
mercial question  as  of  the  first  moment ;  induced  the  delegates  present  to 
recommend  all  the  States  to  send  delegates  to  Philadelphia  in  the  following 
May,  empowered  to  consider  and  revise  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation," 
for  the  purpose  of  adapting  them  (if  possible)  to  the  new  necessities  which 
had  arisen.  Congress  had  fallen  into  such  decay,  that  it  required  a  presi- 
dential election  and  other  formalities  to  organize  it  merely  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  this  proposal.  But  the  States  individually  took  it  up  so  carelessly,  that 
little  hope  of  its  being  assented  to  could  be  indulged.  It  happened,  however, 
that  the  tardy  and  conditional  assent  of  the  legislature  of  New  York  to  the 
recommendation  of  the  imposition  of  customs  by  the  federal  government  for 
imperial  purposes,  was  just  then  received;  and  it  was  demonstrated,  that 
without  some  change  in  the  relations  of  the  Central  and  State  legislatures, 
the  affairs  of  the  country  must  come  to  a  dead-lock ; — a  resolution  was  con- 
sequently passed  without  delay,  sanctioning  the  holding  of  the  proposed  con- 
vention, for  which  every  State,  except  Rhode  Island,  instantly  chose  delegates. 
In  the  next  book  we  shall  speak  at  large  of  the  steps  taken  to  organize  the 
settlements,  which  during  the  period  treated  of  in  this  chapter  arose  rapidly 
in  the  regions  west  of  the  Appalachian  mountains.  And  then  we  can  intro- 
duce such  notices  as  may  be  needful,  of  the  treaties  made  with  the  Indian 
tribes,  of  the  disputes  which  occurred  respecting  the  uncertain  boundaries 
of  the  several  States,  and  of  other  matters  tending  to  illustrate  the  position 
and  the  temper  of  the  Anglo-American  people  at  this  time.  But  we  shall 
allude  to  some  of  these  matters  in  the  following  chapter,  upon  the  constitu- 
tions and  charters  of  the  colonies,  and  to  others  in  those  upon  the  New  Con- 
stitution. Nothing  remains  to  be  mentioned  here,  save  the  proposal  which 
was  already  mooted,  to  obtain  a  grant  from  some  one  or  more  of  the  States, 
for  the  erection  of  a  federal  city ;  the  employment  of  fewer  than  a  thousand 
men  for  a  time  only,  as  a  "  peace-establishment,"  and  the  enlisting  of  some 
of  the  most  unsettled  of  the  citizen-soldiers  of  the  War  of  Independence,  for 
service  against  the  Indians  of  the  north-west  territory  ; — and  the  ecclesiastical 
movements  which  also  characterized  these  years ;  every  church  and  sect  which 
had  become  sufficiently  numerous,  now  diligently  arranging  its  affairs  so  as 
to  bring  them  into  harmony  with  the  new  state  of  things,  amidst  which  they 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  597 

had  to  maintain  themselves,  and  if  possible  to  work  and  thrive.     The  rela-   chap. 

tions-  of  the  legislatures  to  the  sects  and  churches  will  be  noticed  elsewhere.      : — 

And  now,  whilst  the  States  are  preparing  for  the  convention  that  is  to  enable  to  1787. 
them  to  realize  the  political  advantages  for  which  they  have  paid  so  costly  a 
price,  we  will  review  the  course  whereby,  both  individually  and  in  con- 
federations, they  have  gained  the  form  they  wear  at  the  time  which  our  narra- 
tive has  reached.  We  shall  then  be  the  better  prepared  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  the  controversy  awakened  by  that  convention,  and  to  perceive  the 
true  characteristics  of  the  constitution  which  it  framed ;  and  so  to  understand 
more  thoroughly  the  secret  of  the  progress  of  the  Union  hitherto,  and  the 
most  essential  conditions  of  its  continued  existence  and  prosperity. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  CONSTITUTIONAL   HISTORY    OP  THE   COLONIES,   AND   THEIR    DEVELOPMENT  INTO   8TATE8.—  THE 
GROWTH   OP  THE  FEDERAL   UNION.— THE  FIRST  ARTICLES   OF   CONFEDERATION. 

The  historical  sketch  which  we  are  about  to  give,  is  needful  for  the  correct  chap. 

understanding  of  the  controversies  and  the  contests  occasioned  by  the  con- 1 — 

struction  and  the  establishment  of  the  New  Constitution,  and  also  more  to  mi. 
especially  for  the  explanation  of  the  forms  of  government  adopted  by  the 
several  States,  and  of  their  connexion  with  each  other,  both  social  and  federal, 
down  to  the  present  day.  Judge  Story  says,  "  In  examining  the  constitution, 
the  antecedent  situation  of  the  country  and  its  institutions,  the  existence  and 
separation  of  the  State  governments,  the  powers  and  operation  of  the  confeder- 
ation,— in  short,  all  the  circumstances  which  had  a  tendency  to  produce  or 
to  obstruct  its  formation  and  ratification,  deserve  a  careful  attention."  For  by 
this  means  only  can  we  gain  a  point  of  view  which  will  place  us  above  the 
influence  of  the  highly  refractory  medium  of  party-spirit  through  which  these 
questions  are  too  commonly  viewed,  and  whence  we  can  discern  the  varied 
relations  and  analogies  between  the  polity  of  the  United  States  and  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  European  nations,  which  preceded  it  in  order  of  time,  and 
even  of  lineage  too.  At  the  same  time,  much  additional  light  will  be  thrown 
upon  the  origin  of  the  struggle,  which  ended  in  the  recognition  of  the  British 
colonies  in  America,  as  an  independent  republic,  by  Great  Britain  herself. 

The  constitutional  history  of  the  United  States  consists  of  two  perfectly 
distinct  portions.  The  first  relates  to  the  States  individually,  and  traces 
their  progress  from  their  earliest  recognised  connexion  (as  colonies)  with  the 
government  of  Great  Britain,  to  their  self-conversion  into  independent  and 
sovereign  States,  and  thence  onwards  through  whatever  modifications  time 


598  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  and  experience  have  suggested  in  their  governments.     The  other  relates  to 
^—  the  Union  only,  and  shows  how  it  sprang  from  the  necessities  of  the  times, 

to  lVsi.  and  by  reason  of  them  grew  broader  and  firmer;  and  in  spite  of  opposition 
arising  from  faction  or  from  misapprehension,  remains  at  once  the  symbol  and 
the  instrument  of  strength,  which  but  for  it  would  exist  in  theory  alone ;  and 
the  essential  condition  of  the  standing  of  America  amongst  the  powers  of  the 
world. 

The  general  relation  of  the  thirteen  colonies  to  the  mother-country  is  very 
plain.  The  ground  upon  which  England  laid  claim  to  the  Atlantic  region 
of  America  was  priority  of  discovery.  No  notice  was  taken  of  any  rights 
possessed  by  the  aborigines,  and  the  colonists  came  as  Englishmen,  and  in 
consequence  brought  with  them  (as  the  lawyers  say)  "  the  whole  of  the  com- 
mon law  of  England,"  which  was  applicable  to  their  situation.  Of  course  it 
would  be  left  to  circumstances  to  determine  what  was  applicable,  and  what 
was  not,  as  must  be  the  case  with  all  human  legislation.  But  no  doubt  ever 
existed  in  the  minds  of  the  settlers, — nor  was  any  propounded  by  the  imperial 
legislature,  until  it  was  convenient  to  have  such  a  doubt  to  fall  back  upon, — 
that  they  were,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  British  subjects. 

It  is  of  some  moment  to  notice  this,  because  it  has  been  impugned  by  high 
authority ;  the  pretence  that  the  colonies  were  obtained  by  conquest  being 
often  set  up,  for  the  sake  of  enhancing  the  power  of  the  crown  in  them.  In  these 
cases  the  charters  were  represented  as  concessions  from  the  king's  grace  alone. 
Locke  seems  thus  to  have  regarded  Carolina.  The  councillors  of  William 
III.  on  this  ground  encouraged  him  in  attempting  a  tyranny  over  them.  And 
slavery  was  by  the  imperial  judges  allowed  in  the  colonies,  although  they 
pronounced  it  unlawful  in  England.  It  should  be  noticed  also,  because  from 
this  standing-point  alone  can  any  consistent  and  correct  view  of  the  existing 
constitutions  of  the  Union  and  of  the  States  be  obtained. 

The  governments  by  which  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  colonies  were  ad- 
ministered, were  not  all  of  the  same  character ;  for,  it  must  be  remembered, 
at  the  time  of  the  revolution  each  one  of  the  thirteen  colonies  had  a  govern- 
ment of  its  own.  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Virginia,  North 
and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  were  crown  provinces;  and  were  under 
a  governor  appointed  by  the  sovereign,  who  acted  as  his  representative,  and 
was  assisted  by  a  council,  also  nominated  by  the  crown.  Maryland,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Delaware  were  under  proprietary  governments,  the  proprietaries 
enjoying,  by  royal  grant,  Palatine  jurisdiction ;  and  exercising  it  through 
a  governor  nominated  by  themselves.  In  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  it  was 
expressly  stipulated  that  the  laws  were  to  be  framed  and  executed  under  the 
supervision  and  control  of  the  crown ;  but  Maryland  was  free  from  this  mark 
of  subjection.  The  other  States,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connec- 
ticut, had  charter  governments ;  not  entirely  alike,  but  agreeing  in  this,  that 
the  powers  of  legislation,  taxation,  &c,  were  exercised  in  conformity  with  the 
provisions  of  charters,  granted  by  the  sovereign ;  but  in  dependence  upon, 
and  subjection  to,  the  realm  of  England.     The  governor  in  Massachusetts 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  599 

was  appointed  by  the  crown  ;  but  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  elected  their   chap. 

own;  as  well  as  the  council  acting  with  them.     It  was  required  that,  under ' — 

both  charter  and  proprietary  governments,  the  governors  should  be  approved  to  iVsi. 
by  the  crown ;  but  it  was  seldom  that  this  sanction  was  sought,  and  it  was 
evidently  intended  as  a  check  to  be  enforced  only  when  a  decidedly  objection- 
able appointment  to  an  office  of  such  influence  was  made.  In  all  the  colonies, 
under  one  name  or  another,  one  branch  of  the  legislature  consisted  of  an 
assembly  of  representatives  of  the  people,  freely  chosen,  and  possessing  at 
least  a  negative  upon  all  laws. 

"We  may  further  observe,  that  these  colonies  were  absolutely  independent 
of  each  other,  as  to  all  matters  of  domestic  government ;  yet,  that  the  people 
so  completely  realized  their  common  relation  to  the  mother-country,  that  any 
colonist  might  without  any  impediment  migrate  to  another  colony,  and  in- 
herit real  estate  in  it,  as  freely  as  in  the  one  he  resided  in.  They  also  were 
immediately  subject  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain;  appeals  from  their 
highest  courts  being  made  directly  to  the  king  in  council.  The  authority  of 
Acts  of  Parliament  was  an  obscure  and  disputed  question,  sometimes  conceded, 
more  frequently  resisted ;  it  was  unwisely  pressed,  and  finally  settled  by  the 
loss  of  the  whole  of  the  colonies.  The  interpretation  of  the  common  law, 
which  has  been  spoken  of,  being  part  of  the  domestic  government  of  each 
colony,  presented,  says  Story,  "  neither  a  general  symmetry  of  design,  nor  a 
unity  of  execution  ; "  and  was,  in  fact,  in  no  two  colonies  exactly  the  same. 
The  extent  of  the  royal  power  was  at  times  in  question;  but  until  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independence,  was  never  denied.  These  and  other  points  of  interest 
will  appear  in  the  following  paragraphs. 

Virginia  was  the  earliest  colonial  government  established  in  English 
America.  In  1606,  a  charter  was  granted  by  James  I.  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates, 
and  others ;  making  over  the  territory  on  the  coast,  reaching  from  34°  to 
45°  N.  Lat.  Two  companies  colonized  it ;  the  London  company  taking  the 
southern  portion,  and  the  Plymouth  company  the  northern.  Each  colony 
was  under  special  "  instructions,"  governed  by  a  council  of  seven,  named  by 
the  king,  who  were  to  choose  a  president  amongst  themselves.  In  1609,  the 
southern  colony,  Virginia  proper,  received  another  charter ;  vesting  its 
government  in  the  council  of  the  company  at  London,  and  a  governor 
appointed  by  it.  During  the  administration  of  Captain  Argall,  vice-governor 
in  1617,  the  company  appointed  a  council  to  act  as  a  check  upon  him;  and 
his  successor  Sir  George  Yeardley,  in  1619,  summoned  deputies  from  the 
plantations  composing  the  colony,  as  a  colonial  assembly.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  Anglo-American  liberty ;  the  house  of  burgesses  of  Virginia  holds 
this  place  in  the  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States. 

Under  that  admirable  proficient  in  "king-craft,"  the  first  king  of  the 
Stuart  line,  it  could  not  be  that  such  a  measure  should  be  regarded  with 
favour.  Advantage  was  taken  of  a  disastrous  war  with  the  Indians,  to 
appoint  a  commission  of  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  afTairs  of  the  colony ; 
and  in  the  end,  in  1624,  the  charter  was  declared  to  be  forfeited,  and  the 


600  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    government  lapsed  to  the  crown ;  by  whom  a  governor  and  twelve  councillors 

■ —  were  nominated,  for  the  entire  direction  of  the  affairs  of  the  province.     From 

to  mi.  Charles  I.  no  relief  was  to  be  expected.  "  During  the  greater  part  of  his 
reign,  Virginia  knew  no  other  law  than  the  will  of  the  sovereign,  or  his 
delegated  agents ;  and  statutes  were  passed  and  taxes  imposed,  without  the 
slightest  effort  to  convene  a  colonial  assembly." 

But  the  same  spirit  that  was  at  work  at  home,  had  been  roused  in  the 
breasts  of  the  colonists.  After  a  temperate  but  firm  resistance  of  the  governor, 
they  demanded  redress  from  the  crown ;  and  after  some  delay  Charles  was 
fain  to  conciliate  them,  by  sending  Sir  William  Berkeley  as  governor,  with 
power  and  instructions  to  take  whatever  steps  might  be  requisite  for  the 
peace  and  the  security  of  the  province.  Under  him  the  old  form  of  govern- 
ment, by  governor,  council,  and  general  assembly,  was  restored ;  and  such 
wise  measures  were  adopted,  as  secured  the  rights  of  the  colonists,  and 
nurtured  in  them  the  spirit  of  freedom.  They  hailed  the  opening  of  the 
Long  Parliament  with  satisfaction ;  and  vigorously  resisted  an  attempt 
made  by  the  old  company  to  regain  its  power.  It  was  but  natural  that  they 
should  side  with  the  king  against  the  nation  when  the  civil  war  began ;  their 
aristocratic  origin  and  their  restored  rights  being  considered.  And  quite  as 
natural  was  it,  that  the  colony  should  capitulate  to  Sir  George  Ayscough^ 
in  1652 ;  and  after  a  succession  of  Puritan  governors  and  assemblies,  chosen 
biennially,  should  with  the  "  blessed  restoration  "  of  Charles  II.  restore  its 
old  governor,  Berkeley,  with  his  old  permanent  assembly,  and  thrive  under 
his  administration. 

No  change  was  made  in  the  government  of  Virginia  after  that  event. 
The  wealthy  planters,  who  grew  tobacco  for  half  the  world,  once,  in  1705, 
fancied  that  they  ought  to  possess  rather  more  extensive  privileges ;  but  they 
quickly  perceived,  that  there  was  the  risk  to  be  encountered  of  losing  what 
they  already  had,  or  of  being  compelled  to  share  their  larger  acquisitions 
with  those  who  should  aid  in  making  them;  wherefore,  they  wisely  drew 
back,  and  remained  a  royal  province  till  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution.  Re- 
peated revisions  of  the  code  of  laws  are  recorded ;  but  the  enactments  relating 
to  two  subjects  only  are  of  concern  to  us  here,  from  their  relation  to  matters 
subsequent  to  the  revolution. 

Simultaneously  with  the  establishment  of  a  government  of  Virginia,  the 
Church  of  England  had  been  "  established;"  and  by  laws  dated  1624,  1632, 
and  1643,  its  power  had  been  enhanced,  and  the  disqualifications  of  dissidents 
increased.  Under  Mathews,  one  of  the  commonwealth  governors,  about 
1657,  Presbyterianism  supplanted  Episcopacy  ;  but  in  1662,  Anglicanism  was 
reinstated  with  additional  honours  and  power.  In  1698,  in  conformity  with 
the  Toleration  Laws  of  Great  Britain,  the  rigid  ecclesiastical  rule  of  the  colony 
was  a  little  relaxed;  but  it  was  long  ere  much  advantage  was  taken  of  the 
grace  accorded  to  Nonconformists ;  and  not  till  the  dawn  of  the  new  era  was 
religious  freedom  settled  here. 

The  course  of  personal  freedom  (as  it  regards  the  African  race)  was  the  exact 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  601 

reverse  of  this.    In  1620,  the  first  negro  slaves  were  brought  into  this  colony ;  chap. 

by  various  enactments,  in  1662,  1667,  1682,  and  1705,  it  was  definitively  de — 

termined  that  the  offspring  of  female  slaves,  whether  legitimate  or  not,  should  to  mi. 
be  born  into  bondage  ;  and  that  although  they  were  Christians,  men  might  be 
held  as  slaves,  if  they  were  not  brought  from  a  "  Christian  country."  In  1705, 
also,  slaves  were  declared  "  real  estate."  Restrictions  upon  manumissions 
were  enacted  in  1724 ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  settled  that  freeholders, 
if  "men  of  colour,"  should  not  vote  at  elections.  There  was  a  standing  duty 
of  5  per  cent,  on  every  slave  imported ;  to  defray  the  expenses  of  an  Indian 
war,  it  was  once  raised  to  20  per  cent. ,  and  when  that  was  complained  of,  it 
was  lowered  one  half  only.  This  series  of  laws  is  worthy  of  especial  attention 
in  connexion  with  the  main  question  before  us ;  and  the  remarkable  retro- 
gression of  opinion  and  of  law  in  this  solitary  subject,  deserves  to  be  strongly 
marked,  in  our  collection  of  facts  for  the  estimate  of  the  progress  of  the  United 
States,  from  subjection  to  independence. 

The  Plymouth  company,  which  attempted  the  colonization  of  the  northern 
part  of  Virginia,  under  the  charter  of  1606,  already  spoken  of,  met  with 
a  succession  of  most  discouraging  reverses ;  and  the  jealousy  of  the  London 
company  prevented  them  from  obtaining  a  separate  charter,  until  late  in 
1620,  when  they  received  the  "  Great  Patent."  There  was,  however,  so  great 
a  difference  between  the  region  they  had  undertaken  to  plant,  and  the  "  Do- 
minion "  of  Virginia,  that  although  they  had  called  it  New  England,  no  set- 
tlers of  sufficient  resolution  to  bear  the  "  harsh  but  salubrious  climate  "  were 
attracted. 

Conscience  at  length  effected  what  no  other  motive  was  able  to  accomplish. 
Setting  forth  with  a  patent  from  the  Virginia  company  of  London,  the  crew 
of  the  Mayflower,  in  the  very  end  of  1620,  (the  year  in  which  slavery  was  in- 
troduced into  Virginia,)  set  foot  on  the  rock  at  New  Plymouth ;  having,  be- 
fore their  landing,  drawn  up  and  signed  a  compact,  which  was  in  fact  a  politi- 
cal constitution  ;  for  they  discovered  that  they  had  reached  a  part  of  the 
continent  over  which  the  company,  whose  patent  they  brought  with  them, 
had  no  power.  This  remarkable  polity  was,  in  its  very  essence,  a  pure  de- 
mocracy; characterized,  however,  by  one  feature,  as  incongruous  as  that 
modification  of  the  constitution  of  the  southern  province,  by  which  freeholders 
who  happened  to  be  men  of  colour  were  excluded  from  the  exercise  of  the 
franchise ; — it  gave  the  supreme  legislative  power  to  the  adult  male  inhabit- 
ants of  the  settlement,  who  were  members  of  Christian  churches.  But  to 
this  point  we  must  return  in  a  subsequent  paragraph.  A  governor  was  ap- 
pointed annually  by  their  votes,  and  he  was  assisted  by  a  council  which  was 
eventually  increased  to  seven,  chosen  in  the  same  way. 

In  1621,  a  patent  from  the  council  for  New  England  was  obtained ;  but  it 
was  found  unsatisfactory.  They  needed  "  some  general  authority,  derived 
directly  or  indirectly  from  the  crown,  which  should  recognise  their  settlement, 
and  confirm  their  legislation."  For  though  they  did  not  yet  number  three 
hundred,  they  felt  assured  of  the  permanent  possession  of  the  land.     In  the 

4  11 


602 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 


chap,  beginning  of  1629,  the  Plymouth  company,  under  the  "  Great  Patent"  of 

'—  James,  gave  them  a  new  patent ;  which  although  never  confirmed  by  the 

toi78i.  sovereign,  enabled  them  to  exercise  "the  most  plenary  executive,  legislative, 
and  judicial  powers,  with  but  a  momentary  scruple  as  to  their  right  to  inflict 
capital  punishments." 

"  They  were  not  disturbed,"  continues  Dr.  Story,  "  in  the  free  exercise  of 
these  powers,  either  through  the  ignorance  or  the  connivance  of  the  crown, 
until  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  Their  authority  under  their  charter 
was  then  questioned ;  and  several  unsuccessful  attempts  were  made  to  procure 
a  confirmation  from  the  crown.  They  continued  to  cling  to  it,  until,  in  the 
general  shipwreck  of  charters  in  1684,  theirs  was  overturned.  An  arbitrary 
government  was  then  established  over  them,  in  common  with  the  other  New 
England  colonies ;  and  they  were  finally  incorporated  into  a  province  with 
Massachusetts,  under  the  charter  granted  to  the  latter,  by  William  and  Mary, 
in  1691." 

Postponing  till  we  have  related  the  history  of  the  constitutions  of  the  other 
colonies,  included  under  the  general  name  of  New  England,  some  remarks 
upon  matters  affecting  them  in  common,  we  proceed  to  Massachusetts.  This 
colony  also  originated  with  exiles  from  England  for  conscience'  sake.  The 
New  England  council,  urged  by  a  Puritan  minister  named  White,  in  1627, 
granted  to  a  small  company  a  tract  of  land  supposed  to  stretch  from  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  those  of  the  western  main ;  and  bounded  between 
two  parallel  lines,  the  one  drawn  three  miles  north  of  any  part  of  the  Merri- 
mack river,  and  the  other  three  miles  south  of  Charles  river.  And  a  year 
afterwards  a  charter  was  obtained  from  the  king.  By  this  instrument  a  cor- 
poration, entitled  "  The  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in 
New  England,"  was  erected ;  and  the  control  of  all  its  affairs  intrusted  to  a 
governor,  a  deputy,  and  eighteen  assistants,  all  of  them,  in  the  first  instance, 
named  by  the  crown  ;  but  afterwards  to  be  chosen  annually  by  the  company. 
Monthly,  quarterly,  and  yearly  assemblies  of  the  government  and  free-men 
(or  stock-holders)  were  to  be  held  for  legislative  and  other  purposes,  but  the 
colonists  had  no  voice  in  the  matter ;  their  rights  as  Englishmen  alone  were 
guaranteed  ;  and  the  only  restrictive  proviso  inserted  was,  that  the  company's 
enactments  should  not  be  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England. 

The  aspect  of  the  undertaking  was  that  of  a  trading  company  purely,  but 
the  real  purpose  was  religious,  or  rather  ecclesiastical;  as  will  be  shown 
afterwards.  Before  a  year  and  a  half  had  passed,  in  1630,  the  shareholders 
were  persuaded  to  allow  the  transfer  of  "the  government  and  the  patent" 
from  Plymouth  to  New  England ;  although  such  a  step  was  by  no  means 
contemplated  by  the  charter.  The  colony  was  now,  in  effect,  autonomous, 
and  various  alterations  in  its  polity  were  made ;  but  chiefly,  or  solely,  as  the 
necessity  for  them  seemed  to  occur.  The  first  was  the  extension  of  the 
powers  of  the  free-men,  (which  had  been  at  first  much  narrowed,)  by  the  in- 
troduction of  a  representative  branch  into  the  legislature  :   and  others  followed. 

But  the  colonists  did  not  give  up  their  charter,  nor  regard  it  as  voided  by 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  603 

the  changes  that  had  been  introduced.     They  relied  upon  it  as  their  shield   chap. 

against  the   attempts  made  upon  them,  during  the  efforts  of  Charles  I.  to  '. — 

establish  himself  as  an  absolute  monarch,  and  during  the  contest  with  mono-  to  mi. 
polies,  which  the  parliament  carried  on.  The-  New  England  council  first 
actually,  and  afterwards  formally,  gave  up  their  "Great  Patent;"  and  the 
English  shareholders  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  were  by  legal  process 
disfranchised;  which  rendered  the  colony  independent  in  every  respect, 
except  its  implied  allegiance  to  the  king.  James  II  procured  the  surrender 
of  this  charter  in  1684 ;  and  the  colonists  were  governed  by  royal  agents  in- 
vested with  arbitrary  power,  till  1691.  William  and  Mary  then  granted  to 
Massachusetts  a  second  charter ;  which  reserving  to  the  crown  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  governor  and  all  the  chief  officers  of  the  province,  settled  the 
legislative  authority  of  the  general  court  of  the  annually  chosen  representatives 
of  the  freeholders ;  and  depriving  the  colony  of  its  former  fiercely  exercised 
and  unchartered  self-government,  secured  to  it  such  a  substantial  and  respon- 
sible freedom,  as  proved  an  admirable  pupilage  to  the  estate  of  sovereign  in- 
dependence, which  succeeded. 

The  varying  extent  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  will  appear  from 
what  is  said  respecting  other  colonies ;  the  necessity  for  noticing  it  arises  from 
the  boundary  disputes,  and  treaties,  which  have  been  already  mentioned,  or 
will  be  subsequently. 

New  Hampshire  was  settled  and  governed  from  1629  to  1641,  by  authority 
given  by  the  New  England  council  to  Captain  John  Mason.  In  the  latter  of 
those  years,  the  original  grant  not  having  been  confirmed  by  the  crown  after 
the  termination  of  the  power  of  the  council,  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
compelled  its  towns  to  a  voluntary  submission  to  its  jurisdiction,  and  for 
nearly  forty  years  it  formed  part  of  that  colony.  The  privy  council,  urged 
by  Mason,  in  1679,  decided  against  the  claim  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  as  Mason 
had  no  patent  for  the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  government,  they  were  assumed 
by  the  king ;  who  vested  the  executive  power  in  a  president  and  council  of 
his  own  appointment ;  and  for  the  legislature,  added,  for  "  so  long  as  he 
might  find  it  convenient,"  (a  phrase  very  variously  interpreted,)  a  house  of 
burgesses,  whose  statutes  were  to  be  submitted  to  himself  for  final  author- 
ization. 

By  James  II.  it  was  joined  to  Massachusetts  and  other  provinces  of  New 
England.  In  1689  the  union  with  Massachusetts  alone  was  revived,  and 
continued  till  1692 ;  when,  contrary  to  the  desire  of  its  towns,  it  was  once 
more  made  a  crown  province.  From  1699  to  1702  it  was  joined  with  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York  in  one  government;  and  from  that  time  to  1741,  it 
was  under  the  same  governor  as  Massachusetts,  although  its  affairs  were 
administered  by  a  lieutenant-governor.  The  franchise  was  regulated  by  an 
act  of  the  assembly  in  1727  ;  which  also  fixed  the  property  qualification  for 
the  representatives,  and  the  term  of  the  duration  of  the  assemblies.  And  in 
spite  of  the  influences  which  had  been  exerted  upon  it,  its  constitutional 
progress  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact,  that  Governor  Wentworth,  about  1750, 

4  h  2 


604  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


k  p-  hoping  to  establish  there  the  rights  of  the  crown,  discovered  that  its  long-con 


IV. 

■    _  ia<M.  tinued  connexion  with  Massachusetts  had  resulted  in  its  assuming  the  same 

A.  I).  1606  t  a 

to  i7Gi.    form  of  government  as  that  of  the  chief  of  the  New  England  colonies. 

The  history  of  Maine  is  not  much  unlike  that  of  New  Hampshire ;  and 
although  it  was  not  erected  into  a  State  until  a  comparatively  late  period, 
it  may  be  noticed  here.  Granted  by  the  council  at  Plymouth  to  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges,  it  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  province  under  his  jurisdiction  as  Lord 
Palatine,  in  1639.  The  freeholders  had  in  name,  by  their  representatives,  and 
concurrently  with  the  Palatine,  the  power  of  legislation,  and  the  people  were 
secured  in  possession  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  English  subjects.  But  in 
1652  it  was  claimed  by  Massachusetts,  and  brought  under  its  government;-  and 
with  one  very  short  interval,  it  remained,  till  admitted  to  the  Union  as  an  in- 
dependent State,  a  district  of  the  province;  which  purchased  the  title  in 
1677 ;  and  with  which  it  was  incorporated  by  charter  in  1691. 

Unlike  the  other  principal  province  of  New  England,  Connecticut  was 
begun  by  a  right  aristocratic  confederation.  There  were,  however,  settlers 
of  another  grain  upon  the  spot,  before  possession  was  taken,  under  grants 
from  the  council  at  Plymouth ;  and  they  were  suffered  to  remain.  This 
happened  between  1630  and  1635.  The  settlers  hoping  to  have  some  frame 
of  government  devised  for  them  by  the  lords  proprietors,  waited  till  1638  ; 
and  then  suspecting  the  ambition  of  Massachusetts,  they  adopted  a  written 
constitution,  not  widely  different  from  that  of  the  older  colony.  In  that  same 
year  another  settlement  was  made  in  this  region,  at  New  Haven,  by  the 
purchase  of  land  from  the  red  men,  and  by  a  voluntary  compact  concerning 
government;  but  holding  no  title  from  the  patentees. 

In  1644  the  colonists  extinguished  the  title  of  the  proprietaries;  and  in 
1662  they  obtained  from  Charles  II.  a  charter,  bestowing  upon  them  very 
ample  privileges,  and  adding  to  their  former  territory  that  of  New  Haven. 
As  this  was  done  without  the  consent  of  the  lesser  colony,  the  incorporation 
was  resisted  till  1665,  when  the  charter  was  accepted,  and  the  two  have  ever 
since  been  indissolubly  united. 

The  governor  and  other  officers,  except  in  the  first  instance,  were  to  be 
nominated  by  the  free-men,  or  rather  free  proprietors  ;  and  representatives 
elected  by  the  same  body,  with  the  officers,  exercised  the  legislative  power. 
The  sole  restrictions  were  the  requirement  of  conformity  in  its  laws  to  those  of 
England,  and  the  vague  obligations  of  allegiance  to  the  crown  and  submission 
to  parliament. 

This  charter  was  not  surrendered  when  James  II.  issued  his  quo  warranto ; 
but  the  government  was  not  the  less  dissolved,  in  1687.  Immediately  after 
the  English  revolution  of  1688,  the  free-men  resumed  the  exercise  of  all  their 
powers  under  the  charter ;  and  were  not  interfered  with  till  the  contest  with 
the  British  parliament  commenced. 

Rhode  Island  is  the  last  of  the  New  England  colonies.  This  territory  was 
first  settled  in  1636,  and  1638,  by  distinct  bodies  of  fugitives  from  the  perse- 
cution in  Massachusetts,  constituting  the  very  "  dissidence  of  dissent "  in  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  605 

New  World.     (c  They  entered  into   separate  voluntary  associations  of  go-  chap. 
vernment;"    but    afterwards,  finding   themselves    too    feeble    to  resist   the 


IV. 


power  of  their  merciless  metropolis,  thus  disunited,  they  obtained,  in  1643  and  to  iVsi. 
1644,  by  the  agency  of  Roger  Williams,  charters  of  incorporation,  from  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  and  from  the  Long  Parliament ;  conceding  to  them  almost 
absolute  self-government,  the  proviso  respecting  consistency  with  the  laws  of 
England  being  the  sole  exception.  Massachusetts  did  not  give  up  the  hope 
of  coercing  her  recusant  and  independent  offspring;  and  in  1651,  by  means 
of  the  English  council  of  state,  threatened  the  dismemberment  of  the  con- 
federated province ;  a  threat  which  was  not  suffered  to  be  executed. 

At  the  Restoration,  in  1663,  a  new  charter  was  obtained,  which  in  its  chief 
features  exactly  resembled  that  granted  to  Connecticut;  being  of  an  ex- 
ceedingly democratic  complexion.  By  surrendering  this  the  colony  hoped,  in 
1686,  to  mitigate  the  destructive  wrath  of  James  II.,  but  in  vain ;  yet  though 
the  government  was  overturned,  immediately  after  the  "  glorious  Revolution  '» 
it  was  restored,  and  the  act  of  surrender  cancelled.  After  that,  only  a  few 
interferences  on  the  part  of  its  powerful  neighbours  diversified  the  history  of 
Rhode  Island  constitution,  in  the  period  we  now  treat  of. 

Far  more  than  their  political  constitutions,  the  ecclesiastical  systems  of  the 
most  distinguished  colonies  of  New  England  require  particular  notice ;  for 
they  were  the  basis  of  the  polities,  which  we  have  sketched  in  their  secular 
aspects  alone.  We  must  exclude,  however,  from  this  category, — Maine,  in 
which,  so  long  as  it  rejoiced  in  the  honours  of  a  province  Palatine,  the  Church 
of  England  was  dominant ;  whilst  afterwards  it  followed  the  rule  of  Massachu- 
setts ; — New  Hampshire,  which  also,  when  annexed  to  Massachusetts,  was 
subject  to  its  church-organization;  and  wherein,  according  to  Judge  Story, 
under  the  government  of  1679,  "liberty  of  conscience  was  allowed  to  all  Pro- 
testants, those  of  the  Church  of  England  to  be  particularly  encouraged ;  " 
whilst  we  nevertheless  find  that,  in  1729,  concessions,  and  those  not  very  liber- 
al, were  made  to  Episcopalians  by  the  Congregationalists,  who  were,  on  the 
eve  of  the  Revolution,  the  established  religionists  of  the  colony ; — and  Rhode 
Island,  which  deserves  and  must  have  distinct  mention,  after  the  other  pro- 
vinces have  been  dismissed. 

To  understand  this  element  in  the  constitutions  of  these  four  settlements, 
New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, — 
without  which  much  of  the  History  of  the  United  States,  and  of  their  actual 
condition  now,  cannot  but  prove  entirely  incomprehensible, — we  must  glance 
at  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  they  were  framed,  and  of  the  men  who  con- 
structed them. 

We  must  altogether  dismiss  from  our  minds  the  Erastian  and  political 
theories  of  state  churches,  which  have  been  invented  by  men  of  a  philosophic 
and  speculative  habit  of  mind,  and  in  later  times,  to  justify,  or  to  account  for, 
the  deeds  of  years  by-gone,  and  of  men  of  earnestness  and  action.  We  must 
not  refer  to  the  principles  upon  which  the  Lutherans  in  Germany  and  the 
Episcopalians   in  England,  acted,  in  their  diverse  Reformations, — rejecting 


A.  D. 1606 
to  1781. 


606  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  from  the  existing  institutions  what  they  held  to  be  not  proven  by  holy  writ, 
and  retaining  whatever  of  them  was  required  by  "  the  powers  that  were,"  as 
the  condition  of  the  exercise  of  their  authority  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
forms  of  faith  and  government,  which  resulted  from  those  remarkable  compro- 
mises. For  the  origin  and  ground  of  the  New  England  church  establish- 
ments were  totally  different,  and  can  only  be  misconceived  if  studied  by  the 
help  of  such  instances  and  hypotheses.  The  most  completely  illustrative 
parallel  which  could  be  found,  would  be  (marvellous  to  say !)  the  Church  of 
Rome ;  but  that  is  so  deeply  overlaid  with  matters  of  various  kinds, — concre- 
tions of  age,  disguises  for  special  and  not  always  worthy  ends,  &c, — that  it 
would  require  more  space  than  we  can  give  to  an  illustration,  to  display  it  in 
the  simplicity  of  its  fundamental  ideas ;  yet  it  may  be  borne  in  mind  advan- 
tageously. 

In  the  earlier  and  middle  parts  of  the  seventeenth  century,  there  were  very 
few  indeed  who  had  even  perceived  this  great  truth, — that  every  man  must, 
and  can,  fulfil  his  relations  to  God  for  himself  alone  ; — and  scarcely  had  one 
or  two  so  mastered  it,  as  to  make  it  a  principle  of  conduct  towards  their  fel- 
lows. At  the  same  time,  and  almost  universally  amongst  the  Separatists  from 
the  Anglican  Church,  the  conviction  was  profoundly  felt,  that  religion — by 
which  was  especially  meant  obedience  to  the  Scriptures,  and  in  particular  to 
the  Old  Testament — should  be  the  engrossing  care  and  the  all-ruling  princi- 
ple of  those  who  possess  it.  And  it  was  of  men  imbued  with  this  belief,  and 
terribly  in  earnest  in  their  purpose  of  realizing  it,  that  the  Mayflower's  crew 
was  composed. 

Under  any  circumstances  a  social  compact  entered  into  by  such  a  band  would 
be  ecclesiastical  rather  than  political.  But  they  did  not  act  blindly  and  un- 
wittingly, although  it  can  scarcely  be  expected  that  they  should  perceive  the 
true  character  of  their  little  company,  which  was  signally  exceptional  and 
peculiar.  Finding  it  impossible  to  live  in  accordance  with  their  principles 
in  communion  with  the  reformed  episcopal  Church  of  England,  they  sought 
on  the  inhospitable  shores  of  the  Western  World,  a  retreat  in  which,  with- 
out a  single  impediment,  they  might  in  their  integrity  manifest  their  ap- 
prehension of  the  obligations  of  those,  to  whom  had  been  given  such  plain 
tokens  of  the  favour  of  the  Almighty,  as  they  knew  they  had  themselves 
received. 

In  fact,  like  Calvin  at  Geneva  and  Knox  in  Scotland,  although  they 
differed  so  widely  from  them  as  to  the  method  of  church  government  which 
they  inferred  from  the  Scriptures,  these  "  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  were  intent  upon 
setting  up  "a  Theocracy,  or  government  of  God."  They  believed,  and  they 
purposed,  that,  in  their  adoptive  country, "  all  manner  of  persons,  in  public  or 
private,  whatever  they  might  be  doing,  should  walk  according  to  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  and  understand  that  this  was  their  law,  supreme  over  all  laws." 
They  too  "  hoped  once  to  see  such  a  thing  realized,  and  the  petition,  Thy 
kingdom  come,  no  longer  an  empty  word."  Their  faith  and  their  church 
order  they  drew  directly  from  the  New  Testament,  and  they  were  persuaded 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  607 

that,  though  they  were  fallible,  it  was  not.     And  beside  all  this,  the  original  chap. 

design  of  their  resolute  self-exile  was  the  maintenance  of  this  faith  and  this ' — 

church-order  as  ordinances  of  God;   and  the  existence  of  a  class  not  sharing    to  iVsi. 
in  their  calling,  although  associated  with  their  worldly  lot,  was  first  recog- 
nised at  the  moment  when  it  had  to  be  provided  for, — whilst  they  were 
drawing  up  their  voluntary  bond  of  government  as  a  plantation,  or  settlement 
of  subjects  of  the  British  empire. 

They  necessarily,  therefore,  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights  of 
free-men  in  their  encampment  in  the  wilderness,  all  who  were  not  united  with 
them  in  the  profession  of  the  faith,  and  consequently  were  not  partakers  of 
their  theocratic  design.  Disagreement  in  respect  of  doctrine  or  discipline 
was  regarded  and  treated  as  a  crime, — as  a  sort  of  leze-majesty.  Every  part 
of  their  polity  was  determined  by  its  relation  to  the  organization  of  their 
churches,  or  by  their  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  Thus,  most  of  the  towns  in 
New  England,  it  is  remarked,  were  not  larger  than  villages,  the  erection  of 
houses  at  a  greater  distance  than  half  a  mile  from  the  meeting-house  being  pro- 
hibited; and  in  New  Haven  trial  by  jury  was  not  practised,  because  no  men- 
tion of  that  system  was  discoverable  in  the  Scriptures. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that  they  expressed  the  greatest  satisfaction 
at  the  assembling  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  sided  with  it  against  the  king, 
or  that  they  vigorously  strove  to  use  the  larger  freedom  they  found  them- 
selves in  possession  of  then,  and  under  Cromwell's  rule,  to  realize  to  the 
fullest  extent  their  convictions  respecting  the  reign  of  God  below.  But  we 
are  bound  to  notice  how,  in  the  same  spirit  with  the  Puritans  of  the  mother- 
country,  as  if  out- wearied  by  their  vain  Titanic  efforts  to  cast  off  the  yoke  of 
bondage,  they  condescended,  calling  themselves  the  "  poor  Mephibosheth  "  of 
the  false  and  profligate  Charles  II.,  to  "kneel  with  the  rest  of  his  subjects 
before  his  Majesty  as  their  restored  king." 

We  must  further  remark,  that  although  Independency  was  the  outward 
form  of  the  New  England  churches,  and  their  internal  government  a  pure 
democracy,  in  their  mutual  relations,  and  in  the  spirit  of  their  dealings  with 
"  those  without,"  they  showed  much  more  of  the  temper  of  the  Presbyterians 
of  England  and  Scotland,  than  of  the  party  to  which  the  names  of  Milton  and 
the  great  Protector  have  imparted  such  deserved  renown.  The  orthodoxy  and 
the  ministry  chosen  by  every  church  was  strictly  watched  by  the  other  churches, 
and  the  most  imperious  interference  was  exercised  wherever  the  doctrine  or 
the  teacher  was  not  approved,  or  so  much  as  mistrusted. 

It  would  be  expected  that  the  laws  should  enforce  sabbath  observance  with 
ultra-judicial  strictness,  and  repress  "  atheism  and  blasphemy  "  with  a  rigour 
concerning  minutiae  that  the  old  Pharisees  would  have  exulted  at.  But  the 
magistrates  were  empowered  to  intermeddle  in  the  private  affairs  of  the 
churches  also,  and  the  ministers  were  ex-officio  counsellors  of  the  magistrates : 
— the  meeting-houses  (like  the  churches  in  Britain)  were  the  places  ap- 
pointed for  the  transaction  of  the  secular  business  of  the  towns,  and  the 
ministers  consecrated  such  assemblies  by  prayer. 


I  \ 


A.  V.  1CC6 
to  1781 


608  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  From  these  regulations  the  character  of  the  union  of  the  Church  and  State* 
—  in  New  England  may  be  easily  inferred ;  and  it  may  be  concluded  that  a 
system  thus  compact  and  rigid,  and  which,  moreover,  originated  in  so  peculiar 
a  manner,  must  either  be  overthrown  speedily  and  entirely,  or  be  perpetuated  as 
a  form  merely,  with  such  changes  as  would  effectually  prevent  it  from  screening 
more  than  the  most  meagre  reality, — after  the  men  who  had  established  it,  and 
those  upon  whom  their  mantle  descended,  had  all  passed  away.  The  latter  course 
must  seem  the  most  probable ;  for  who  could  expect  that  the  manful  earnestness 
of  the  Puritans  should  be  continued  through  many  generations,  when  the  differ- 
ence of  circumstances  and  training,  and  the  many  deficiencies  of  Puritanism 
itself,  are  taken  into  the  account? 

And  further,  we  may  observe,  that  a  theocracy  cannot  be  erected  by  hu- 
man effort ;  and  that  the  laws  of  the  true  theocracy  are  all  in  exactest  accord- 
ance with  the  nature  of  man.  The  profession  of  doctrines,  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  ritual  and  disciplinary  forms,  are  not  the  manifestation  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  The  moment  that  we  ascribe  to  our  inferences  from  Scripture  the 
same  sanctity  which  we  have  attributed  to  holy  writ,  and  inflict  upon  those  who 
do  not  accept  them  disqualifications  and  penalties  of  any  kind,  we  -have 
changed  our  relation  to  the  truth ;  and  whatever  our  intentions,  we  are  per- 
secutors. How  completely  they  must  have  forgotten  the  most  rudimentary 
truths  of  religion,  who  expected  to  promote  it  by  the  same  sanctions,  against 
which — when  employed  to  enforce  conformity  to  ecclesiastical  arrangements, 
and  to  creeds,  confessedly  of  human  origin,  how  much  soever  provable  by  the 
Scriptures — they  themselves  were  the  most  energetic  protest,  the  most  em- 
phatic censure,  ever  presented  to  the  world,  we  can  all  judge.  And  in  every 
instance,  the  resort  to  such  means  has  made  hypocrites  or  martyrs  of  those  who 
dissented,  and  tyrants  of  those  who  agreed  with  the  propositions  laid  down. 

History  has  recorded  the  gradual  relaxation  of  the  strictness  of  the  primi- 
tive statutes.  There  were  so  few  free-men  compared  with  the  population  of 
the  provinces,  that  the  rule  confining  that  privilege  to  the  church-members  was 
altered,  and  all  who  had  received  Christian  baptism  were  enfranchised ;  and 
before  that,  this  rite,  which  was  at  first  permitted  only  to  the  children  of 
church-members,  had  been  thrown  open  to  all  whose  parents  were  moral,  and 
promised  a  watchful  training.  The  ministers,  in  process  of  time,  obtained  the 
conversion  of  their  tenure  of  office  from  "  during  pleasure  "  to  "  for  life."  In 
time  also,  it  having  been  found  that  the  levy  made  upon  the  members  of  the 
churches  for  their  subsistence  was  not  sufficiently  productive,  the  burden  was 
laid  upon  the  towns ;  and  all,  whether  members  of  churches  or  not,  were  com- 
pelled to  pay.  And  a  compensation  was  given  for  the  palpable  injustice  of 
this  change,  by  allowing  the  towns,  as  well  as  the  churches,  a  voice  in  the  se- 
lection of  ministers. 

Massachusetts,  in  1691,  as  we  have  said,  obtained  a  new  charter ;  and  it 
contained  two  provisions,  which  overthrew  the  old  theocracy,  or,  more  truly, 
converted  it  into  a  vulgar  state  church.  Property  was  made  the  title  to  the 
franchise ;  and  religionists  of  every  complexion,  save  the  Romanist,  were  to 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  CC9 

be  tolerated.     Before  forty  years  had  passed,  the  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  and   chap. 

Quakers  too,  had  increased  so  greatly,  that  they  were  able  to  force  the  domi- '■ — 

nant  Congregational  sect  to  suffer  the  payment  of  their  own  ministers  by  their    to  mi. 
respective  quotas  of  the  ecclesiastical  rates.  And  a  similar  revolution  occurred 
in  Connecticut,  which,  the  whole  way  through,  in  matters  pertaining  to  reli- 
gion, followed  the  example  of  the  principal  province  of  New  England. 

One  fact  more  remains  to  be  noticed.  The  Puritan  founders  of  this  system 
were  no  common  enthusiasts.  It  was  their  especial  praise  to  have  enforced 
the  necessity  for  a  "  learned  ministry ; "  and,  moreover,  to  have  provided  for 
its  continuance,  by  founding  colleges.  It  was,  however,  a  strange  mistake  to 
commit  to  a  body  of  educated  men,  the  maintenance  of  formulas  of  faith  which 
were  not  to  be  changed,  nor  so  much  as  questioned.  This  cannot  be  done 
with  impunity,  even  in  communities  where  the  churches  are  wealthy,  and  the 
ministers,  in  consequence,  not  dependent  on  the  gifts  of  their  congregations ; 
as  the  Churches  of  Rome  and  England  clearly  show.  In  New  England  its 
efforts  were  more  disastrous.  The  language  and  appearance  of  orthodoxy 
were  preserved ;  but  there  was  substituted  for  the  life,  which  had  perished,  a 
low  species  of  latitudinarianism, — in  such  a  garb,  more  deceitful  and  destruc- 
tive than  open  infidelity.  That  state  of  things  continued  till  near  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  when  "  the  Great  Revival "  occurred ;  and  through  the  la- 
bours of  the  truly  illustrious  Jonathan  Edwards  a  new  life  was  given  to  the  old 
Puritan  doctrines,  and  the  theocracy  itself  seemed  likely  to  be  restored.  But 
after  the  first  genuine  fervour  had  grown  cold,  the  prodigious  change  which 
had  passed  over  the  spirit  of  the  age  was  perceived  ;  and  it  has  been  brought 
into  greater  prominence,  as,  age  after  age,  the  marvels  of  that "  time  of  refresh- 
ing "  have  been  simulated  or  reproduced,  by  the  zeal  of  the  churches.  Reli- 
gion was  no  longer  the  animating  principle  of  the  people ;  "  free  inquiry,"  as 
a  right,  (not  yet  as  a  duty,)  had  driven  out  the  notion  of  a  theocracy ;  and  as 
for  the  revivalists,  "  adopting  a  quietistic  theory,  leaving  politics  to  worldly 
men,  or  the  providence  of  God,  it  became  their  prominent  idea  not  to  save  the 
commonwealth,  but  to  save  themselves."  Remoter  consequences  of  this  re- 
markable church  establishment  will  call  for  our  attention  in  the  later  parts  of 
this  narrative. 

Mistaken  though  we  think  the  founders  of  the  New  England  common- 
wealth to  have  been  in  their  ecclesiastical  notions,  we  would  not  lose  sight  of 
the  resolute  and  truthful  sincerity  with  which  they  gave  themselves  up  to 
their  great  thought  respecting  the  relations  of  Divine  things  to  common  human 
life,  which  had  been  revealed  to  them.  Without  them  the  history  of  the 
United  States  must  have  been  altogether  different;  and  the  best  hopes  that  can 
be  indulged  concerning  the  future  of  the  Anglo-American  people,  arise  from 
the  persuasion  that  it  cannot  wholly  forget  "the  dreams  of  its  youth." 

"  Look  at  American  Saxondom,"  says  Mr.  Carlyle,  "and  at  that  little  fact 
of  the  sailing  of  the  Mayflower,  two  hundred  years  ago,  from  Delft  Haven  in 
Holland !  Were  we  of  open  sense  as  the  Greeks  were,  we  had  found  a  poem 
here ;    one  of  Nature's  own  poems,  such  as  she  writes  in  broad  facts  over 

4  i 


610  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  "v  P*  Sreat  continents.  For  it  was  properly  the  beginning  of  America :  there  were 
straggling  settlers  in  America  before,  some  material,  as  of  a  body,  was  there, 

to  i78i.  but  the  soul  of  it  was  first  this, — these  poor  men,  driven  out  of  their  own 
country,  not  able  well  to  live  in  Holland,  settling  in  the  New  World."  "  Hah ! 
These  men,  I  think,  had  a  work !  The  weak  thing,  weaker  than  a  child,  be- 
comes strong  one  day,  if  it  be  a  true  thing.  Puritanism  was  only  despicable, 
laughable  then ;  but  nobody  can  manage  to  laugh  at  it  now.  Puritanism  has 
got  weapons  and  sinews ;  it  has  fire-arms,  war-navies ;  it  has  cunning  in  its 
ten  fingers,  strength  in  its  right  arm ;  it  can  steer  ships,  fell  forests,  remove 
mountains ;  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  things  under  this  sun  at  present !  " 

One  colony  of  this  cluster,  and  that  the  smallest  and  the  feeblest,  Rhode  Island, 
stands  nobly  distinguished  as  the  first  abode  of  legalized  religious  liberty  in 
the  whole  world.  Not  from  indifference  concerning  matters  of  faith,  nor 
because  they  cared  less  to  see  the  reign  of  God  established  amongst  men, — 
but  being  persuaded  that  He  who  made  the  soul  alone  may  rule  it,  and  that 
unto  no  vicar  on  earth  has  He  delegated  his  authority ;  the  founders  of  this 
community,  and  Roger  Williams  foremost  of  them,  assured  to  all  men  within 
their  borders,  the  largest  freedom  both  in  belief  and  in  worship.  And  when 
the  charter  was  renewed  after  the  Restoration,  the  same  principle  was  pre- 
served, but  with  a  noticeable  inconsistency  in  the  selection  of  terms  :  for 
it  was  stipulated  that  the  liberty  accorded  should  not  be  used  for  "  licentious- 
ness or  profaneness,  nor  for  the  civil  injury  and  outward  disturbance  of 
others."  It  has  been  under  cover  of  one  or  other  of  these  charges  that  almost 
every  religious  persecution  has  been  carried  on.  Before  a  single  generation 
had  passed,  Romanists  were  by  statute  shut  out  from  the  enjoyment  of  this 
equality  of  privilege,  and  the  observance  of  the  sabbath  was  enforced  by 
penalties,  as  in  the  rest  of  New  England  :  a  change  which  betokened  an 
inward  falling  away  from  the  first  and  highest  standard,  exactly  similar  to  that 
which  was  symbolized  in  the  sister  commonwealths,  by  an  alteration  of  the 
laws  in  precisely  the  opposite  direction. 

Out  of  the  profound  reverence  for  the  Old  Testament,  which  we  have  noted 
as  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  religion  of  New  England,  arose  laws  per- 
mitting the  perpetual  bondage  of  heathen  negroes  and  Indians,  at  a  period 
when,  in  the  plantations  of  the  South  such  hopeless  slavery  was  not  thus 
sanctioned.  At  the  same  time,  since  the  Mosaic  law  expressly  prohibited 
"  man-stealing,"  it  was  declared  unlawful  to  make  negro  slaves,  although  the 
buying  them  of  those  who  were  known  as  "  kidnappers,"  was  allowed ;  the 
trite  proverb,  which  sets  the  guilt  of  the  receiver  upon  a  level  with  that  of 
the  actual  thief,  being  disbelieved  or  forgotten.  The  town  of  Providence 
alone  made  a  stand  in  favour  of  humanity ;  and  it  was  soon  overborne  by 
the  conventional  morality  of  the  theocracies  round  it.  Yet,  some  fifty  years 
later,  we  find  Massachusetts  discouraging  slavery  on  prudential  and  secular 
considerations  solely.  In  the  climate  of  New  England  slaves  were  merely  a 
luxury  and  a  sign  of  wealth,  and  it  is  with  some  surprise  that  we  find  the 
proportion  of  the  bondsmen  to  the  free   to   be  greatest  in  Rhode    Island, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  611 

and  least  in  the  Old  Bay  colony.     There  were  no  severe  laws  to  add  vexation   chap. 

to  the  cardinal  wrong  of  enslavement,  we  may  add ;  but  manumission  was IV' 

expressly  discountenanced  lest  pauperism  should  be  increased.  Here,  in  ^Juiu6 
completest  contrariness  to  the  course  of  events  in  Virginia,  when  the  resolu- 
tion to  be  free  gave  these  colonies  the  courage  to  rise  up  against  the  armed 
might  of  the  mother-country,  the  really  religious  aspect  of  this  matter  pre- 
sented itself,  and  the  truest  guarantee  of  their  earnestness  and  simplicity  of 
purpose  was  afforded,  by  their  application  to  their  own  bought  or  bred  thralls 
of  that  axiom  which  in  other  parts  of  the  land  has  been  either  a  solecism,  or 
an  untruth,  "  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal."  We  shall  trace  the  effects  of 
this  in  the  constitutions  of  the  several  States  very  shortly. 

Maryland  was  the  colony  constituted  next  in  order  of  time,  being  a  portion 
of  the  original  grant  to  the  Virginia  company,  erected  into  a  province  in  1632, 
and  bestowed  by  charter  upon  the  Calverts,  Lords  Baltimore,  in  full  and 
absolute  propriety,  but  with  the  strange  stipulation  for  Charles  I.,  that  the 
consent  of  the  free-men  or  their  delegates  should  be  obtained  for  all  laws, 
which  also  were  not  to  be  repugnant  to  reason  or  the  laws  of  England. 
A  slight  shock  was  given  to  this  constitution  during  the  Civil  Wars  and  the 
Protectorate,  and  at  the  revolution  the  government  was  taken  first  by  popular 
insurrection  and  afterwards  by  royal  usurpation  from  the  proprietors,  who 
were  Catholics,  on  the  ground  of  their  religion ;  nor  was  it  restored  till  the 
accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  when  the  hereditary  claimant  "  con- 
formed  "  and  was  rewarded  in  that  manner.  No  essential  change  was  made 
in  the  legislature,  and  as  it  was  then  settled  it  remained  till  the  era  of 
Independence. 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  this  province  is  very  singular.  The  Calverts 
were  Romanists,  but,  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  settlers,  freedom  was 
allowed  to  all  religionists  so  long  as  peace  was  observed.  Under  the  Common- 
wealth the  Puritans  overturned  this  true  catholicity,  and  forbade  the  public  pro- 
fession both  of  papacy  and  prelacy.  After  the  Revolution,  in  1702,  the  An- 
glican Church  was  established,  but  whilst  Protestant  dissent  was  tolerated, 
Romanism  was  persecuted  in  the  most  harassing  manner.  Nor  was  the  state- 
church  spirit  entirely  eradicated,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  even  from  the  code 
drawn  up  under  more  favourable  auspices  than  "  Protestant  Supremacy."  In 
relation  to  slavery,  Maryland  had,  at  first,  a  law  intended  to  check  the  inter- 
marriage of  white  women  with  negroes,  by  which  their  offspring  were  doomed 
to  slavery ;  but  afterwards  it  followed  in  the  track  of  Virginia :  and  these  are 
the  only  facts  worthy  of  mention. 

Soon  after  the  Restoration,  in  1662,  Carolina  was  granted  by  Charles  II. 
to  Lord  Clarendon  and  others,  with  a  charter  securing  Palatine  rights  to  the 
proprietaries,  and  to  the  free-men  a  legislative  assembly  of  their  representatives. 
Three  years  afterwards  a  second  charter  confirmed  the  grant,  and  extended 
it  both  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  so  that  it  reached  from  the  present 
boundary  of  Florida  to  Virginia.  In  1669,  the  proprietaries  desiring  a  uni- 
form plan  of  government  for  the  whole  of  the  province,  requested  one  of  their 

4  i  2 


612  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  number — Shaftesbury,  to  construct  it,  and  he  laid  the  task  upon  his  friend, 


A.  D 


the  famous  philosopher,  John  Locke. 
to^Vsi"0  Before  the  exploits  of  the  Abbe  Sieves  and  his  successors  in  France,  this 
"  Grand  Model  "  was  the  most  notable  failure  in  constitution-making.  A 
minute  account  of  this  feat  in  legislation  would  be  out  of  place  here.  Un- 
suited  to  any  conceivable  condition  of  human  nature,  it  was  opposed  alike  to 
the  wants,  the  habits,  and  the  convictions  of  those,  for  the  organization  of 
whose  political  affairs  it  was  devised.  One  could  believe,  that  one  chief  cause 
of  so  prodigious  a  miscarriage  was  the  supposition,  that  the  lessons  of  history 
could  be  applied,  by  imitating  the  social  arrangements,  which  had  prevailed  in 
the  earlier  ages  of  states,  that  had  reached  a  high  degree  of  splendour  and 
freedom.  It  being  overlooked,  that  the  citizens  of  the  infant  community  had 
been  drafted  from  a  nation,  which  was  foremost  amongst  the  peoples  of  the  earth 
in  civilization,  and  every  social  and  manly  virtue.  And  yet  it  is  impossible,  even 
so,  to  account  for  the  complicated  provisions  which  secured  to  the  hereditary 
proprietors,  with  the  greater  and*  lesser  landed  aristocracy, — landgraves 
and  caciques,  seigneurs  and  barons, — all  political  action  and  existence ;  to  the 
entire  exclusion  of  the  tenantry,  who  were  to  be  adscripti  gleba,  and  in- 
capable of  rising  even  to  the  possession  of  a  manor.  It  is  well  ascertained, 
that  the  most  ardent  constitutionalists  of  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
did  not  regard  the  Transatlantic  colonies  in  the  same  way  as  they  did  Great 
Britain.  As  America  felt  it,  the  Whiggism  of  the  "  Glorious  Revolution  " 
was  many  shades  darker  than  the  blackest  Toryism  under  which  the  pro- 
vinces had  ever  groaned.  The  only  justification  of  so  extraordinary  an 
arrangement,  is  however  one  which  demands  the  gravest  consideration  from 
those  to  whom  it  is  addressed.  A  recent  historian  of  the  United  States  replies 
to  the  sneer  of  the  "very  democratic"  censurers  of  the  "  Grand  Model,"  by 
observing,  "  Surely  it  will  bear  a  most  favourable  comparison  with  the 
actually  existing  system  of  republican  South  Carolina." 

This  "  fundamental  and  unalterable  constitution  "  was  never  fully  carried 
out ;  being  strenuously  resisted  by  those  whose  interests  were  so  lightly  dealt 
Avith  by  it,  and  being  at  once  found,  in  some  respects,  impracticable.  In 
1693  it  was  abrogated;  and  though  the  government  was  not  greatly  altered, 
the  authority  appealed  to  was  the  original  charter,  which  pleased  the  colonists 
much  better  than  the  philosopher's  scheme  did.  Five  years  later,  the  pro- 
prietaries attempted  to  impose  an  amended  and  anonymous  copy  of  Locke's 
constitution  upon  the  settlers  ;  but  it  met  with  the  same  fate. 

These  contests  overthrew  the  proprietary  charter ;  which  a  timely  offer  to 
surrender  had  saved  in  the  reign  of  James  II.  In  1720  the  administration 
was  assumed  by  the  crown,  although  the  charter  was  not  vacated  till  1729. 
'  By  the  form  of  government  adopted,  the  governor  and  council  were  nominated 
by  the  sovereign,  and  the  settlers  chose  representatives  for  a  house  of  assembly. 
It  met  the  dispositions  and  the  necessities  of  the  colony,  and  was  both  accept- 
able and  advantageous  to  the  people.  Carolina  had  been  almost  from  the 
first  two  colonies  under  one  designation,  and  subject  to  the  same  general 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  613 

control;  but  it  was  not  till  1732  that  the  province  was  actually  divided,  and  chap. 
the  present  names,  North  and  South  Carolina,  given  to  the  portions.  — 

Amongst  the  other  inconsistencies  of  Locke's  "  Grand  Model,"  was  this, —  to  mi. 
along  with  an  ultra-feudal  servility  in  the  relations  of  tenants  to  their  lords, 
he  allowed  perfect  freedom  in  religious  matters  ;  an  inconsistency  which  the 
proprietors  removed  by  establishing  the  Church  of  England.  But  they 
tolerated  all  other  sects  that  believed  in  the  rightfulness  of  taking  oaths ; 
which  was  manifestly  intended  to  shut  out  Quakers.  The  planting  of  Puritan 
immigrants  from  New  England,  and  Huguenot  refugees  from  France,  in 
different  parts  of  the  province,  seems  to  have  made  the  ecclesiastical  question, 
practically,  an  open  one ;  but  in  1704  and  1705  the  high  church  influence 
prevailed  so  greatly,  as  to  bring  about  a  real  establishment  of  Anglican 
episcopacy,  with  its  tests,  and  the  whole  apparatus  for  preventing  further 
thought  upon  those  things.  Queen  Anne,  in  the  following  year,  when  the 
decision  of  the  affair,  brought  before  her  by  the  appeal  of  the  Dissenters,  rested 
with  her,  pronounced  those  laws  null  and  void ;  yet  the  Church  of  England 
was  established,  and  supported  by  the  public  money ;  and  toleration  only  was 
accorded  to  the  dissidents.  This  was  the  final  position  of  religious  liberty  in 
both  provinces. 

The  proprietaries  also  modified  Locke's  Constitution  so  as  to  acknowledge 
the  claims  of  the  slaveholders  to  their  slaves,  whatever  the  religion  of  the 
latter  might  be.  In  1712  the  first  real  slave-law  was  passed.  Its  preamble 
declared  slave-labour  absolutely  needful;  and  upon  the  assumed  savage 
nature  of  the  slaves  was  based  a  set  of  enactments,  by  which  want  of  civiliza- 
tion was  treated  as  a  crime,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  rendered  all  but  an 
impossibility  to  escape  from  barbarism.  This  South  Carolinian  code  was  the 
beginning  of  those  laws,  which  are  being  so  fearfully  avenged  in  the  de- 
moralization and  decline  of  the  free  population  of  the  territories  in  which  they 
obtain.  It  ought  to  be  observed,  that  these  statutes  were  directly  opposed 
to  the  charter  of  the  province ;  which  made  the  law  of  England  the  standard, 
to  which  the  provincial  legislation  was  to  be  conformed,  although  the  British 
lawyers  determined  otherwise.  This  code  was  amended  in  1740,  and  whilst 
greater  tenderness  seemed  to  be  expressed  for  the  slaves,  the  severity  of  the 
law  was  actually  increased ;  emancipation  being  made  unlawful,  and  the 
offspring  of  slave-mothers,  to  the  remotest  generation,  adjudged  to  perpetual 
bondage.  Every  man  of  colour  was  also  presumed  to  be  a  slave ;  and,  except 
in  the  case  of  allied  Indians,  the  proof  of  freedom  was  required,  instead  of  the 
proof  of  thraldom.  North  Carolina  was  not  disgraced  by  such  laws  as  these; 
slavery  was  regulated  by  custom,  and  police-law;  and  presented  features  not 
unlike  the  system  in  Virginia. 

The  "  Empire  State "  follows  next.  As  this  was  the  only  portion  of  the 
Anglo-American  settlements  which  actually  passed  under  the  rule  of  England 
by  conquest,  it  is  of  importance  to  observe  that  the  right  of  the  Dutch  to 
colonize  the  territory  was  always  disputed ;  and  that  "  the  New  Netherlands  " 
was  undoubtedly  within  the  boundary  of  the  grant  made  to  the  Plymouth 


614  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

company.  Charles  II.  bestowed  upon  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  in  1684, 
the  entire  tract  from  the  Connecticut  to  the  Delaware;  and  after  conquest, 
and  re-conquest,  and  conquest  again  by  the  English,  it  was  relinquished  by 
the  intrusive  republic  to  the  Duke,  in  1674.  At  the  same  time  the  original 
grant  was  ^confirmed,  and  James  governed  the  province  with  no  other  re- 
strictions than  the  requirement  of  conformity  to  English  law,  and  the  right  of 
the  colonists  to  appeal  to  the  king  in  council. 

The  lawfulness  of  taxation  by  the  Duke's  sole  authority  having  been  ques- 
tioned ;  in  1682,  a  legislative  assembly  was  conceded,  and  the  beginning  of  a 
constitution  made.  This  concession  was,  however,  tacitly  recalled  when  James 
became  king;  and  the  Revolution  of  1688  was  in  consequence  hailed  with 
ardour  in  the  province,  but  it  derived  no  advantage  from  the  change,  no 
charter  being  granted  to  it.  The  law  of  England  was  not  fully  introduced 
till  1691 ;  Dutch  usages  having  been  followed  before  that  time.  The  assem- 
bly gradually  extended  its  powers,  and  the  neglect  or  contempt  of  the  crown 
and  its  agents  enabled  it  to  make  good  the  powers  it  won  in  this  silent  man- 
ner. In  this  respect  the  constitutional  history  of  New  York  resembles  that  of 
the  mother-country ;  and  thus  was  this  province  trained  to  freedom. 

The  earliest  laws  provided  for  the  maintenance  of  religious  worship  and  in- 
struction, according  to  the  Protestant  form ;  but  whilst  giving  this  latitude  in 
respect  of  doctrines  and  church-order,  and  forbidding  the  molestation  of  any 
Christians  for  the  sake  of  their  religion,  they  compelled  payment  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  ministry,  and  the  administration  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper. 
Sabbath-breaking  was  punished  by  a  fine.  And  in  course  of  time  the  Church 
of  England  obtained  the  principal  place  amongst  the  various  sects,  just  as 
Congregationalism  did  in  New  Hampshire.  The  progress  of  personal  slavery 
seems  to  indicate  a  very  unexpected  change  in  the  neighbouring  colonies,  in 
respect  of  the  influence  they  were  able  to  exert  upon  New  York ;  the  first 
enactments  being  imitated  from  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  but  the  later  ones 
from  those  of  Virginia.  Slaves  were  kept  rather  as  signs  of  wealth  than  un- 
der any  pretext  of  the  need  of  that  species  of  labour,  which  indeed  could 
never  have  been  required  in  the  latitude  of  New  England  and  the  lake  sys- 
tem of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

A  portion  of  the  grant  made  to  the  Duke  of  York  he  transferred  to  Lord 
Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carteret,  three  months  after  it  had  been  bestowed 
upon  himself;  and  this  tract  they  called  New  Jersey.  A  constitution,  in 
which  delegates  from  the  freeholders  were  adjoined  as  a  legislative  assem- 
bly to  the  governor  and  council,  appointed  by  the  proprietaries,  was  given 
to  it.  It  was  divided  in  1676  into  east  and  west  New  Jersey,  between  Car- 
teret and  Fenwick,  and  others,  Quakers,  who  had  purchased  Lord  Berkeley's 
share.  Constitutions  were  established  in  both  divisions  by  "  concessions  and 
agreements  "  on  the  parts  of  the  proprietors  and  the  people.  Those  for  the 
Quaker  settlers  conceded  very  great  immunities ;  which  were  confirmed  by  a 
new  form  of  government,  made  by  the  governor  and  the  assembly,  in  1681. 
William  Penn  was  soon  afterwards  joined  to  the  trustees  of  West  Jersey;  and 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  615 

in   168£j  East  Jersey  was  purchased  by  them.     The   Duke  of  York  had  chap. 


A.  D.  1606 


already  surrendered  all  his  right  to  the  respective  proprietors  of  these  pro- 
vinces ;  but  in  1683,  the  Quaker  company  obtained  a  new  patent  from  him,  "toiVJiT 
addressed  directly  to  themselves. 

Most  serious  dissensions  between  the  two  provinces,  and  between  both  and 
New  York,  called  for  some  interference ;  wherefore  James  II.  launched  a 
quo  warranto  against  them,  and  they,  with  New  York,  were  annexed  to  the 
government  of  New  England.  This  did  not,  however,  compose  the  troubles  ; 
and  in  the  end,  in  1702,  the  proprietors  gave  up  to  the  crown  their  jurisdic- 
tional rights.  The  two  colonies  were  thereupon  united,  and  placed,  as  a  royal 
province,  under  the  governor  of  New  York.  An  assembly  was  granted  for 
legislative  purposes  ;  and  the  freedom  of  the  settlers  being  in  some  particulars 
curtailed,  they  most  strenuously,  and  not  always  without  turbulence,  con- 
tended for  the  enjoyment  of  it  to  the  full  extent  of  the  earliest  agreements 
with  the  proprietors.  New  Jersey  had  governors  of  its  own  from  1738  to 
the  Revolution. 

This  province,  being  almost  at  the  beginning  in  the  hands  of  the  Quakers, 
never  had  a  complete  church  establishment ;  and  though,  when  it  came  under 
the  rule  of  the  crown,  Episcopacy  had  some  peculiar  favour  showed  to  it, 
liberty  was  guaranteed  to  all  sects,  except  Papists.  Slavery  existed  in  it,  but 
was  not  raised  to  the  dignity  of  an  "  institution." 

But  with  Penn's  name  the  story  of  a  colony  of  greater  mark  is  associated, 
of  which  we  must  next  speak.  On  the  borders  of  the  Delaware  river,  west 
of  the  New  England  settlements,  planters  of  different  nations,  Dutch,  and 
Swedes,  and  Germans,  as  well  as  English,  had  taken  up  their  dwellings. 
The  charter  granted  by  James  was  believed  to  put  them  under  the  govern- 
ment of  New  York.  But  in  1681,  after  much  delay,  the  whole  territory  was 
granted  to  William  Penn,  by  Charles  II.,  as  a  compensation  for  a  hereditary 
debt.  The  Quaker  chief  was  made  "  true  and  absolute  lord  "  of  a  tract  ex- 
tending some  three  degrees  in  latitude,  and  five  in  longitude,  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  Delaware.  The  "  advice  and  consent  of  the  freeholders  "  was 
required  for  legislation,  and  beside,  conformity  to  English  law,  and  the  con- 
firmation of  all  statutes  by  the  crown ;  the  right  of  appeal  from  the  decisions 
of  the  courts  of  justice  was  also  provided.  This  charter  was  deemed  one  of 
the  best  drawn  of  those  given  to  the  colonies. 

Penn  encouraged  emigration  to  Pennsylvania  by  a  most  liberal  "  frame  of 
government; "  but  in  the  year  afterwards,  1683,  it  was  found  that  this  polity 
was  not  adapted  to  the  infant  colony,  and  it  was  laid  aside  in  favour  of  one 
devised  with  the  aid  of  the  general  assembly.  By  it,  Penn  had  the  "  power 
of  controlling  by  his  single  will  the  legislation  of  the  province."  A  code, 
called  the  "  Great  Law,"  was  enacted  at  the  same  time. 

Very  warm  controversies  with  the  proprietor  of  Maryland,  respecting  the 
boundary  between  the  two  colonies,  were  carried  on  till  after  the  death  of 
both  Penn  and  the  Lord  Baltimore  who  had  commenced  them.  In  1692, 
Penn  was  deprived  of  the  government ;  for  it  is  to  be  observed  that  William 


616  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.    III.  acted  as  oppressively  towards  the  Anglo-American  colonics,  as  James  II. 

- —  (who  issued  no  quo  warranto  against  Pennsylvania)  could  have  done ;  being 

to  i78i.  aided  by  the  very  men  who  effected  the  revolution  which  placed  him  upon 
the  throne  of  England,  in  the  room  of  his  father-in-law.  It  was  restored  to 
him  in  the  year  following;  and  in  1696,  a  third  "  frame  of  government"  was 
devised,  by  which  the  assembly,  instead  of  being  ^  merely  nominal  legislature, 
obtained  the  power  of  originating  laws. 

That  "  frame  of  government,"  after  being  suffered  to  grow  obsolete,  was 
formally  surrendered  in  1701,  and  a  new  one  entitled  a  "  charter  of  pri- 
vileges," was  settled.  The  legislature  was  made  to  consist  of  a  governor, 
and  an  annually  chosen  assembly.  The  assembly  nominated  persons  for  the 
office  of  governor  ;  and  a  council  of  state  assisted  the  chief  magistrate.  The 
rights  of  free-born  subjects  of  Great  Britain  were  also  secured  to  the 
colonists. 

The  "  territories,"  or  "  three  counties  on  the  Delaware,"  which  had  been 
an  integral  part  of  Pennsylvania  up  to  this  time,  were  by  the  same  "  charter  " 
allowed  a  distinct  assembly,  if  they  were  not  willing  to  be  connected  in  legis- 
lation with  the  province,  any  longer.  The  assembly  for  Delaware  first  met 
in  1703 ;  but  though  a  distinct  colony  was  thus  instituted,  the  governor  and 
council  of  Pennsylvania  presided  over  it,  till  the  Revolution. 

Toleration  for  the  Church  of  England  was  expressly  stipulated  for  in  the 
first  charter  of  Pennsylvania.  And  the  "  great  law  "  extended  its  protection 
to  all  who  held  the  being  and  the  government  of  God  ;  yet  compelled  sabbath 
observance,  and  at  first  did  not  shelter  Romanists.  The  "  charter  of 
privileges "  provided  for  "  full  liberty  of  conscience  and  worship ;  and  for 
the  right  of  all  persons  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  to  serve  the 
government  in  any  capacity ;"  a  liberty  in  which  Catholics  were  included. 
The  feeling  respecting  slavery  in  these  provinces  was  expressed  by  the  re- 
fusals, in  1699,  to  protect  the  marriages  of  slaves,  &c.  by  law;  and  in  1712, 
to  emancipate  them ;  by  the  imposition  of  a  prohibitory  duty  on  their  im- 
portation ;  by  the  extent  of  their  opposition  to  the  system,  and  by  the  small 
number  of  slaves;  and  it  will  be  found  more  strongly  represented  in  their 
constitutions,  when  they  became  States. 

Last  of  the  original  thirteen  provinces  came  Georgia ;  which  sprang  from 
the  blended  philanthropy  and  political  sagacity  of  Oglethorpe.  The  tract 
included  in  the  Carolina  charter,  lying  next  to  the  Spanish  provinces,  was 
still  unoccupied  when  that  charter  became  void.  And  it  appeared  to  be  a 
favourable  spot  to  form  an  asylum  for  released  prisoners ;  for  the  poor  who 
were  yet  untainted  by  crime ;  and  for  Protestant  refugees  from  the  continent 
of  Europe; — whilst  the  colonization  would  interpose  a  barrier  between  Florida 
and  the  wealthy  Carolinas;  and  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  Indians.  These  facts  will  explain  much  that  appears  in  the  charters 
and  constitutions  of  the  colony. 

George  II.  granted  the  first  charter  to  Lord  Percival,  and  others,  in  1732 ; 
and,  according  to  Judge  Story,  it  "  was  obviously  intended  for  a  temporary 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  617 

duration  only."     The  first  measures  adopted  by  the  trustees  were  badly  de-   chap. 

vised  for  the  progress  of  the  colony ;  which  was  being  peopled  by  an  un '■ — 

promising  class  from  Britain,  although  the  Moravians,  and  other  settlers  from  to  mi 
Europe,  were  rather  better  materials  for  a  commonwealth.  And  not  even  the 
zeal  of  the  Wesleys  and  of  Whitfield  could  inspire  such,  nor  make  a  popula- 
tion characterized  by  the  energy  and  resolution  of  the  people  of  New 
England.  The  charter  was  surrendered  in  1751,  and  from  that  time  the  colony 
was  governed  as  a  royal  province,  with  the  customary  liberties  and  privileges. 

The  free  exercise  of  religion  was  by  the  original  charter  secured  to  all 
except  Catholics;  but  the  Church  of  England  was  the  established  form.  This 
falling  away  was,  however,  trifling,  when  compared  with  that  which  occurred 
in  the  matter  of  slavery.  The  trustees  prohibited  negro  slavery  upon  incon- 
trovertible moral  and  economical  grounds.  But  the  colonists  from  the  mother 
country  soon  began  to  call  for  the  introduction  of  slave  labour.  Whitfield 
even  agreed  to  it ;  won  by  the  pretext,  that  the  opportunity  would  be  afforded 
for  the  conversion  of  the  negroes.  And  the  industrious  Germans  themselves 
'yielded  to  the  same  sophistry.  "The  one  thing  needful,"  (as  the  Savannah 
men  profanely  designated  slaves,)  was  obtained  by  a  contraband  process  at 
first ;  negroes  being  bound  to  service  for  life,  or  for  terms  of  years  exceeding 
the  usual  length  of  life ;  and  about  1750,  the  legislature  sanctioned  the  evil 
they  were  too  weak  to  prevent,  and  vainly  endeavoured  to  provide  an  antidote 
for  the  wrong,  by  making  it  a  condition  that  the  masters  should  compel  their 
slaves  to  attend  some  place  of  religious  worship  once,  at  least  every  Sunday. 
It  was  not  long  before  it  was  enacted  that  the  progeny  of  slave  women,  to  all 
generations,  both  colour  and  father  being  disregarded,  should  be  slaves. 
And  in  fine,  it  shared  with  South  Carolina  the  shame  of  having  prevented 
the  introduction  of  a  protest  against  slavery  into  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. 

We  now  proceed  to  narrate  the  course  taken  by  the  colonies,  in  individually 
renouncing  their  allegiance  to  Great  Britain ; — a  portion  of  the  United  States' 
history  of  great  moment  and  interest,  from  its  immediate  bearing  upon  the 
undetermined  question  of  Federalism.  The  points  to  which  attention  should 
be  particularly  directed  are — the  independent  proceedings  of  the  several 
provinces,  and  the  influence  of  Congress,  and  of  other  provinces,  exerted 
upon  those  which  were  making  the  change.  The  Federalist  controversy  not 
having  arisen  then,  the  evidence  thus  obtained  will  have  the  greater  worth ; 
and  the  narrow  limits  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  before  the  "  Articles  of  Con- 
federation," will  give  emphasis  to  the  significance  of  the  part  they  took  in  the 
transformation. 

Not  till  1775,  did  the  possibility  of  an  irreconcilable  breach  with  Great 
Britain  come  before  the  country  in  a  practical  form.  We  know  that  it  had 
been  discussed  theoretically  by  many  of  the  more  advanced  spirits  of  the 
Revolution  ;  but  the  instinctive  conservatism  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  races  forbade 
the  entertainment  of  such  expectations,  as  were  indulged  by  those  who  sup- 
plied the  impulsion,  under  which  the  conductors  of  the  revolt  were  acting. 

4  K 


IV 


A.  IV   1GCG 
to  17S1. 


618  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.  In  the  year  before,  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  discovering  that  he 
had  lost  command  of  the  province,  dissolved  the  assembly  and  took  refuge 
with  the  royal  forces  at  Boston,  leaving  the  public  affairs  to  be  carried  on  as 
they  could : — a  charge  at  once  undertaken  by  the  unauthorized  Congress  of 
the  provinces  and  the  committees  of  the  towns.  New  Hampshire  was  a  crown 
colony,  and  the  flight  of  the  king's  representative,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in 
spite  of  those  exertions,  disorganized  every  thing.  This  was  what  Wentworth 
expected,  but  he  did  not  perceive  more  than  one  solution  of  the  problem  he 
had  created — the  penitent  return  of  the  discomfited  provincials  to  loyalty 
and  obedience,  that  their  affairs  might  no  longer  remain  in  confusion.  They, 
however,  knew  that  return  from  such  a  revolt  was  impossible,  except  for 
men  to  whom  ignominy  was  less  distasteful  than  the  possible  price  of  free- 
dom; and  they  applied  to  the  continental  Congress  for  advice  respecting 
the  form  of  government  they  should  adopt,  now  that,  by  the  royal  governor's 
own  deed,  all  previously  existing  rule  and  authority  had  been  destroyed. 

Twice  did  the  disorganized  province  apply  before  any  counsel  was  given, 
for  it  was  a  step  in  advance  of  all  that  Congress  had  taken,  and  one  which 
could  not  be  recalled,  that  the  delegates  of  New  Hampshire  requested  thein 
to  take.  At  last,  near  the  close  of  1775,  they  advised  a  "  full  and  free  repre- 
sentation of  the  people,"  and  a  form  of  government  best  suited  "  to  produce 
the  happiness  of  the  people,"  and  to  "  secure  peace  and  good  order  "  whilst 
the  dispute  with  the  mother-country  lasted.  Careful  counsel — pledging  Con- 
gress, as  they  thought,  to  nothing ;  and  yet  it  was  rightly  understood  by  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  Jersey  as  an  advance  in  the  insurrection,  and  as  tending  to 
a  separation  from  Great  Britain.  To  Virginia  and  to  South  Carolina,  which 
had  been  similarly  deserted  by  the  deputies  of  the  crown,  the  same  advice 
was  given,  and  by  this  means,  in  connexion  with  others  already  noticed,  there 
was  spread  through  the  colonies  that  spirit  which  soon  afterwards  expressed 
itself  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  advice  of  Congress  was  acted  upon  by  New  Hampshire  without  delay, 
and  a  provisional  form  of  government  was  set  up,  consisting  of  a  House  of  Re- 
presentatives,  a  Council,  and  a  President,  all  to  be  elected  annually  by  the 
people.  To  a  "  Committee  of  Safety  "  was  intrusted  the  exercise  of  authority 
when  the  legislature  was  not  in  session  ;  and  it  was  understood  that  at  the 
termination  of  the  war  this  "  form  "  should  likewise  end.  In  the  same  man- 
ner a  convention  in  South  Carolina  acted  ;  but  it  further  organized  a  judiciary, 
which  was  omitted  by  the  New  En  glanders.     . 

North  Carolina  seemed  disposed  to  wait  for  the  company  of  others,  in  a  path 
so  full  of  danger,  and  simply  authorized  its  delegates  in  Congress  to  join  in 
a  general  Declaration  of  Independence.  Two  of  the  charter  governments  of 
New  England,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  laid  aside  the  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  the  king.  Virginia  appointed  a  constituent  committee,  desiring  to 
have  a  "  Bill  of  Rights  "  as  well  as  a  form  of  government,  and  instructed  its 
delegates  to  propose  that  the  Congress  should  declare  the  Independence  of 
America. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  619 

About  the  same    time,  and   without  any  explicit  concurrence,  Congress    chap. 
agreed  to  a  resolution  recommending  the  respective  assemblies  and  conven- 


tions of  the  colonies  in  which  no  government  sufficient  for  their  exigencies  ^Jusi?6 
existed,  to  adopt  such  as  in  the  opinion  of  the  representatives  should  best 
conduce  to  the  happiness  and  safety  of  their  constituents  in  particular,  and  of 
America  in  general;  which  was  introduced  by  a  preamble,  setting  forth, 
"  that  all  oaths  for  the  support  of  government  under  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain  were  irreconcilable  with  reason  and  good  conscience,  and  that  the 
exercise  of  every  kind  of  authority  under  that  crown  ought  to  be  totally 
suppressed,  and  all  the  powers  of  government  exerted  under  authority  from 
the  people  of  the  colonies." 

Whilst  these  recommendations  were  being  discussed  in  the  provincial 
legislatures  and  conventions,  and  accepted  by  some  and  rejected  by  others, 
Congress,  advancing  one  step  further,  adopted  that  decided  measure  which 
destroyed  all  hopes  of  accommodating  the  dispute  with  Great  Britain,  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  success  of  their  cause,  by  pledging  every  man  who 
loved  his  native  soil  to  resist  in  its  behalf,  to  the  uttermost,  the  encroachments 
and  the  hostilities  of  the  king. 

During  the  debating  and  the  preparation  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, Virginia  completed  the  "  assumption  of  government,"  and  Pennsylvania 
arranged  a  convention  to  frame  a  new  polity.  And  soon  after  the  4th  of 
July,  1776,  a  provincial  Congress  met  in  New  York  to  make  a  constitution 
for  it  as  an  independent  sovereignty,  and  the  State  convention  of  Pennsyl- 
vania anticipated  the  results  of  the  constituent  convention  by  assuming  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  country  and  leaving  the  old  colonial  legislature  to  die  of 
inanition.  New  Jersey  at  this  time  also  adopted  an  independent  constitution, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  year,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  North  Carolina,  and 
Maryland  had  completed  their  new  frames  of  government. 

Early  in  1777,  New  York  was  organized  as  a  State,  and  Georgia.  Kentucky, 
(under  the  name  of  Transylvania,)  and  Vermont,  also  aspired  to  the  rank  of 
States,  but  Congress  refused  to  admit  them  into  the  Union,  and  they  remained, 
in  consequence,  districts  of  Virginia  and  New  York ;  a  fact  of  great  moment 
in  reference  to  the  question  we  hope  to  illustrate  by  this  inquiry.  Near  the 
close  of  1778,  South  Carolina  adopted  an  amended  constitution.  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  held  by  the  polities  provided  by  their 
charters,  with  no  other  modifications  than  were  needful  to  fit  them  for  the 
necessities  of  sovereign  States.  The  two  last  have  no  other  constitutions  to 
this  day ;  but  Massachusetts,  having  had  a  newly  devised  one  submitted  to  it 
by  its  legislature  in  the  year  1778,  would  not  accept  it,  and  appointed  a  con- 
stituent convention,  which  met  in  1779,  and  constructed  a  form  of  government 
to  which  the  assent  of  the  people  was  given  in  1780.  New  Hampshire 
imitated  many  of  its  provisions  in  a  second  constitution,  which  was  adopted 
in  1784.     And  a  second  was  framed  by  Georgia  in  1785. 

With  the  exception  of  Pennsylvania  and  Georgia,  the  legislatures  in  every 
case  consisted  of  two  houses,  the  lower  and  more  numerous  being  entitled  the 

4  k  2 


620  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  House  of  Representatives,  or  Assembly  of  Commons  or  Burgesses  in  different 

—  States;  and  the  upper  one  the  Senate  or  Council.      The  elections  for  the 

to  mi.  lower  house  were  annual,  except  in  South  Carolina,  where  the  members  were 
chosen  for  two  years.  Pennsylvania  alone  imposed  no  property-qualification 
upon  the  representatives,  but  at  the  same  time  forbade  any  person  from  being 
a  member  of  the  assembly  for  above  four  years  in  every  seven.  In  most  States 
they  were  elected  by  counties ;  but  in  New  England  they  were  distributed 
amongst  the  towns.  The  members  of  the  upper  house  held  office  for  one  year 
in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire^  for  four  in  New  York  and  Virginia, 
for  five  in  Maryland,  and  in  the  other  States  for  two  years  only.  Various  ar- 
rangements were  made  to  secure  a  difference  between  them  and  those  of  the 
house  of  assembly, — a  larger  property-qualification,  for  the  senator  or  for  the 
voters  ;  election,  not  by  the  people,  but  by  electors  chosen  by  the  people  (as  in 
Maryland)  ;  or  election  by  the  assembly  out  of  its  own  body  (as  in  the  first  con- 
stitution of  South  Carolina)  ; — and  in  some  States,  the  various  districts  elected 
senators  in  numbers  proportioned  to  their  share  of  the  taxes. 

The  constitution  of  New  York  added  to  the  usual  branches  of  the  legisla- 
ture a  "council  of  revision;"  for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  the 
enactment  of  laws  without  sufficient  consideration,  or  at  least  without  full 
discussion.  And  Pennsylvania,  advancing  to  the  extremity  of  caution,  estab- 
lished a  "  council  of  censors,"  at  the  end  of  every  seven  years ;  whose  duty 
it  was  to  see  that  the  constitution  had  not  been  violated.  But  these  devices, 
which  overlooked  the  fact  of  the  vitality  of  polities  embodying  the  actual 
hopes  of  the  people,  and  meeting  the  acknowledged  necessities,  were  soon  laid 
aside. 

The  executive  chief  magistrate,  called  governor  or  president,  was  chosen  in 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  and  in  New 
Hampshire,  according  to  the  second  constitution,  by  the  people.  In  New 
Hampshire,  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  the  executive  power  was  vested  in 
a  council,  and  the  president  of  it  was  ex  officio  president  of  the  State,  but 
was  intrusted  with  little  more  authority  than  the  other  councillors.  In  Massa- 
chusetts it  was  the  same  before  1780 ;  but  after  that  date,  and  in  South  Ca- 
rolina, under  the  second  constitution,  as  well  as  in  the  other  States,  the  legis- 
latures chose  the  governors ;  for  which  office  a  very  high  property-qualification 
was  required.  The  governor  of  South  Carolina,  by  the  second  constitution, 
was  deprived  of  the  vote  given  him  by  the  first ;  and  in  Massachusetts  alone 
this  officer  had  so  much  as  a  "  suspensive  "  veto.  In  most  of  the  States  he  was 
shackled  by  restrictions,  as  for  example  in  New  York,  where  all  his  appoint- 
ments to  offices  in  the  State  were  subject  to  the  sanction  of  a  "  council,"  chosen 
annually  for  this  purpose,  solely  ; — and  in  some,  he  could  not  be  re-elected. 

In  New  Hampshire,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  South  Carolina,  all  resi- 
dent free-men  paying  taxes  possessed  the  franchise.  In  North  Carolina,  such 
could  vote  for  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  alone.  The  eldest  sons 
of  freeholders  had  the  suffrage  in  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania,  whether 
they  paid  taxes  or  not.     The  possession  of  freeholds  of  various  values,  or  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  621 

payment  of  a  certain  rental,  was  the  necessary  condition  in  the  other  States,  chap. 

for  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  voting  for  representatives,  senators,  or  go ■ — 

vernors.     All  mechanics  were  entitled  to  vote  in  Georgia,  on  the  ground  of   to  iVsi. 
their  handicrafts ;  and  a  failure  to  use  the  right  of  voting  subjected  the  de- 
faulter to  a  fine  of  £5. 

The  common  law  of  England  was  in  every  State  the  foundation  of  juris- 
prudence ;  and  all  statutes,  both  imperial  and  colonial,  which  had  been  received 
in  the  colonies  were  conjoined  with  it,  except  in  South  Carolina,  in  which 
State  the  particular  colonial  statutes  assumed  into  the  new  constitution  were 
specified  by  title,  and  confirmed  as  amongst  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth. 

County  courts  for  the  decision  of  minor  civil  suits,  and  courts  of  sessions 
for  the  trial  of  unimportant  crimes,  which  had  been  established  under  the  old 
regime,  were  retained.  And  so  were  the  courts  which  had  been  set  up  to 
administer  those  branches  of  law,  that  in  England  form  the  practice  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts.  The  justices  of  the  peace  were  not  deprived  of  the 
wide  jurisdiction,  which  had  been  committed  to  them,  for  the  convenience  of 
the  colonies ;  and  in  one  State,  Virginia,  they  proposed  the  candidates  for 
vacancies  in  their  number.  In  all  the  States,  the  judges  were  appointed  by 
the  legislature,  or  the  assemblies ;  except  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and 
Maryland,  where  the  governor  and  council  named  them;  and  in  Georgia, 
where  the  people  elected  them,  whilst  the  assembly  appointed  the  chief  jus- 
tice. The  office  was  annual  in  the  last  State,  and  in  Rhode  Island  and  Con- 
necticut ;  in  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  New  Jersey,  it  was  held  for  seven 
years ;  and  in  all  the  others,  during  good  behaviour.  In  Connecticut  they 
were  required  to  give  the  reasons  for  their  judgments,  in  writing. 

Courts  of  equity,  or  chancery  courts,  had  been  set  up  in  all  the  crown 
colonies  except  New  Hampshire ;  and  they  Avere  not  abolished  :  in  the  other 
States  the  administration  of  equity  was  managed  in  several  very  remarkable 
ways.  The  governor  was  chancellor  in  some ;  in  others,  chancellors  were 
specially  appointed ;  and  in  others  the  common  law  courts,  or  the  assemblies, 
or  the  supreme  courts,  were  employed  for  chancery  cases;  whilst  some  reject- 
ed this  expensive  and  fallacious  luxury  altogether.  In  Georgia  alone  there 
was  no  court  of  appeal,  or  supreme  court,  for  the  revisal  of  the  decisions  of 
the  lower  courts.  The  senate  acted  in  this  capacity  in  New  York;  and  the 
governor  and  council  in  New  Jersey.  And  it  is  to  be  noticed,  as  an  instance 
of  the  extraordinary  vitality  of  abuses,  that  this  Revolution,  which  completely 
overthrew  the  royal  power  throughout  the  American  colonies,  was  ineffectual 
for  the  relief  of  the  liberated  people  from  the  tyranny  of  the  lawyers,  who 
cherished  and  maintained  their  technicalities,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  sim- 
plify legal  proceedings,  and  to  reduce  their  language  to  the  standard  of  common 
sense  and  conventional  usage. 

Georgia  introduced  a  new  law  respecting  the  descent  of  landed  property. 
The  purpose  to  make  that  colony  a  military  frontier  to  the  whole  group,  had 
caused  the  introduction  of  a  species  of  feudal  tenure,  which  had  been  found 
far  too  annoying  to  be  suffered  to  remain.     The  old  gavel-kind  tenure  was  in- 


622  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

culyF-  troduced;  and  real,  as  well  as  personal  property,  was  distributed  equally 
— :/~^7  amongst  the  children,  or  nearest  heirs.     The  other  States  had,  some  a  custom 

A.  D. 1606  , 

to  1781.  imitated  from  the  Mosaic  law;  others,  the  laws  of  entail  and  primogeniture  ; 
but  the  example  of  Georgia  prevailed,  and  by  1796  every  one  had  conformed 
to  it. 

Especial  notice  has  been  taken  above  of  the  relations  maintained  by  the 
constitutions  provided  for  the  several  colonies,  with  the  ecclesiastical  or 
religious  affairs  of  the  people.  This  being  a  matter  of  prime  importance, 
from  the  fact  that  the  United  States  have  dared  to  act  upon  that  principle, 
which,  at  the  outset  of  our  remarks  on  the  religious  polity  of  New  England, 
we  said  was  almost  unknown,  when  the  pilgrim  fathers  brought  to  America 
the  Puritan  faith ; — we  must  point  out  here  the  position  taken  by  the  different 
States  in  this  respect,  and  in  subsequent  pages  we  shall  speak  of  the  modifica- 
tions and  changes  afterwards  made,  and  of  the  social  consequences  of  these 
statutes  and  their  most  significant  manifestations. 

Congregationalism  kept  its  ground  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Hampshire,  as  the  established  sect,  and  even  increased  its  powers  and 
privileges.  Its  preachers  were  supported  by  taxes  levied  most  rigorously 
upon  all,  except  those  who  actually  contributed  to  some  other  ministry ;  and 
attendance  upon  some  form  of  evangelical  worship  was  compulsory.  The 
ancient  laws  against  "  blasphemy  "  were  renewed,  and  all  was  done  under 
cover  of  a  declaration  of  freedom  respecting  faith  and  worship,  which  con- 
trasts most  remarkably  with  the  enactments  :  Romanists,  of  course,  were 
not  regarded  with  favour.  New  Hampshire  expressly  shut  them  out  from  all 
offices  of  state.  The  other  New  England  commonwealth,  Rhode  Island,  once 
more  took  the  lead  in  the  practical  solution  of  these  seemingly  difficult 
questions,  and  repealed  the  law  which  excluded  Catholics  from  the  exercise  of 
the  franchise.  Sabbath  observance  was,  nevertheless,  enforced  by  law,  not 
only  in  these,  but  in  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union. 

New  York  and  New  Jersey  no  longer  afforded  particular  encouragement 
and  aid  to  Anglican  Episcopacy,  for  it  would  have  been,  after  their  experience 
of  it  during  the  war,  treason  to  their  newly  acquired  freedom.  The  latter 
State  expressly  provided  for  the  fullest  liberty  of  worship,  but  with  noticeable 
inconsistency  insisted  upon  Protestantism  as  a  qualification  for  its  chief  offices. 
In  the  former,  all  ministers  of  religion  were  declared  incapable  of  holding 
civic  offices. 

Compulsion  was  repudiated  by  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  also,  and  yet 
theological  tests  were  imposed  upon  candidates  for  political  stations  of  trust; — 
the  first  requiring  a  declaration  of  belief  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  other  of  the  reception  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Delaware,  too,  closed 
its  secular  offices  against  religious  teachers  and  preachers  of  all  sects.  In 
Maryland  the  same  law  existed,  and  with  it  another  law,  empowering  the 
assembly  to  tax  the  people  for  the  support  of  the  Christian  religion,  (a  pro- 
fession of  belief  in  which  office-bearers  were  required  to  make,)  and  to  dis- 
tribute the  proceeds  amongst  the  preachers  and  the  poor,  according  to  the 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  628 

desires  of  those  from  whom  it  was  collected:  but  this  law  was  never  acted   chap. 

IV. 

upon.  

The  constitution  of  Virginia  omitted  this  subject,  and  therefore  the  Church  toiVsi. 
of  England  kept  its  position  of  advantage.  In  the  assembly,  however,  it  was 
amongst  the  earliest  questions  discussed,  and  with  consequences  worthy  of 
notice.  First,  in  1776,  dissenters  were  excused  from  the  parish  rates  of  the 
year;  next,  in  1779,  they  were  exempted  for  ever  ;  then,  in  1784,  under  the 
auspices  of  Washington  and  Patrick  Henry,  an  attempt  was  made  to  enact  a 
general  assessment  in  favour  of  religion,  and  to  secure  all  the  property  the 
Church  of  England  had  ever  by  law  enjoyed,  to  it  again, — but  in  spite  of  such 
distinguished  support  it  failed*  and  lastly,  in  1785,  complete  religious  free- 
dom was  established  by  an  act  drawn  up  and  advocated  by  Jefferson. 

No  compulsory  support  was  provided  in  the  Carolinas,  but  the  officers  of 
State  were  required  to  be  Protestants,  and  such,  moreover,  as  believed  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible  in  North  Carolina,  whilst  in  South  Carolina  a  belief 
in  future  rewards  and  punishments  was  demanded.  The  second  constitution 
of  South  Carolina,  however,  instituted  a  singular  establishment  of  the 
**  Christian  Protestant  religion."  Whilst  all  who  held  the  being  of  God  and 
the  expectation  of  future  retribution  were  allowed  to  live  unmolested,  such 
as  added  to  this  the  reception  of  Christianity  and  of  the  Scriptures  as  inspired, 
might  organize  churches  and  become  parts  of  the  "  Establishment."  But  the 
management  of  those  churches,  and  the  choice  and  support  of  their  ministers, 
were  left  entirely  to  themselves.  Georgia  allowed  the  utmost  freedom  in 
belief  and  worship,  but  exacted  a  profession  of  Protestantism  from  its  chief 
officers,  and  closed  the  assembly  against  all  ministers. 

The  cognate  subject  of  education  was  introduced  into  the  constitution  of 
Massachusetts,  (and  by  imitation  into  the  second  constitution  of  New  Hamp- 
shire,) Pennsylvania,  and  North  Carolina,  three  States  so  different,  that  from 
this  fact  nothing  can  be  deduced  respecting  the  real  belief  of  the  Union  at 
that  time  upon  State  education ;  especially  as  the  two  latter  States  suffered 
those  clauses  to  remain  inoperative.  Care  was  also  taken  concerning  the 
colleges,  or  universities,  as  they  now  began  to  be  called,  and  gradually  a  scheme 
of  public  education  was  constructed  and  adopted  by  all  the  States, — of  which 
we  must  speak  hereafter. 

Beside  the  ecclesiastical  or  religious  legislation  in  the  colonies,  we  have 
directed  attention  to  the  laws  relating  to  slavery  in  each,  and  to  the  social  and 
political  position  of  the  coloured  races.  The  provisions  of  the  constitutions  of 
the  States  on  this  matter  are  of  the  greatest  interest  in  connexion  with  the 
subject  now  under  consideration,  and  in  their  bearing  upon  their  subsequent 
history. 

It  has  already  been  stated,  that  the  colonial  legislatures  learned  from  the 
imperial  government  to  regard  the  law  of  England  as  having  no  necessary 
authority  in  the  provinces.  Thence  it  followed  that  the  decision  in  the  often- 
cited  case  of  Somersett  could  not  render  the  emancipation  of  their  bondsmen 
obligatory  on  the  American  planters.     It  was,  indeed,  obligatory  upon  them, 


624  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  according  to  their  own  theory  of  their  relation  to  the  British  crown,  and  still 

! —  more  emphatically  had  they  made  themselves  responsible  for  the  liberation  of 

to  i"78i.  their  slaves  by  the  fundamental  axiom  of  their  "Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence." But  Congress  had  less  regard  to  logic  and  consistency  than  the 
committee  which  drew  that  famous  paper ;  and  the  interests  of  the  two  south- 
most  States  outweighed  the  convictions  of  the  men  of  New  England  and  the 
north.  Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed,  that  the  feeling  in  these  last-named 
portions  of  the  Union  at  all  resembled  the  popular  feeling  of  the  mother- 
country  at  the  same  period.  The  greater,  wiser,  and  better  men  alone,  both 
there  and  in  the  south  also,  were  assured  that,  as  each  year  since  that  period 
has  demonstrated,  the  complete  removal  of  every  vestige  of  this  prodigious 
anomaly,  was  the  measure  which  justice,  and  prudence,  and  the  dignity  of 
the  nation,  now  that  it  was  victorious  in  a  contest  so  sacred,  alike  demanded. 

Of  all  the  States,  Delaware  only  inserted  in  its  frame  of  polity  a  specific 
mention  of  slavery ;  pronouncing  it  wrong,  and  forbidding  the  introduction 
of  any  slaves  for  sale  into  the  territory.  Pennsylvania,  with  some  difficulty, 
enacted  a  law  in  1780,  which  prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves,  and  de- 
clared all  persons,  who  should  after  that  time  be  born  therein,  free.  In 
1783,  Massachusetts  interpreted  that  ground  principle  of  the  "  Rights  of 
Man,"  which  it  had  borrowed  from  the  "  Declaration"  of  the  Union,  as  im- 
plicitly forbidding  slavery.  Connecticut  and  Ehode  Island  explicitly  in- 
hibited it  in  the  following  year ;  and  New  Hampshire,  according  to  its  wont, 
imitated  its  former  superior. 

Virginia  caught  something  of  the  true  spirit  of  freedom  from  Jefferson's 
lips,  and  beside  closing  its  markets  against  any  further  importations,  recalled 
the  colonial  statute,  which  made  manumission  generally  illegal.  In  ten  years, 
however,  the  old  feeling  revived,  and  slave-owners  were  no  longer  permitted  to 
"  do  what  they  would  with  their  own,"  when  they  would  set  them  free. 
Maryland  copied  the  more  generous  enactments  of  Virginia.  New  Jersey 
and  New  York  put  a  stop  to  this  odious  traffic  altogether.  North  Carolina 
imposed  a  practical  prohibition  upon  the  emancipation  of  its  slaves,  in  the 
year  after  it  had  claimed  independence  for  itself,  and  paltered  with  the  trade 
in  men,  by  laying  a  duty  of  "  £5  per  head"  upon  each  person  imported. 
The  two  States  at  the  extreme  south  gave  no  sign  of  sharing  in  any  degree 
in  the  magnanimity  which  the  other  members  of  the  Union  thus  variously 
displayed. 

As  we  are  not  now  speculating  upon  the  development  of  "  democracy  in 
America,"  but  simply  relating  the  course  of  events,  in  respect  of  each  depart- 
ment of  the  constitutional  history  of  the  United  States ;  we  shall  pass  on  to 
the  growth  of  the  Federal  Union,  up  to  the  ratification  of  the  "  Articles  of 
Confederation,"  without  any  endeavour  to  trace  the  connexion  between  the 
States,  individually  regarded,  and  the  continental  government.  In  the  next 
chapter  it  will,  however,  be  needful  slightly  to  glance  at  this  subject. 

There  had  always  been  manifested  by  the  most  influential  members  of  the 
confederacy,  a  tendency  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  ends  of  com- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  625 

mon  interest.     As  early  as  1643,  the  colonies  of  New  England  in  this  manner  chap. 
entered  into  a  league,  which  was   charged  not  only  with  the  management  of 


IV. 


the  warlike  undertakings  of  that  group  of  settlements  against  the  Indians  and  to  mi. 
the  Dutch ;  but  especially,  also,  with  the  maintenance  of  "  the  truth  and 
liberties  of  the  gospel."  And  for  about  twenty  years  the  commissioners 
appointed  by  the  various  parties  to  this  "  Holy  Alliance,"  continued  to  watch 
over  and  to  direct  the  affairs  of  general  interest  to  New  England.  It  then, 
in  consequence  of  the  revolutions  in  the  parent  country,  lost  its  more  dignified 
occupations,  and  became  an  association  for  the  conduct  of  missions  to  the 
Indians  ;  and  soon  afterwards  expired ; — the  necessities  which  called  it  into 
being  existing  no  longer.  After  several  proposals  for  a  league  to  embrace  all 
the  colonies,  the  convention  at  Albany,  in  1754,  affirmed  that  it  was  desirable 
for  them  to  unite  for  mutual  defence  ;  and  Franklin  presented  a  draft  of  a 
scheme  of  union.  The  principal  features  were  a  council  to  be  elected  by  the 
provinces,  consisting  of  a  fixed  number  of  members  ;  and  a  president-general 
to  be  nominated  by  the  crown.  This  sketch  displeased  both  parties  concerned 
in  the  questions  before  the  convention.  The  colonies  refused  to  accept  it, 
because  it  conceded  too  much  power  to  the  crown ;  and  the  British  govern- 
ment rejected  it,  because  it  allowed  too  great  a  share  of  influence  to  the 
colonies.  A  union  of  some  kind  was,  however,  aimed  at  by  the  Board  of 
Trade  ;  and  it  was  proposed  to  constitute  the  governors  of  the  provinces, 
along  with  a  certain  number  chosen  from  their  councils,  into  a  "  Grand 
Assembly,"  for  the  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  entire  territory,  and  for  im- 
posing taxes  on  the  colonists.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  proposal  fell 
to  the  ground. 

The  following  remarks,  by  Judge  Story,  may  be  appropriately  introduced 
here.  "  The  colonies,"  he  says, "  did  not  possess  the  power  of  forming  any  league 
or  treaty  amongst  themselves,  which  should  acquire  an  obligatory  force, 
without  the  assent  of  the  parent  state.  And  though  their  mutual  wants  and 
necessities  often  induced  them  to  associate  for  common  purposes  of  defence) 
these  confederacies  were  of  a  casual  and  temporary  nature,  and  were  allowed 
as  an  indulgence,  rather  than  as  a  right.  They  made  several  efforts  to  pro- 
cure the  establishment  of  some  general  superintending  government  over  them 
all;  but  their  own  differences  of  opinion,  as  well  as  the  jealousy  of  the  crown, 
made  these  efforts  abortive.  These  efforts,  however,  prepared  their  minds 
for  the  gradual  reconciliation  of  their  local  interests,  and  for  the  gradual 
development  of  the  principles  upon  which  a  union  ought  to  rest;  rather  than 
brought  on  an  immediate  sense  of  the  necessity,  or  the  blessings,  of  such  a 
general  government." 

With  the  commencement  of  the  revolutionary  struggle,  a  new  step  in  that 
development  of  the  principle  of  Federal  Union,  of  which  Story  speaks,  was 
taken.  As  soon  as  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  its  accessories, 
was  discussed  in  America,  Massachusetts  recommended  that  a  Congress  of 
committees  from  the  Houses  of  Representatives  in  the  several  colonies  should 
meet  in  New  York.     Nine  out  of  the  thirteen  legislatures  acceded  to  the 

4  i, 


626  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    proposal,  and  the  Congress  constituted  itself  at  the  time  and  place  suggested, 


■ —  and  sat  for  three  weeks.     The  results  appeared  in  a  "  Declaration  of  the 

to  1781.  Rights  and  Grievances  "  of  the  colonies,  and  in  other  documents  referred  to 
in  a  former  chapter;  all  of  which  were  accepted  by  the  assemblies  of  the 
whole  of  the  provinces.  One  point  requires  mention; — each  colony  was 
allowed  a  single  vote ;  a  rule  rendered  necessary  by  the  impossibility  of 
limiting  the  numbers  of  the  committees  appointed ;  and,  moreover,  because 
the  occasion  precluded  the  possibility  of  that  rivalry  which  would  have  re- 
quired a  nice  adjustment  of  the  votes,  &c,  to  the  population  and  wealth  of 
the  communities  represented. 

In  1773,  another  advance  towards  union  was  made  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia.  Each  colony  appointed  a  committee,  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  the  most  authentic  and  complete  information  of  the  pro- 
ceedings and  plans  of  the  British  government,  affecting  the  American  pro- 
vinces ;  and  also  of  corresponding  with  the  other  colonies,  that  they  too  might 
be  fully  informed,  and  that  their  resistance  might  be  more  effectual  by  being 
well  arranged  and  unanimous. 

Next  year  the  agitation  against  the  tea  tax  prompted  new  measures,  and 
Massachusetts  again  took  the  lead.  It  now,  with  the  warm  approbation  of 
the  entire  patriot  party,  proposed  the  assembling  of  a  continental  Congress  at 
Philadelphia,  to  take  upon  itself  the  care  of  the  common  interests  of  the  pro- 
vinces. Georgia,  as  we  have  said  before,  was  not  represented  on  the  occasion. 
The  former  rule  of  one  vote  to  each  colony  was  adopted ;  and  another  "  de- 
claration of  colonial  rights  "  concocted,  and  circulated. 

The  first  work  of  this  Congress  was  the  "American  Association;  "  which 
banded  the  consenting  provinces  by  an  agreement  to  abstain  from  all  inter- 
course, direct  or  indirect,  with  the  mother  country,  and  from  the  use  of  Brit- 
ish goods  of  every  kind.  It  also  imposed  a  pledge  of  renunciation  of  the  slave- 
trade,  and  of  commercial  dealings  with  slave-traders ;  a  condemnation  of  that 
traffic  which  Congress  never  expressly  recalled.  To  this  "  Association,"  and 
to  the  corresponding  committees  before  mentioned,  may  be  ascribed  the  rapid 
progress  of  "  Federalism,"  as  it  was  afterwards  called  ;  and  which  was  one 
of  the  most  essential  conditions  of  the  victory  that  the  colonies  afterwards  ob- 
tained. 

We  extract  from  the  "  commentaries"  of  Story,  the  observations  which  he 
makes  upon  the  significance  of  this  Congress  in  the  constitutional  History  of 
the  United  States.  "  Thus  was  organized  under  the  auspices  and  with  the 
consent  of  the  people,  acting  directly  in  their  primary,  sovereign  capacity,  and 
without  the  intervention  of  the  functionaries,  to  whom  the  ordinary  powers  of 
government  were  delegated  in  the  colonies,  the  first  general  or  national 
government,  which  has  been  very  aptly  called  { the  Revolutionary  govern- 
ment,' since  in  its  origin  and  progress  it  was  wholly  conducted  upon  revolu- 
tionary principles.  The  Congress  thus  assembled  exercised,  de  facto  and  de 
jure,  a  sovereign  authority ;  not  as  the  delegated  agents  of  the  governments 
d?  facto  of  the  colonies,  but  in  virtue  of  original  powers  derived  from  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  G27 

people.     The  revolutionary  government,  thus  formed,  terminated  only  when  -chap. 

it  was  regularly  superseded  by  the  confederated  government,  under  the  arti- I__ 

cles  finally  ratified  in  1781."  ViVef3 

Franklin,  in  whom  courage  and  caution  were  blended  in  such  admirable 
proportions,  as  to  make  him  one  of  the  wisest  of  counsellors,  laid  before  Con- 
gress, when  assembled  the  second  time,  at  Philadelphia,  in  May,  1775,  a  pro- 
ject of  confederation  in  thirteen  "  Articles  " ;  which,  though  it  was  not  adopted, 
must  have  materially  promoted  the  progress  we  are  tracing.  It  contem- 
plated the  possibility  of  a  reconciliation  with  Great  Britain,  and  was  to  be 
voided  by  such  an  event ;  but,  in  case  of  the  "  failure  thereof,  this  confeder- 
ation," it  said, "  is  to  be  perpetual."  The  germs  of  many  of  the  peculiarities  of 
the  existing  constitution  of  the  Union,  may  be  detected  in  this  abortive  scheme : 
such  as  the  proportion  between  the  number  of  delegates  and  the  population 
of  the  several  provinces ;  and  the  division  of  the  upper  branch  of  the  legislature 
into  three  parts,  at  the  outset,  and  the  renewing  it  a  third  at  a  time.  And  the 
determination  to  admit  any  other  American  colony  of  Great  Britain  into  the 
league,  "  upon  application,"  is  found  in  the  "Articles  of  Confederation,"  which 
was  eventually  adopted.  No  more  minute  notice  of  this  project  is  required, 
as  it  was  but  a  tentative  in  Union,  and  was  seldom  referred  to,  after  it  had 
been  dismissed. 

We  scarcely  need  to  say  that  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence  "  was  a 
moment  in  this  progression.  It  occupies,  in  fact,  as  considerable  a  place  in  this 
department  of  the  history,  as  it  does  in  that  of  the  war  itself. 

Simultaneously  with  the  appointment  of  the  committee  to  draw  up  that 
"  Declaration,"  Congress  resolved  to  nominate  another  committee,  "  to  pre- 
pare and  digest  the  form  of  a  confederation  to  be  entered  into  between  these 
colonies."  And  on  the  12th  of  June,  1776,  such  a  committee,  of  one  member 
from  each  colony,  was  actually  appointed.  A  month  from  that  day,  the  first 
draft  was  presented ;  and  at  various  times,  in  that  and  the  following  year,  it 
was  discussed,  and  subjected  to  many  amendments  and  revisions,  but  so  lively 
was  their  sense  of  the  concernment  of  this  undertaking,  and  so  numerous  were 
the  calls  for  the  almost  impromptu  exercise  of  their  care  and  power, — not 
till  the  15th  of  November,  1777,  did  Congress  finally  adopt  the  "  Articles;" — 
nor  was  a  copy  prepared  for  ratification  until  the  26th  of  June,  in  1778. 

Nearly  three  years  elapsed  after  that  date,  before  the  legislatures  of  every 
State  had  ratified  the  "  confederation."  Delaware,  after  much  delay,  signed 
in  1779;  but  Maryland  would  not  ratify  it  till  March  the  1st,  1781  ;  from 
which  day  the  "  Articles  "  were  the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  This 
fact  must  be  noted,  because  the  opponents  of  the  New  Constitution  con- 
founded the  Federal  polity  established  by  those  "  Articles,"  with  that  of  "  the 
Revolutionary  government,"  which  it  superseded ;  and  spoke  of  that,  as  if  it, 
and  not  the  latter,  were  venerable  from  its  association  with  the  victories  and 
the  glories  of  the  war. 

No  argument  is  required  to  prove  that  the  powers  of  Congress,  under  these 
definite  "  Articles,"  were  really  and  necessarily  less   than  those  enjoyed  and 

4  l  2 


A.  H.1606 

to  1781. 


628  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c"y  P:  exercised  by  the  Provisional  Government,  which  was  not  subject  to  any 
written  restrictions.  And  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  it  would  have  been 
possible  for  Congress,  thus  fettered,  to  conduct  and  direct  the  operations  by 
which  the  freedom  of  the  country  was  achieved.  It  was  well,  therefore, 
that  the  blind  selfishness  of  the  Maryland  legislature  put  off  the  abdication  of 
the  "  Revolutionary  "  authority,  until  the  time  when  the  possession  of  unde- 
fined power  ceased  to  be  necessary  for  the  existence  of  the  State.  The  termin- 
ation of  the  contest  would,  under  any  circumstances,  have  made  a  different 
kind  of  government  necessary,  and  as  it  could  scarcely  have  been  hoped  that 
the  first  essay  in  federal  legislation  should  be  successful,  it  may  be  esteemed 
a  happy  occurrence  that  these  "  Articles  "  were  (almost  as  soon  as  they  were 
established)  exposed  to  the  trial  of  the  consequences  of  the  war,  whereby  the 
principles  involved  in  them  were  thoroughly  tested,  and  the  convention  at 
Philadelphia,  to  guide  them  in  their  deliberations,  had  before  them  the  results 
of  an  experiment,  exceptional,  not  in  kind,  but  only  as  to  the  degree  of  force 
employed  in  it. 

Like  Franklin's  scheme,  this  plan  consisted  of  thirteen  "  Articles,"  and 
several  of  them  were  borrowed  from  it.  Others  embodied,  and  thus  legalized, 
the  actual  proceedings  of  the  Provisional  Congress,  and  one  or  two  were  based 
upon  the  experience  in  the  management  of  national  affairs  gained  during  its 
existence. 

After  determining  the  title  of  the  confederacy,  the  "  Articles  "  stipulated  for 
the  retention  by  each  State  of  "  every  power,  jurisdiction,  and  right,"  not  "  ex- 
pressly delegated  to  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  "  by  that  confeder- 
ation. A  definition  of  the  "  league  of  friendship  "  then  entered  into,  followed, 
and  next  came  a  provision  which  threw  open  the  citizenship  of  each  State  to  the 
citizens  of  all  the  others,  and  destroyed  every  vestige  of  alienism  in  the  inter- 
communications of  the  States.  A  Congress  of  delegates  annually  chosen  by 
the  members  of  the  confederacy  was  then  provided,  and  the  number  of  repre- 
sentatives from  each  limited,  as  well  as  the  term  of  their  service.  It  was  also 
agreed  that  each  State  should  pay  its  own  delegates,  and  that  no  State  should 
have  more  than  one  vote, — a  condition  copied  from  the  by-law  of  an  earlier 
Congress,  and  still  perpetuated  in  the  Senate  under  the  New  Constitution, 
the  exact  benefits  and  the  justice  of  which  it  is  not  easy  to  discern.  The 
sixth  article  set  up  Congress  as  the  medium  of  all  dealings,  pacific  or  hostile, 
with  foreign  powers,  and  as  the  sole  authorizer  of  any  alliance  with  such,  by 
a  combination  of  two  or  more  of  the  States.  The  appointment  of  all  regimental 
officers  was  given  to  the  legislatures  of  the  Stages  raising  the  regiments.  And 
the  "  charges  of  war,"  and  the  like,  were  to  be  defrayed  from  "  a  common 
treasury,"  supplied  by  taxes  laid  by  Congress  upon  the  several  States  "  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  all  land  in  each,"  but  levied  by  the  State  legis  • 
latures. 

"  Article  nine  "  defined  and  described  the  powers  of  Congress  ;  which  were, 
the  sovereignty  in  respect  of  every  relation  with  foreign  powers ;  the  decision 
as  "  the  last  resort  on  appeal,"  in  all  cases  of  dispute  between  any  of  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  629 

States,  and  respecting  grants  of  land  from  "  two  or  more  States ; "  the  right  chap. 

to  regulate  the  coinage,  the  weights  and  measures,  the  trade  with  Indians  not : — 

resident  in  any  State,  the  post-office;  to  nominate  all  military  officers  higher  toiVsi. 
than  those  of  regiments,  and  all  naval  officers,  and  to  direct  and  guide  both 
branches  of  the  service  ;  to  provide  for  the  management  of  "  the  general 
affairs  of  the  United  States,"  by  constituting  the  needful  committees  and 
officers ;  "  to  appoint  one  of  their  number  to  preside," — which  appointment 
was  to  be  made  annually,  and  the  same"  president  might  be  chosen  only  once 
in  every  three  years  ; — to  arrange  loans,  and  issue  bills  of  credit ;  "  to  build  and 
equip  a  navy ; "  to  raise  the  necessary  land  forces,  who  were  to  be  fitted  out 
and  officered  (as  to  regiments)  by  the  several  States,  but  at  the  expense  of  the 
confederacy,  &c.  For  every  such  act  of  sovereignty  the  assent  of  nine  States 
was  required,  and  for  determining  questions  on  any  other  point  than  that  of 
adjourning  from  day  to  day,  "  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  the  United  States  in 
Congress  assembled"  were  indispensable: — a  provision  which  Jefferson  in- 
terpreted as  signifying,  that  upon  all  greater  questions  of  State,  a  majority  of 
the  people,  or  the  assent  of  nine  States,  was  requisite,  and  on  lesser  questions, 
a  majority  of  the  States,  or  the  assent  of  seven  States  :  whilst  for  adjournments 
from  day  to  day,  a  majority  of  the  Congress  (such  as  under  the  "  Revolu- 
tionary government "  had  settled  all  questions)  should  be  sufficient.  This 
"  Article  "  further  empowered  the  Congress  to  adjourn  for  any  time  less  than 
six  months,  and  to  any  place  within  the  States'  territory,  to  publish  parts  of 
their  journals,  &c. 

The  other  "  Articles  "  limited  the  power  of  the  committee  which  was  to  act 
"  in  the  recess  of  Congress;"  offered  immediate  admission  to  the  Union  to 
Canada,. but  made  the  assent  of  nine  States  needful  for  that  of  any  other 
colony ;  pledged  the  public  faith  of  the  States  for  the  payment  and  satisfaction 
of  debts,  bills  of  credit,  &c,  for  which  the  Provisional  Government  was 
morally  liable  ;  and  bound  every  State  to  observe  the  determination  of  Con- 
gress, and  the  "Articles  "  also,  in  which,  moreover,  Congress  alone,  with  the 
confirmation  of  the  State  legislatures,  was  declared  competent  to  make  any 
alteration. 

In  the  next  chapter,  we  shall  point  out  the  defects  in  this  frame  of  federal 
government,  some  of  which  have  been  referred  to  already  ;  further  comment 
upon  it  here  is  therefore  unnecessary. 


630  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  V. 


AGITATION   FOR  A   NEW  FEDERAL   CONSTITUTION.— NEW   PARTIES,   FEDERALISTS   AND   DEMOCRATS. 

— THE  CONVENTION. 

c  i^a  p.  ((  jT  js  amazing,"  wrote  Franklin  in  1784,  during  his  residence  at  Passy  as 
A  D  m6  American  ambassador, — "  it  is  amazing,  the  number  of  legislators  that  kindly 
1787-  bring  one  new  plans  for  governing  the  United  States."  The  Gallic  constitu- 
tion-makers, who  were  a  few  years  afterwards  to  have  so  clear  a  field  for  the 
exercise  of  their  ingenuity  in  France  itself,  did  not  participate  in  the  philoso- 
pher's resolute  trust  in  the  .government  established  by  the  "  Articles  of  Confe- 
deration." 

As  it  is  one  of  the  most  cheerful  words  that  was  spoken  in  favour  of  the  old 
Constitution,  we  will  transcribe  a  passage  from  a  letter  of  the  same  writer  to  a 
friend  in  England,  dated  in  the  year  after  he  had  recorded  his  amusement  at 
the  zeal  of  the  French  would-be  legislators.  "  Our  Constitution,"  he  says, 
"  seems  not  to  be  well  understood  with  you.  If  the  Congress  were  a  permanent 
body,  there  would  be  more  reason  for  being  jealous  of  giving  it  powers.  But 
its  members  are  chosen  annually,  cannot  be  chosen  more  than  three  years  suc- 
cessively, nor  more  than  three  years  in  seven ;  and  any  of  them  may  be  recalled 
at  any  time,  whenever  their  constituents  shall  be  dissatisfied  with  their  con- 
duct. They  are  of  the  people,  and  return  again  to  mix  with  the  people, 
having  no  more  durable  pre-eminence  than  the  different  grains  of  sand  in  an 
hour-glass.  Such  an  assembly  cannot  easily  become  dangerous  to  liberty. 
They  are  the  servants  of  the  people,  sent  together  to  do  the  people's  business, 
and  promote  the  public  welfare ;  their  powers  must  be  sufficient,  or  their  du- 
ties cannot  be  performed.  They  have  no  profitable  appointments,  but  a  mere 
payment  of  daily  wages,  such  as  are  scarcely  equivalent  to  their  expenses ;  so 
that,  having  no  chance  for  great  places  and  enormous  salaries  or  pensions,  as 
in  some  countries,  there  is  no  canvassing  or  bribing  for  elections.  I  wish  Old 
England  were  as  happy  in  its  government,  but  I  do  not  see  it." 

Franklin,  however,  had  not  such  opportunities  of  knowing  the  actual  evils 
and  imperfections  of  the  polity  he  was  commending,  as  those  sagacious  states- 
men, who  had  been  engaged  at  home  in  the  thankless  endeavour  to  guide  the 
affairs  of  the  Union  with  dignity  and  success,  by  means  of  the  scanty  powers  al- 
lowed them  under  the  "  Articles."  They,  one  and  all,  were  persuaded  that  if  any 
substantial  benefits  were  to  accrue  to  the  people  at  large,  from  their  acquisi- 
tion of  independence,  so  great  a  change  must  be  made  in  the  form  and  the 
conditions  of  the  federal  bond,  as  should  enable  the  continental  government 
to  act  with  the  energy  and  power  of  the  whole  thirteen  States ;  not  only  in  its 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  631 

dealings  with  the  governments  of  other  nations,  but  also  in  every  necessary   chap. 
intervention  in  the  affairs  of  each  member  of  the  Confederation. 


v. 


Jefferson,  who  has  since  been  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  Anti-federal  '  iin. 
party,  was  as  profoundly  convinced  of  this  necessity,  as  "Washington  himself. 
"  Our  first  essay  in  America,"  he  wrote  in  his  Memoir,  "  to  establish  a  feder- 
ative government  had  fallen,  on  trial,  very  short  of  its  object.  During  the 
war  of  Independence,  while  the  pressure  of  an  external  enemy  hooped  us  to- 
gether, and  their  enterprises  kept  us  necessarily  on  the  alert,  the  spirit  of 
the  people,  excited  by  danger,  was  a  supplement  to  the  Confederation,  and 
urged  them  to  zealous  actions,  whether  claimed  by  that  instrument  or  not ; 
but  when  peace  and  safety  were  restored,  and  every  man  became  engaged  in 
useful  and  profitable  occupation,  less  attention  was  paid  to  the  calls  of  Con- 
gress. The  fundamental  defect  of  the  Confederation  was,  that  Congress  was 
not  authorized  to  act  immediately  on  the  people,  and  by  its  own  officers. 
Their  power  was  only  requisitory,  and  these  requisitions  were  addressed  to 
the  several  legislatures,  to  be  by  them  carried  into  execution,  without  other 
coercion  than  the  moral  principle  of  duty.  This  allowed,  in  fact,  a  negation  to 
every  legislature,  on  every  measure  proposed  by  Congress ; — a  negation  so 
frequently  exercised  in  practice,  as  to  benumb  the  action  of  the  federal 
government,  and  to  render  it  inefficient  in  its  general  objects,  and  more  espe- 
cially in  pecuniary  and  foreign  concerns.  The  want,  too,  of  a  separation  of 
the  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary  functions,  worked  disadvantageously 
in  practice. 

"Yet  this  state  of  things,"  he  continues,  with  allowable  pride,  "  afforded  a 
happy  augury  of  the  future  march  of  our  Confederacy,  when  it  was  seen  that 
the  good  sense  and  good  disposition  of  the  people,  as  soon  as  they  perceived  the 
incompetence  of  the  first  compact,  instead  of  leaving  its  correction  to  insur- 
rection and  civil  war,  agreed  with  one  voice  to  elect  deputies  to  a  general  con- 
vention, who  should  peaceably  meet  and  agree  on  such  a  constitution  as  '  would 
insure  peace,  justice,  liberty,  the  common  defence,  and  general  welfare.5 " 

In  his  Anas,  Jefferson  also  recorded  his  conviction  to  the  same  effect,  but 
with  an  additional  consideration  of  the  very  highest  moment.  "  The  alliance 
between  the  States  under  the  old  Articles  of  Confederation,  for  the  purpose  of 
joint  defence  against  the  aggressions  of  Great  Britain,  was  found  insufficient, 
as  treaties  of  alliance  generally  are,  to  enforce  compliance  with  their  mutual 
stipulations :  and  these  once  fulfilled,  that  bond  was  to  expire  of  itself,  and 
each  State  to  become  sovereign  and  independent  in  all  things.  Yet,  it  could 
not  but  occur  to  every  one,  that  these  separate  independencies,  like  the  petty 
states  of  Greece,  would  be  eternally  at  war  with  each  other,  and  would  be- 
come at  length  the  mere  partisans  and  satellites  of  the  leading  powers  of  Europe. 
All  then  must  have  looked  forward  to  some  further  bond  of  union,  which 
would  insure  internal  peace,  and  a  political  system  of  our  own,  independent 
of  that  of  Europe." 

The  worth  of  such  a  testimony  as  this  to  the  need  of  a  new  Constitution  for 
the  Union,  cannot  be  exaggerated.  It  fully  confirms  the  impression  which  the 


A.  D. 1786, 
1787. 


632  HISTORY    OF    AME1UCA. 

chap,  story  of  the  kind  officiousness  of  the  amateur  politiques  of  France  must  pro- 
duce,— that  there  was  a  general  belief  that  the  national  government  of 
America  during  the  war  was  provisional  and  temporary,  and  that  a  new  one, 
more  studiously  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  people  in  general,  and 
calculated  for  permanency,  would  be  framed.  And  it  shows  us  that  it  is  here 
we  must  look  for  the  actual  establishment  of  the  United  States,  and  not  to 
the  more  attractive  details  of  the  strategy  and  the  victories  of  the  patriot 
generals  and  armies. 

How  the  old  Federal  Constitution  originated,  and  how  it  was  practically 
demonstrated  to  be  insufficient  for  the  circumstances  and  the  prospects  of  the 
States,  have  been  related  in  the  immediately  foregoing  chapters.  We  have 
now  to  show  the  significance  and  the  results  of  the  agitation,  which,  commencing 
before  the  war  was  fairly  concluded,  rose  in  one  State  to  armed  insurrec- 
tion before  the  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  four  years,  and  had  assumed 
a  most  threatening  aspect  towards  the  Union  itself,  when  the  convention  at 
Annapolis  proposed  the  summoning  of  one  at  Philadelphia  for  the  express 
purpose  of  taking  into  consideration  the  changes  which  must  be  made  in  the 
"  Articles,"  to  render  the  federal  government  a  reality,  and  to  put  an  end  to 
the  distraction  and  disorganization  of  the  country. 

We  must,  however,  first  extract  from  "  The  Federalist,"  an  eloquent  exposi- 
tion of  the  state  of  the  country,  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  which  will  serve 
as  a  foundation  for  what  will  immediately  be  said,  and  as  a  recapitulation  of 
what  has  been  related  in  a  former  section  of  this  book. 

"  We  may  indeed,  with  propriety,  be  said  to  have  reached  almost  the  last 
stage  of  national  humiliation.  There  is  scarcely  any  thing  that  can  wound  the 
pride  or  degrade  the  character  of  an  independent  people  which  we  do  not 
experience.  Are  there  engagements,  to  the  performance  of  which  we  are 
held  by  every  tie  respectable  amongst  men  ?  These  are  the  subjects  of  con- 
stant and  unblushing  violation.  Do  we  owe  debts  to  foreigners,  and  to  our 
own  citizens,  contracted  in  a  time  of  imminent  peril  for  the  preservation  of  our 
political  existence  ?  These  remain  without  any  proper  or  satisfactory  pro- 
vision for  their  discharge.  Have  we  valuable  territories  and  important  ports 
in  the  possession  of  a  foreign  power,  which  by  express  stipulations  ought  long 
since  to  have  been  surrendered  ?  These  are  still  retained,  to  the  prejudice  of 
our  interests,  not  less  than  of  our  rights.  Are  we  in  a  condition  to  resist  or 
to  repel  the  aggression  ?  We  have  neither  troops,  nor  treasury,  nor  govern- 
ment [for  the  Union],  Are  we  even  in  a  condition  to  remonstrate  with 
dignity?  The  just  imputations  on  our  own  faith  in  respect  to  the  same  treaty 
ought  first  to  be  removed.  Are  we  entitled  by  nature  and  compact  to  a  free 
participation  in  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi?  Spain  excludes  us  from  it. 
Is  public  credit  an  indispensable  resource  in  time  of  public  danger?  We 
seem  to  have  abandoned  its  cause  as  desperate  and  irretrievable.  Is  com- 
merce of  importance  to  national  wealth  ?  Ours  is  at  the  lowest  point  of 
declension.  Is  respectability  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  powers  a  safeguard  against 
foreign  encroachments?     The   imbecility  of  our   government    even    forbids 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  633 

them  to  treat  with  us ;  our  ambassadors  abroad  are  the  mere  pageants  of  c  ha  p. 
mimic  sovereignty.     Is  a  violent  and  unnatural  decrease  in  the  value  of  land  a 


v. 


symptom  of  national  distress  ?  The  price  of  improved  land  in  most  parts  of  the  '  iw 
country  is  much  lower  than  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  quantity  of  waste  land 
at  market,  and  can  only  be  fully  explained  by  that  want  of  public  and  private 
confidence  which  are  so  alarmingly  prevalent  among  all  ranks,  and  which 
have  a  direct  tendency  to  depreciate  property  of  every  kind.  Is  private  credit 
the  friend  and  patron  of  industry  ?  That  most  useful  kind  which  relates  to 
borrowing  and  lending  is  reduced  within  the  narrowest  limits,  and  this  still 
more  from  an  opinion  of  insecurity  than  from  a  scarcity  of  money.  To  shorten 
an  enumeration  of  particulars  which  can  afford  neither  pleasure  nor  instruc- 
tion, it  may  in  general  be  demanded,  what  indication  is  there  of  national  dis- 
order, poverty,  and  insignificance  that  could  befall  a  community  so  blessed  with 
natural  advantages  as  we  are,  which  does  not  form  a  part  of  the  dark  cata- 
logue of  our  public  misfortunes?" 

If  it  should  be  asked  why  this  disastrous  condition  of  public  affairs  was 
charged  upon  the  Constitution, — it  might  be  sufficient  to  reply,  that  the  ac- 
ceptation of  the  New  Constitution  was  actually  the  inauguration  of  a  state  of 
things  in  which,  if  it  has  not  been  entirely  free  from  commercial  or  financial 
distress,  such  occurrences  have  been  exceptional  and  comparatively  rare,  as 
our  notices  of  "  the  progress  of  the  nation  "  will,  from  time  to  time,  demon- 
strate. But  another  answer,  and  one  which  represents  more  exactly  the  con- 
victions of  this  period  of  transition,  will  be  found  in  the  conclusions  regarding 
the  "  Articles,"  which  were  reached  by  the  leaders  of  the  agitation  against 
them. 

How  the  universal  popular  discussion  of  this  momentous  question  proceeded, 
we  cannot  easily  show.     Some  glimpses  of  it,  however,  have  been  afforded  us  ^/ 

by  the  events  preceding  and  attending  Shayfs*  rebellion ;  and  others,  by  the 
quotations  from  Jefferson's  and  Franklin's  correspondence.  Throughout  the 
Union,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  friendly  countries  like  France  also,  men  asked 
one  another  what  should  be  done;  and  the  differences  of  opinion  for  the  most 
part  arose  from  a  greater  or  less  reliance  upon  what  might  be  termed  local  self- 
government,  in  comparison  with  government  by  a  central,  federal  authority. 
A  very  few  theorists  or  empirics, — one  knows  not  which  to  call  them, — 
dreamed  of  a  monarchy.  By  degrees,  the  true  character  of  the  defects  of  the 
existing  Confederation  became  manifest ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  new  "  frame  " 
was  proffered  to  the  people  that  they  were  made  visible  to  all,  and  even  then, 
some  sturdily  refused  to.  see  many  of  them. 

Leaving  these  for  the  present,  we  will  enumerate  the  defects  which  were 
discovered  and  pointed  out  in  that  first  essay  towards  a  written  constitu- 
tion, by  this  debate  concerning  it,  in  which  the  whole  nation  took  part;  and 
of  which  they  are  in  fact  a  summary : — and  we  shall  appeal  to  Jefferson,  as 
well  as  to  "  the  Federalist,"  Judge  Story,  and  Chief  Justice  Kent,  in  support 
of  our  representations,  for  which  our  readers  are  already  prepared. 

The  fundamental  error  or  defect  of  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation  "  was 

4    M 


A.D.I? 

1787. 


634  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    this, — they  were  a  mere  compact,  made  between  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
-  States.     And  there  were  several  notable  faults  in  the  "  Articles  "  themselves. 

As  a  scheme  of  government  for  the  Union,  therefore,  they  necessarily  want- 
ed the  most  needful  sanction  of  all — the  consent  of  the  people.  No  ratifica- 
tion of  any  kind  was  given  by,  or  even  asked  of,  those  most  deeply  interested 
in  this  tentative  constitution.  The  State  legislatures  were  bodies  chosen  for 
particular  and  territorial  purposes,  nor  was  there  any  general  or  blank 
clause  in  their  commissions,  which  qualified  them  for  the  consideration  of  a 
question  of  such  grave  import  as  this  ;  and  still  less  for  the  determination  of 
it.  Besides,  had  this  been  the  case,  these  bodies  were  continuous,  whilst  the 
members  composing  them  varied  year  by  year ;  and,  consequently,  the  deter- 
mination of  the  legislature  of  one  year  might  be  reversed  by  that  of  a  succeed- 
ing year.  Moreover,  to  hold  any  legislative  decision  to  be  irreversible,  would 
have  been  to  violate  and  destroy  the  entire  system  of  representation;  and, 
indeed,  it  could  not  have  been  so  much  as  attempted. 

Further ;  the  responsibility,  in  assemblies  like  these  legislatures,  is  practi- 
cally divided  amongst  the  members ;  and  each  one  does  not  realize  his  own 
individuality  for  the  purpose  of  praise  and  blame,  respecting  the  proceedings 
he  joins  in ;  but  acknowledges  and  acts  upon  the  notion  of  his  being  but  one 
of  a  number,  and  therefore  not  personally  accountable  for  a  matter  in  which 
he  does  but  "  take  part,"  This  alone  would  inevitably  involve  endless  dif- 
ferences on  such  points  as  the  extent  and  the  reality  of  the  powers  of  the 
federal  government ;  and  especially  concerning  the  limits  between  its  sphere 
and  those  of  the  governments  of  the  several  States. 

Nor  is  this  all ;  the  people  of  each  State — and  every  single  legislator,  as 
one  of  the  people,  with  them — could  not  esteem  themselves  under  the  least 
obligation  to  attend  to  the  "  recommendations  "  of  the  central  authority,  which 
had  been  constituted  thus,  extra-officially,  by  these  representatives.  The  State 
Constitutions  themselves  had  given  consistency  to  the  universal  conviction, 
that  in  casting  off  the  yoke  of  the  mother-country,  it  was  the  people  that  be- 
came essentially  and  indefeasibly,  for  all  the  purposes  of  government  and  of 
national  actions,  the  State.  So  that  both  in  their  narrower  citizenship,  and 
in  that  which  affiliated  them  to  the  "  United  States,"  they  rightly  looked  upon 
themselves  as  the  sovereign  power,  and  expected  that  no  authority  should  be 
exercised  which  did  not  derive  itself  distinctly  and  immediately  from  them. 

Theoretically,  the  Confederation  was  a  government ;  but  actually,  owing  to 
its  regarding  the  States  composing  it  as  corporations  and  "  as  contradistin- 
guished from  the  individuals  of  whom  they  consisted,"  it  could  govern  only 
by  the  permission  of  the  several  legislatures ;  that  is,  it  was  not  a  government. 
In  practice  it  was,  though  not  consistently,  an  alliance  or  league  formed  by 
thirteen  separate  sovereignties  ;  and  yet  it  aimed  at  the  production  of  oneness 
of  action,  and  at  the  elevation  of  each  State  to  that  rank  amongst  the  powers 
of  the  world,  which  could  be  secured  only  by  its  being  an  integral  part  of  a 
government,  invested  with  the  strength,  moral  and  material,  of  the  whole 
thirteen.     In  attempting  to  obtain  the  advantages  of  a  league  as  to  internal 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  635 


affairs, "and  of  a  government  external!)',  without  the  corresponding  disadvan-  chap. 
tages  (as  they  were  deemed)  of  the  reverse  of  each  scheme,  the  framers  and 


executors  of  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation  "  had  really  insured  possession  of  '  mr. 
neither  species  of  good  ;  and  they  brought  upon  the  nation  most  of  the  ills 
which  they  most  sought  to  escape.  This  has  been  made  evident ;  and  the 
reason  for  it  also  must  now  be  plain.     Let  us  see  how  it  worked. 

"  Government,"  says  Hamilton,  in  "  the  Federalist,"  "  implies  the  power 
of  making  laws.  It  is  essential  to  the  idea  of  a  law,  that  it  be  attended  with  a 
sanction ;  or,  in  other  words,  a  penalty  or  punishment  for  disobedience.  If 
there  be  no  penalty  annexed  to  disobedience,  the  resolutions  or  commands 
which  pretend  to  be  laws  will  in  fact  amount  to  nothing  more  than  advice  or 
recommendation.  This  penalty,  whatever  it  may  be,  can  only  be  inflicted  in 
two  ways;  by  the  agency  of  the  courts  and  ministers  of  justice,  or  by  military 
force  ; — by  the  coercion  of  the  magistracy,  or  the  coercion  of  arms. 

"  The  first  kind  can  evidently  apply  only  to  men ;  the  last  kind  must  of 
necessity  be  employed  against  bodies  politic,  or  communities,  or  states.  It  is 
evident,  that  there  is  no  process  of  a  court  by  which  their  observance  of  the 
laws  can,  in  the  last  resort,  be  enforced.  Sentences  may  be  denounced  against 
them  for  violations  of  their  duty ;  but  these  sentences  can  only  be  carried  into 
execution  by  the  sword.  In  an  association  where  the  general  authority  is 
confined  to  the  collective  bodies  of  the  communities  that  compose  it,  every 
breach  of  the  laws  must  involve  a  state  of  war,  and  military  execution  must 
become  the  only  instrument  of  civil  obedience.  Such  a  state  of  things  can 
certainly  not  deserve  the  name  of  government,  nor  would  any  prudent  man 
choose  to  commit  his  happiness  to  it." 

A  frightful  illustration  of  the  second  part  of  the  alternative  presented  here, 
has  been  afforded  during  the  past  three  years  [1850  to  1852]  by  the  empire 
of  Austria ;  which  is  composed  of  a  number  of  distinct  states,  the  people  of 
which  were  never  consulted  when  they  were  subjected  to  the  sway  of  the 
double-headed  eagle.  Since  the  re-actionary  revolution  of  1849,  the  central 
government  has  busied  itself  in  taking  effectual  possession  of  the  powers,  which, 
according  to  its  own  theory,  pertain  to  it,  and  as  coercion  was  absolutely  need- 
ful to  do  this,  and  magisterial  coercion  was  impossible,  the  armed  heel  of  mili- 
tary rule  has  trodden  into  the  dust  every  vestige  of  civil,  domestic,  and  personal 
freedom,  that  was  detected  in  the  display  of  the  most  trifling  species  of  insub- 
ordination to  the  tyrannous  claims,  now  for  the  first  time  set  up. 

Mr.  Jefferson  (whose  complete  agreement  with  "  the  Federalist "  has  been 
shown)  was  willing,  as  it  would  seem,  to  accept  this  alternative.  For,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  he  objected  to  the  New  Constitution;  and, respecting  the  old 
one,  wrote  thus,  when  the  equipment  of  a  navy  against  the  Barbary  States  was 
being  discussed.  "  It  will  be  said,  there  is  not  money  in  the  treasury.  There 
never  will  be  money  in  the  treasury,  till  the  Confederacy  shows  its  teeth.  Tl)e 
States  must  see  the  rod;  perhaps  it  must  be  felt  by  some  one  of  them.  I  am 
persuaded,  all  of  them  would  rejoice  to  see  every  one  obliged  to  furnish  its 
contributions.     It  is  not  the  difficulty  of  furnishing  them,  which  beggars  the 

4  m  2 


636  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  treasury,  but  the  fear  that  others  will  not  furnish  as  much.     Every  rational 

! —  citizen  must  wish  to  see  an  effective  instrument  of  coercion,  and  should  fear 

iJM,  '  to  see  it  on  any  other  element  than  the  water.  A  naval  force  can  never  en- 
danger our  liberties,  nor  occasion  bloodshed  :  a  land-force  would  do  both." 

To  the  like  effect  does  Chief  Justice  Kent  write.  "  Disobedience  to  the 
laws  of  the  Union  must  either  be  submitted  to  *by  the  government,  to  its  own 
disgrace,  or  those  laws  must  be  enforced  by  arms.  The  mild  influence  of  the 
civil  magistrate,  however  strongly  it  may  be  felt  and  obeyed  by  private  indivi- 
duals, will  not  be  heeded  by  an  organized  community,  conscious  of  its  strength, 
and  swayed  by  its  passions."  "  Yet,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  had  Congress 
possessed  the  power,  it  might  have  been  fatal  to  liberty,  since  executive  and 
legislative  were  both  one."     Of  this  we  shall  speak  presently. 

Under  the  "  Articles  "  the  question  was,  whether  the  laws  should  remain 
inoperative, — mere  wraste  paper,  or  some  kind  of  reality  be  given  them  by  force 
of  arms,  and  a  compulsory  obedience  rendered.  Or,  more  truly,  since  "  the 
force  of  arms  "  could  not  have  been  obtained,  it  was,  whether  utter  disorgani- 
zation and  ruin,  embracing  the  complete  loss  of  all  that  had  recently  been  so 
painfully  and  at  such  a  cost  won — their  Independence, — should  be  risked, 
by  the  continuance  of  that  name  of  a  Constitution,  and  mere  phantom  of  a 
federal  government.  Supposing,  however,  that  the  sword  could  have  been 
procured,  then,  as  Madison,  by  a  collection  of  examples  from  history,  ancient 
and  modern,  showed,  and  as  the  case  of  Austria  now  demonstrates,  the  de- 
struction of  the  country,  or  of  liberty,  must  inevitably  follow.  Of  this,  how- 
ever, we  must  take  notice  in  the  next  chapter. 

Another  point  we  may  exhibit  by  the  aid  of  the  powerful  language  of  Ha- 
milton. "There  is,"  he  says,  "in  the  nature  of  sovereign  power,  an  impa- 
tience of  control,  which  disposes  those  who  are  invested  with  the  exercise  of  it, 
to  look  with  an  evil  eye  upon  all  external  attempts  to  restrain  or  direct  its 
operations."  "  Power  controlled  or  abridged  is  almost  always  the  rival  and 
enemy  of  that  power  by  which  it  is  controlled  or  abridged."  "  If,  therefore, 
the  measures  of  the  confederacy  cannot  be  executed  without  the  intervention 
of  the  particular  administrations,  there  will  be  little  prospect  of  their  being 
executed  at  all.  The  rulers  of  the  respective  members,  whether  they  have  a 
constitutional  right  to  do  it  or  not,  will  undertake  to  judge  of  the  propriety  of 
the  measures  themselves.  They  will  consider  the  conformity  of  the  thing  pro- 
posed, or  required,  to  their  immediate  interests  or  aims ;  the  momentary  con- 
veniencies  or  inconveniencies  that  would  attend  its  adoption." 

"  The  same  process  must  be  repeated  in  every  member  of  which  the  body 
is  constituted :  and  the  execution  of  the  plans  framed  by  the  counsels  of  the 
whole  will  always  fluctuate  on  the  discretion  of  the  ill-informed  and  preju- 
diced opinion  of  every  part."  "  In  our  case,  the  concurrence  of  thirteen  dis- 
tinct sovereign  wills  is  requisite  under  the  Confederation,  to  the  complete 
execution  of  every  important  measure  that  proceeds  from  the  Union.  It  has 
happened  as  was  to  have  been  foreseen.  The  measures  of  the  Union  have 
not  been    executed :    the    delinquencies  of   the  States   have,  step  by  step, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  bo  i 

matured  themselves  to  an  extreme,  which  has  brought  them  to  an  awful  stand,    chap. 

Congress  at  this  time  scarcely  possesses  the  means  of  keeping  up  the  forms  of 

administration  till  the  States  can  have  time  to  agree  upon  a  more  substantial      17S7. 
substitute  for  the  present  shadow  of  a  federal  government." 

Before  the  "  Articles/'  the  powers  of  Congress  were  narrower  than  that 
famous  instrument  made  them ;  but  this  was  in  theory,  for  as  they  were  un- 
defined, Congress  in  fact  exercised  all  that  the  States  would  concede  to  it. 
And  yet,  so  restricted  was  its  capability,  either  for  good  or  evil,  that  had  it 
been  the  sole  bond  and  inspirer  of  the  war,  the  triumphs  never  could  have 
been  reached.  There  was,  as  we  have  observed,  much  of  the  spirit  amongst 
the  people  generally,  which  supersedes  the  need  of  that  kind  of  action,  on  the 
part  of  the  government ;  and  its  weakness  was  of  the  less  moment.  But,  in 
relation  to  our  present  question,  "  even  during  the  revolution,  while  all  hearts 
and  hands  were  engaged  in  the  common  cause,  many  of  the  measures  of  Con- 
gress were  defeated  by  the  inactivity  of  the  States ;  and  in  some  instances  the 
exercise  of  its  power  was  resisted."  After  the  peace,  the  opposition  became 
more  common  and  wider ;  until  "  the  Confederation  became  a  shadow  with- 
out the  substance." 

In  illustration  of  which,  Judge  Story  cites  the  assertion  by  Congress,  "  after 
the  most  elaborate  consideration,"  of  "  the  power  of  appeal  in  prize  causes,  as 
an  incident  to  the  sovereign  powers  of  peace  and  war;"  which,  although 
"  supported  by  the  voice  of  ten  States"  and  "  notwithstanding  its  immense 
importance  to  the  preservation  of  the  rights  of  independent  neutral  nations," 
was  "  resisted  by  the  State  courts."  That  happened  before  the  ratification  of 
the  "  Articles  of  Confederation  ; "  but,  although  this  constitution  "  gave,  in 
express  terms,  this  right  of  appeal,  the  decrees  of  the  court  of  appeals  were 
equally  resisted;  and  in  fact  they  remained  a  dead  letter,  until  they  were  en- 
forced by  the  court  of  the  United  States,  under  the  present  constitution." 

The  "  Articles  "  stipulated,  it  will  be  remembered,  that  each  State  was  to 
"  retain  every  power,  right,  and  jurisdiction,  not  expressly  delegated  to  Con- 
gress." And  there  was  no  express  authorization  for  the  employment  of  force 
in  sanction  of  its  enactments ;  the  consequence,  therefore,  "  naturally  was 
that  its  resolutions  were  disregarded,  not  only  by  States,  but  by  individuals. 
Men  followed  their  interests  more  than  their  duties ;  they  cared  little  for 
persuasions  which  came  without  force,  or  for  recommendations  which  appealed 
only  to  their  consciences  or  their  patriotism." 

This  "  want  of  a  direct  power  to  raise  armies,"  which  the  preceding 
paragraph  complains  of,  apart  from  its  involving  the  lack  of  the  only  coercive 
sanction  that  was  possible  in  a  confederation  composed  of  sovereign  States, 
(for  Jefferson's  armed  frigate  could  have  enforced  obedience  in  one  particular 
alone, — that  within  reach  of  a  "  distress-warrant,")  was  also  "  objected  to,  as 
unfriendly  to  vigour  and  promptitude  of  action,  as  well  as  to  economy,  and  a 
just  distribution  of  the  public  burdens."  The  government  was,  by  the 
"  Articles,"  authorized  to  declare  war,  but  was  forced  to  rely  upon  the  con- 
sent of  thirteen  independent  States  for  the  means  of  prosecuting  it.     How 


638  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  great  an  impediment  this  had  proved  in  the  late  contest,  all  who  had  been 
-—  — -  engaged  in  the\"  war  department"  had  perceived.  Except  in  the  very  seat 
17x7.  '  of  hostilities,  enormous  bounties  were  needful  to  furnish  the  quotas  of  men 
required  of  each  State ;  and  delay  in  enlisting,  and  indisposition  to  engage  for 
long  periods,  were  the  consequences.  And  more  remotely,  there  resulted  a 
vastly  increased  expenditure,  and  a  ruinous  deficiency  in  discipline, "  con- 
tinual fluctuations  in  the  troops,"  and  such  "  perilous  crises  "  as  the  disbanding 
of  the  army,  with  "  oppressive  expedients  for  raising  men,  which  nothing  but 
the  enthusiasm  of  liberty  would  have  induced  the  people  to  endure." 

From  the  requisitions  of  quotas  of  men,  we  may  pass  to  "  the  principle  of 
regulating  the  contributions  of  the  States  to  the  common  treasury  by  quotas." 
This  was  justly  noted  as  a  "  fundamental  error  "  in  the  machinery  of  the 
government.  For,  as  Hamilton  wrote,  "  there  can  be  no  common  measure  of 
national  wealth,  and  of  course  no  general  or  stationary  rule  by  which  the 
ability  of  the  State  to  pay  taxes  can  be  determined.  The  attempt,  therefore, 
to  regulate  the  contributions  of  the  members  of  a  confederacy  by  any 
such  rule  cannot  fail  to  be  productive  of  glaring  inequality  and  extreme 
oppression.  This  inequality,"  he  added,  "  would  of  itself  be  sufficient  in 
America  to  work  the  eventual  destruction  of  the  Union,  if  any  mode  of  en- 
forcing a  compliance  with  its  requisitions  could  be  devised."  The  value  of 
land  was  the  basis  of  the  apportionment  made  by  Congress  to  each  State  of 
its  share  in  the  common  burdens.  And  as  each  State  both  laid  and  levied  the 
taxes  for  discharging  this  obligation,  both  the  time  and  the  mode  of  payment 
were  extremely  uncertain.  "  The  evils  resulting  from  this  source,  even 
during  the  revolutionary  war,  were  of  incalculable  extent,  and,  but  for  the 
good  fortune  of  Congress  in  obtaining  foreign  loans,  it  is  far  from  certain  that 
they  would  not  have  been  fatal." 

It,  of  course,  "  depended  upon  the  good- will  of  the  legislature  of  each 
State,"  as  Story  remarks,  "  whether  it  would  comply  at  all  "  with  these  requisi- 
tions ;  and  numerous  instances  of  "  total  disregard  "  occurred,  in  addition  to 
a  general  want  of  promptitude  in  complying.  Appeals  were  made  and 
schemes  devised  for  correcting  this  prodigious  evil ;  but  after  the  war  had 
ceased,  and,  by  the  treaty  of  Versailles,  its  ostensible  end  was  gained,  both 
schemes  and  appeals  were  vain.  And  when  at  length,  in  February,  1786,  a 
more  earnest  appeal  was  made,  as  a  final  resource  for  carrying  the  proposal  to 
levy  an  impost  of  5  per  cent,  upon  imported  and  prize  goods,  and  three  States 
which  had  stood  aloof  closed  with  the  measure,  New  York  still  refused, 
by  clogging  her  tardy  and  unwilling  assent  with  such  conditions  that  Con- 
gress could  not  accept  it ;  and  her  negative  thus  sealed  its  fate,  and,  as  we 
have  related  in  a  former  chapter,  in  no  small  degree  the  fate  of  the  Con- 
stitution. 

Next  to  this  inability  to  lay  taxes  or  collect  revenue,  must  be  noted  "  the 
want  of  any  power  in  Congress  to  regulate  foreign  or  domestic  commerce,"  as 
"  a  leading  defect  in  the  Confederation."  "  This  evil,"  says  Judge  Story, 
and  his  observations  deserve  attentive  consideration,  because  they  afford  us 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  639 

some  glimpses  of  the  way  in  which  this  agitation  was  conducted,— -"  this  evil   chap. 

was  felt  in  a  comparatively  slight  degree  during  the  war.    But  when  the  return  v 

of  peace  restored  the  country  to  its  ordinary  commercial  relations,  the  want  A  Vw.86' 
of  some  uniform  system  to  regulate  them  was  early  perceived,  and  the 
calamities  which  followed  our  shipping  and  navigation,  our  domestic  as  well 
as  our  foreign  trade,  convinced  the  reflecting  that  ruin  impended  upon  these 
and  other  vital  interests,  unless  a  national  remedy  could  be  devised.  We  ac- 
cordingly find  the  public  papers  of  that  period  crowded  with  complaints  on 
this  subject." 

"It  was,  indeed,  idle  and  visionary  to  suppose  that  while  thirteen  in- 
dependent States  possessed  the  exclusive  power  of  regulating  commerce, 
there  could  be  found  any  uniformity  of  system,  or  any  harmony  and  co-opera- 
tion for  the  general  welfare.  Measures  of  a  commercial  nature,  which  were 
adopted  in  one  State  from  a  sense  of  its  own  interests,  would  be  often  counter- 
vailed or  rejected  by  other  States  from  similar  motives.  If  one  State  should 
deem  a  Navigation  Act  favourable  to  its  own  growth,  the  efficacy  of  such  a 
measure  might  be  defeated  by  the  jealousy  or  policy  of  a  neighbouring  State. 
If  one  should  levy  duties  to  maintain  its  own  government  and  resources,  there 
were  many  temptations  for  its  neighbour  to  adopt  the  system  of  free  trade,  to 
draw  to  itself  a  large  share  of  foreign  and  domestic  commerce.  The  agri- 
cultural States  might  easily  suppose  that  they  had  not  an  equal  interest  in  a 
restrictive  system  with  the  navigating  States.  And,  at  all  events,  each  State 
would  legislate  according  to  its  estimate  of  its  own  interests,  the  importance 
of  its  own  products,  and  the  local  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  its  position 
in  a  political  or  commercial  view.  To  do  otherwise,  would  be  to  sacrifice  its 
immediate  interests  without  any  adequate  or  enduring  consideration  ; — to  legis- 
late for  others  and  not  for  itself; — to  dispense  blessings  abroad  without  regard- 
ing the  security  of  those  at  home. 

"  These  evils,"  he  continues,  "  were  aggravated  by  the  situation  of  our 
foreign  commerce.  During  the  war,  our  commerce  was  nearly  annihilated  by 
the  superior  naval  power  of  the  enemy,  and  the  return  of  peace  enabled 
foreign  nations,  and  especially  Great  Britain,  in  a  great  measure,  to  monopolize 
all  the  benefits  of  our  home  trade.  In  the  first  place,  our  navigation,  having 
no  protection,  was  unable  to  engage  in  competition  with  foreign  ships.  In  the 
next  place,  our  supplies  were  almost  altogether  furnished  by  foreign  importers 
or  on  foreign  account.  We  were  almost  flooded  with  foreign  manufactures, 
while  our  own  produce  bore  but  a  reduced  price.  It  was  easy  to  foresee  that 
such  a  state  of  things  must  soon  absorb  all  our  means  ;  and  as  our  industry 
had  but  a  narrow  scope,  would  soon  reduce  us  to  absolute  poverty.  Our  trade 
in  our  own  ships  with  foreign  nations  was  depressed  in  an  equal  degree,  for 
it  was  loaded  with  heavy  restrictions  in  their  ports.  While,  for  instance, 
British  ships  with  their  commodities  had  free  admission  into  our  ports, 
American  ships  and  imports  were  loaded  with  heavy  exactions,  or  prohibited 
from  entering  into  British  ports.  We  were,  therefore,  the  victims  of  our  own 
imbecility,  and  reduced  to  a  complete  subjection  to  the  commercial  regula- 


040  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    tions  of  other   countries,   notwithstanding  our  boast  of  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence. 


1787.  '  "  Congress  had  long  been  sensible  of  the  fatal  effects  flowing  from  this 
source ;  but  their  efforts  to  ward  off  the  mischiefs  had  been  unsuccessful. 
Being  invested  by  the  '  Articles  of  Confederation '  with  a  limited  power  to 
form  commercial  treaties,  they  endeavoured  to  enter  into  treaties  with  foreign 
powers  upon  principles  of  reciprocity.  But  these  negociations  were,  as 
might  be  anticipated,  unsuccessful,  for  the  parties  met  upon  very  unequal 
terms.  Foreign  nations,  and  especially  Great  Britain,  felt  secure  in  the  pos- 
session of  their  present  command  of  our  trade,  and  had  not  the  least  induce- 
ment to  part  with  a  single  advantage.  It  was  further  pressed  upon  us,  with 
a  truth  equally  humiliating  and  undeniable,  that  Congress  possessed  no 
effectual  power  to  guarantee  the  faithful  observance  of  any  commercial  regula- 
tions, and  there  must  in  such  cases  be  reciprocal  obligations." 

The  necessity  for  producing  an  abiding  impression  of  the  true  character  of 
the  crisis,  and  the  importance  of  the  commercial  legislation  of  the  United 
States  upon  their  later  history,  have  led  us  to  give  in  exievso  the  paragraphs 
of  that  eminent  jurist.  With  them  we  conclude  the  representation  of  the 
evils  flowing  from  the  fact,  that  the  Confederation  was  made  by  the  legisla- 
tures and  not  by  the  people  of  the  several  States ;  and  now  we  turn  to  those, 
resulting  from  its  nature  as  a  compact.  Instances  might  be  found  of  them  in 
the  foregoing  part  of  this  inquiry ;  but  there  are  one  or  two  which  are  more 
flagrant,  aiid  which  illustrate  most  vividly,  the  need  for  a  polity  conceived  in 
the  spirit  of  a  larger  and  more  generous  statesmanship,  than  that  which  was  at 
best  but  the  attempt  to  perpetuate  a  scheme,  in  itself  essentially  provisional. 

Congress  possessed  no  power  to  interfere  in  disputes  between  any  of  the 
States,  nor  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  any  one  of  them,  however  great  its  peril, 
and  that  of  its  neighbours,  and  of  the  Union  at  large  arising  from  it,  might  be. 
The  grave  aspect  of  this  feature  of  the  case  cannot  be  understood  now,  except 
by  reference  to  those  questions  which  have  recently  divided  the  States  into 
mutually  hostile  parties ;  for  after  all  the  toil  that  had  been  expended,  and 
after  all  the  experience  of  the  evils  of  monarchy,  which  had  made  that  toil 
needful,  there  were  some  who  not  only  held  the  principle  of  kingship,  but 
who  even  had  the  temerity  to  propose  it  as  the  surest  method  of  deliverance 
from  the  difficulties  amidst  which  the  new-born  nation  seemed  sinking  to  most 
premature  death. 

"Usurpation,"  wrote  Hamilton,  "may  rear  its  crest  in  each  State  and 
trample  upon  the  liberties  of  the  people,  while  the  national  government  could 
legally  do  nothing  more  than  behold  its  encroachments  with  indignation  and 
regret.  A  successful  faction  may  erect  a  tyranny  on  the  ruins  of  order  and  law, 
while  no  succour  could  constitutionally  be  afforded  by  the  Union  to  the  friends 
and  supporters  of  the  government.  The  tempestuous  situation  from  which 
Massachusetts  has  scarcely  emerged,  evinces,  that  dangers  of  this  kind  are  not 
merely  speculative.  Who  can  determine  what  might  have  been  the  issue  of 
the  late  convulsions,  if  the  malcontents  had  been  headed  by  a  Caesar,  or  by  a 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  641 

Cromwell?    Who  can  predict  what  effect  a  despotism,  established  in  Massa-    chap. 
chusetts,  would  have  upon  the  liberties  of  New  Hampshire  or  Rhode  Island, 


of  Connecticut  or  New  York  ?  "  A-  ^V.86' 

It  truly  was,  as  the  same  forcible  writer  observed,  "  a  capital  imperfection 
m  the  federal  plan,"  that  there  was  no  "  mutual  guarantee  of  the  State  govern- 
ments ; "  and  he  rightly  attributed  it  to  "  the  inordinate  pride  of  State  im- 
portance." 

To  the  same  source  we  ascribe  "  the  right  of  equal  suffrage  among  the 
States,"  given  by  the  "  Articles,"  and  retained  in  the  senate  under  the  new 
constitution.  "  Every  idea  of  proportion,"  says  "  the  Federalist  "  champion, 
"  and  every  rule  of  fair  representation,  conspire  to  condemn  a  principle,  which 
gives  to  Rhode  Island  an  equal  weight  in  the  scale  of  power  with  Massachu- 
setts, or  Connecticut,  or  New  York ;  and  to  Delaware  an  equal  voice  in  the 
national  deliberations  with  Pennsylvania,  or  Virginia,  or  North  Carolina.  Its 
operation  contradicts  that  fundamental  maxim  of  republican  government, 
which  requires  that  the  sense  of  the  majority  should  prevail.  Sophistry  may 
reply,  that  sovereigns  are  equal,  and  that  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  the  States 
will  be  a  majority  of  confederated  America.  But  this  kind  of  logical  legerde- 
main will  never  counteract  the  plain  suggestions  of  justice  and  common  sense." 

u  It  may  happen,"  he  added,  ff  that  this  majority  of  States  is  a  small 
minority  of  the  people  of  America.  This  is  demonstrated  by  the  enumeration 
of  seven  States,— New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  Delaware, 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and  Maryland, — which  did  not  contain  one  third  of 
the  people  then.  And  in  reply  to  the  obvious  rejoinder,  that  the  consent  of 
nine  States  was  required  on  all  important  resolutions, — (<  because,"  as  Jeffer- 
son said,  "  according  to  the  loose  estimates  which  had  then  been  made  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  proportion  of  them  which  were  free,  it  was  believed  that 
even  the  nine  smallest  would  include  a  majority  of  the  free  citizens  of  the 
Union."  Hamilton  says,  "add  New  York  and  Connecticut  to  the  foregoing 
seven,  and  they  will  still  be  less  than  a  majority." 

Besides,  an  increase  in  the  number  of  the  States  was  already  contem- 
plated, but  no  provision  was  made  for  the  corresponding  alteration  in  the 
ratio  of  the  votes.  And  the  worst  of  all  evils  for  any  nation  might  be  intro- 
duced by  the  very  feature  of  the  plan,  that  was  intended  as  the  remedy  for 
the  manifest  injustice  of  giving  equal  votes  to  all  the  States.  For,  practically, 
the  minority  possessed  the  power  to  negative  the  determination  of  the  ma- 
jority,— more  than  a  majority  (nine  States)  being  required  for  the  decision  of 
certain  questions.  "  A  sixtieth  part  of  the  Union,  which  is  about  the  propor- 
tion of  Delaware  and  Rhode  Island,  has  several  times  been  able  to  oppose  an 
entire  bar  to  its  operations."  Embarrassment,  faction,  anarchy,  nay,  the  most 
distressing  kind  of  foreign  corruption,  were  all  rendered,  not  possible  merely, 
but  even  probable,  by  this  "  Article." 

Story  includes  in  his  list  of  "  defects," — "the  too  frequent  rotation  required 
in  the  office  of  members  of  Congress,  by  which  the  advantages  resulting 
from  long  experience  and  knowledge  in  the  public  affairs,  were  lost  to  the 

4  w 


642  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


C 

V. 


A.  D. 1786 
1787. 


h  a  p.  public  councils."  This  is  one  of  the  points  which  Franklin  seemed,  in  the 
letter  quoted  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  to  regard  as  a  great  recommend- 
ation of  the  system ;  and  against  the  mischief  he  was  speaking  of,  it  was  (no 
doubt)  a  safe-guard ;  but  it  was  a  costly  protection,  when  the  probabilities  of 
the  occurrence  of  the  danger  are  accurately  computed.  "  The  want  of  judi- 
ciary power  co-extensive  with  the  powers  of  the  general  government,"  is  also 
found  in  his  enumeration ;  and  rightly, — for  as  "  the  Federalist "  shows,  there 
was  no  supreme  tribunal  to  give  uniformity  to  the  interpretations  of  the 
treaties,  which  the  continental  government  was  authorized  to  make ;  and  it 
thence  followed,  that  diverse,  and  even  contradictory,  judgments  were  given 
regarding  their  import;  and  they  were  often,  in  effect,  a  dead  letter. 

"  Perhaps,"  writes  Jefferson,  "  it  might  have  been  better,  when  they  were 
forming  the  Federal  Constitution,  to  have  assimilated  it,  as  much  as  possible, 
to  the  particular  constitutions  of  the  States.  All  of  these  have  distributed  the 
legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary  powers  into  different  departments.  In 
the  Federal  Constitution,  the  judiciary  powers  are  separated  from  the  others; 
but  the  legislative  and  executive  are  both  exercised  by  Congress."  And  he 
proceeds  to  suggest  some  scheme  of  committees,  to  obviate  the  evil,  which 
was  palpable  enough, — notwithstanding  his  "perhaps," — as  he  has  himself 
admitted  in  the  letter  cited  above. 

"A  single  assembly,"  urged  Hamilton,  on  the  other  side,  "may  be  a  pro- 
per receptacle  of  those  slender,  or  rather  fettered,  authorities,  which  have  been 
heretofore  delegated  to  the  federal  head ;  "  and  he  showed  those  he  addressed, 
that  there  was  this  choice  of  ills  before  them ; — either  the  entire  structure 
must  fall,  from  its  own  intrinsic  weakness ;  or,  engrossing  all  the  attributes  of 
sovereignty,  it  would  entail  upon  the  country  "  a  most  execrable  form  of 
government,  in  the  shape  of  an  irresponsible  aristocracy," — as  Judge  Story 
called  it.  Nor  was  this  an  idle  apprehension,  as  the  history  of  the  Long  Par- 
liament, which  played  so  conspicuously  noble  a  part  in  the  struggle  for  liberty 
in  England,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  will  prove.  For  after  having 
achieved  its  object,  it  became  itself  so  intolerable  a  burden  to  the  nation,  that 
when  the  great  Puritan  captain  forcibly  expelled  it  from  its  House,  and 
from  its  usurped  office,  he  could  affirm,  that  "  not  a  dog  barked,"— the  sup- 
pression was  felt  to  be  such  a  relief. 

We  should  not  fairly  represent  the  general,  popular  "  debate,"  now  in 
process,  if  we  omitted  another  passage  in  Jefferson's  correspondence,  which 
may  be  compared  with  the  extracts  already  given,  as  well  as  with  the  specific 
accounts  of  the  errors  of  the  first  written  Constitution  of  the  Union.  "  "With 
all  the  imperfections  of  our  present  government,  it  is,  without  comparison,  the 
best  existing,  or  that  ever  did  exist.  Its  greatest  defect  is  the  imperfect  man- 
ner in  which  matters  of  commerce  have  been  provided  for.  It  has  been  so 
often  said  as  to  be  generally  believed,  that  Congress  have  no  power  by  the 
confederation  to  enforce  any  thing ;  for  example,  contributions  of  money.  It 
was  not  necessary  to  give  them  that  power  expressly ;  they  have  it  by  the  law 
of  nature.      When  two  parties  make  a  compact,  there  results  to  each  a  power 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  643 

of  compelling  the  other  to  execute  it.    Compulsion  was  never  so  easy  as  in  our  c  ha  p. 

case,  where  a  single  frigate  would  soon  levy  on  the  commerce  of  any  State  the : — 

deficiency  of  its  contributions:  nor  more  safe  than  in  the  hands  of  Congress,      nsr.  J' 
which  has  always  shown  that  it  would  wait,  as  it  ought  to  do,  to  the  last  ex- 
tremities, before  it  would  execute  any  of  the  powers  that  are  disagreeable." 

Our  object  here  is  not  the  discussion  of  the  opposing  views,  or  we  might 
show  how  positive  a  violation  of  the  "  Articles  "  this  frigate  scheme  would 
have  been ;  how  inefficient,  even  for  the  correction  of  the  single  form  of  dis- 
obedience, to  which  it  was  addressed ;  and  the  fallacy  of  concluding  that  the 
prerogatives  de  jure  of  the  central  government,  were  also  de  facto  capable  of 
being  exercised  by  it, — which  was,  really,  the  most  hopeless  part  of  the 
dilemma.  We  will,  therefore,  rather  present  a  few  sentences  from  Washing- 
ton's letters ;  for  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  the  liberation  of  his  country, 
gave  to  his  opinions  great  extrinsic  weight  at  this  time ;  and  his  share  in  the 
construction  and  establishment  of  the  new.frame  of  government,  invests  them 
with  a  similar  accidental  importance  for  us. 

"  No  man,"  he  says,  in  a  letter  to  "  Federalist "  Hamilton,  before  the  dis- 
banding of  the  forces, — "  no  man  in  the  United  States  is,  or  can  be,  more  deeply 
impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a  reform  in  our  present  Confederation  than 
myself.  No  man  perhaps  has  felt  the  bad  effects  of  it  more  sensibly ;  for  to 
the  defects  thereof,  and  want  of  power  in  Congress,  may  justly  be  ascribed  the 
prolongation  of  the  war,  and  consequently  the  expenses  occasioned  by  it." 
Two  years  afterwards,  writing  to  the  Hon.  James  Warren,  he  observes,  "  the 
Confederation  appears  to*  me  to  be  little  more  than  an  empty  sound,  and  Con- 
gress a  nugatory  body,  the  ordinances  of  it  being  very  little  attended  to.  To 
me  it  is  a  solecism  in  politics  ;  indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
things  in  nature,  that  we  should  confederate  for  national  purposes,  and  yet  be 
afraid  to  give  the  rulers  thereof,  who  are  the  creatures  of  our  own  making, 
appointed  for  a  limited  and  short  duration,  who  are  amenable  for  every  action, 
recallable  at  any  moment,  and  subject  to  all  the  evils  they  may  be  instru- 
mental in  producing,  sufficient  powers  to  order  and  direct  the  affairs  of  that 
nation." 

Writing  to  Mr.  John  Jay,  in  the  next  year,  he  states  his  view  of  the  matters 
with  equal  clearness  and  reason :  "  I  do  not  conceive  we  can  exist  long  as  a 
nation,  without  having  lodged  some  where  a  power,  which  will  pervade  the 
whole  Union  in  as  energetic  a  manner,  as  the  authority  of  the  State  govern- 
ments extends  over  the  several  States.  To  be  fearful  of  investing  Congress, 
constituted  as  that  body  is,  with  ample  authorities  for  national  purposes, 
appears  to  me  the  very  climax  of  popular  absurdity  and  madness.  Could 
Congress  exert  them  for  the  detriment  of  the  public,  without  injuring  them- 
selves in  an  equal  or  greater  proportion  ?  " 

"  Many  are  of  opinion  that  Congress  have  too  frequently  made  use  of  the 
suppliant,  humble  tone  of  requisition  in  applications  to  the  States,  when  they 
had  a  right  to  assert  their  imperial  dignity,  and  command  obedience.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  requisitions  are  a  perfect  nullity  where  thirteen  sovereign,  in- 

4  h  2 


644  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  dependent,  dis-united  States  are  in  the  habit  of  discussing  and  refusing  com- 

'■ —  pliance  with  them,  at  their  option.     Requisitions  are  actually  little  better  than 

"i7*87.  '  a  jest  and  a  by-word  throughout  the  land.  If  you  tell  the  legislatures  they 
have  violated  the  treaty  of  peace  and  invaded  the  prerogatives  of  the  con- 
federacy, they  will  laugh  in  your  face.  What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  Things 
cannot  go  oh  in  the  same  train  for  ever."  "  I  am  told  that  even  respectable 
characters  speak  of  a  monarchical  form  of  government  without  horror." 

Most  of  the  last  paragraph  has  been  quoted  in  the  third  chapter  of  this 
book ;  it  contains  the  expression  of  Washington's  deliberate  convictions  re- 
garding the  unhappy  posture  of  public  aiFairs,  and  deserves  the  gravest 
attention  of  those  who  desire  to  understand  the  political  history  of  the  Union. 
His  judgment  upon  another  danger,  not  indeed  resulting  from  the  defective 
polity  which  had  been  adopted,  but  using  the  defects  of  that  scheme  in  a  man- 
ner fatal  to  the  hopes  of  those  who  were  the  actual  victors  in  the  strife,  must 
also  be  recorded.  "  There  are  errors  in  our  national  government,"  he  says, 
"  which  call  for  correction, — loudly,  I  would  add.  We  are  certainly  in  a 
delicate  situation ;  but  my  fear  is,  that  the  people  are  not  yet  sufficiently 
misled  to  retract  from  error.  To  be  plainer,  /  think  there  is  more  wickedness 
than  ignorance  mixed  in  oar  councils" 

In  many  of  the  extracts  given  here,  our  readers  will  discern  the  germs  of 
those  differences  of  opinion,  which,  as  soon  as  the  question  became  a  practical 
one,  divided  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  into  two  great  parties,  the 
Federalists,  and  the  Anti-Federalists,  or  Democrats,  as  they  were  sub 
sequently  named.  This  rise  of  new  parties  is  one*  of  the  most  interesting 
signs  of  the  progress  of  affairs,  and  of  the  lively  concern  felt  by  the  people  in 
the  conduct  of  them.  In  that  aspect  especially  it  requires  attentive  considera- 
tion, as  it  directly  confutes  those  political  theorists,  who,  having  denied  the 
rights  of  citizenship  to  all  but  some  favoured  classes  of  the  community,  justify 
the  withholding  of  them  from  the  others  by  the  allegation,  that  not  only  are 
they  not  coveted,  but  when  conceded  are  made  light  of,  and  the  exercise  of 
them  evaded,  or  regarded  as  a  burden. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  revolution  the  question  of  submission  or 
resistance  divided  the  colonists  into  Tories  and  Whigs.  The  latter  having 
expelled  or  converted  the  former,  were  themselves  divided  upon  the  issue  to 
be  sought,  independence  or  reconciliation.  Meanwhile,  attachment  to  Washing- 
ton, the  conduct  of  the  war,  the  ambassadors  to  the  friendly  European  powers, 
— all  furnished  occasions  for  the  formation  of  cliques,  which  are  petty  parties. 
As  soon  as  success  appeared  certain,  the  political  forms,  by  which  the  sove- 
reignty of  each  State  should  be  enshrined  and  protected,  gave  rise  to  other 
divisions.  And  then  came  the  peace,  which  made  imperative  the  determina- 
tion of  the  precise  nature  of  the  bond,  that,  by  their  fellowship  in  suffering, 
their  united  toils,  and  their  common  triumph, — by  their  Congress,  their  joint 
"  Declaration  of  Independence,"  their  "  Act  of  Confederation,"  and  linally, 
by  the  very  terms  of  the  treaty  with  their  vanquished  oppressor, — had  been 
fashioned  and  strengthened  till  it  had  now  become  indissoluble. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  645 

But  as  these  newest  parties  can  be  more  satisfactorily  portrayed  in  con-   chap. 

nexion  with  the  constitution  itself,  we  will  postpone  to  the  next  chapter  any 

more  particular  description  of  them  than  is  contained  in  the  following  state-    'iw. 
ment  by  Judge  Story,  which  will  indicate  their  differences   with  sufficient 
clearness  for  our  present  purpose,  and  also  serve  as  a  conclusion  to  this  por- 
tion of  the  subject  before  us. 

"  There  had  been,  and  in  fact  there  were,  different  parties  in  the  several 
States  entertaining  opinions  hostile  or  friendly  to  the  existence  of  a  general 
government.  The  former  would  naturally  cling  to  the  State  governments 
with  a  close  and  unabated  zeal,  and  deem  the  least  possible  delegation  of 
power  to  the  Union  sufficient,  (if  any  were  to  be  permitted,)  with  which  it 
could  creep  on  in  a  semi- animated  state.  The  latter  would  as  naturally  desire 
that  the  powers  of  the  general  government  should  have  a  real  and  not  merely 
a  suspended  vitality ;  that  it  should  act,  and  move,  and  guide,  and  not  merely 
totter  under  its  own  weight,  or  sink  into  a  drowsy  decrepitude,  powerless 
and  palsied.  But  each  party  must  have  felt  that  the  confederation  had  at  last 
totally  failed,  as  an  effectual  instrument  of  government;  that  its  glory  was 
departed,  and  its  days  of  labour  done  ;  that  it  stood,  the  shadow  of  a  mighty 
name  ;  that  it  was  seen  only  as  a  decayed  monument  of  the  past,  incapable  of 
any  enduring  record;  that  the  steps  of  its  decline  were  numbered  and 
finished ;  and  that  it  must  soon  be  gathered  to  the  perishable  fragments  of 
other  ages." 

We  must  here  speak  at  greater  length  of  the  summoning  of  the  constituent 
Convention  than  we  could  before  we  had  fully  traced  the  evils  of  the  existing 
constitution.  And  afterwards  give  such  a  sketch  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Convention  as  shall  enable  us  to  appreciate  the  original  sources  of  the  political 
controversies,  which  even  now  most  powerfully  agitate  the  Union. 

There  appears  to  be  no  room  for  doubting  that  the  measures  by  which  the 
pacific  revolution  we  are  now  considering  was  effected,  originated  with 
Washington.  It  was  in  the  month  of  March,  1785,  that  some  gentlemen  who 
had  been  appointed  as  commissioners,  by  the  legislatures  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  to  form  a  compact  respecting  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac  and 
Pocomoke,  and  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  whose  place  of  meeting  was  Alex- 
andria, paid  a  visit  to  that  illustrious  chief  at  Mount  Vernon.  The  discussion 
of  the  alarming  state  of  national  affairs,  which  was  the  general  theme  of  con- 
versation throughout  the  country,  was  inevitable ;  and  they  were  prevailed 
upon  to  propose  to  their  respective  governments  the  nomination  of  a  fresh 
commission,  with  enlarged  powers,  to  arrange  for  the  maintenance  of  a  naval 
force  in  the  Chesapeake,  and  the  establishment  of  a  tariff  of  duties  on  imports, 
to  which  the  laws  of  both  States  should  be  conformed,  and  the  assent  of  Con- 
gress obtained. 

About  this  time  Madison — who  was  then  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legis- 
lature— had  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that  the  great  obstacle  to  the  increase 
of  the  powers  of  Congress,  which  was  manifestly  one  essential  element  in  the 
remedy  that  all  were  seeking,  was  "  the  consideration  that  it  was  to  be  invested 


A.D.I 

1 


646  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

cAap.  in  those  by  whom  it  was  solicited;  and  was  at  the  same  time,  and  in  the 
same  degree,  to  abridge  the  power  of  those  by  whom  it  was  to  be  granted.,, 
sV.0°'  And  it  occurred  to  him,  "  that  the  agency  of  a  distinct,  delegated  body,  hav- 
ing no  invidious  interests  of  its  own,  or  of  its  members,  might  be  better  adapt- 
ed deliberately  to  discuss  the  deficiencies  of  the  federal  compact,  than  the 
body  itself  by  whom  it  was  administered." 

Accordingly,  when  the  propositions  before  named  were  submitted  to  the 
legislature  of  that  State,  the  resolution  to  appoint  commissioners  to  take  into 
consideration  the  trade  of  the  entire  confederacy,  and  to  invite  the  other 
States  to  do  the  same,  was  appended,  and  in  January,  1786,  adopted ;  and 
seven  delegates  were  named,  Madison  and  Edmund  Randolph  being  of  the 
number.  In  consequence  of  this  proposal,  eight  States  chose  delegates,  and 
there  met  at  Annapolis,  in  the  month  of  September,  commissioners  from  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Virginia ;  who,  after  a 
session  of  three  days,  agreed  upon  a  report,  which  they  addressed  to  the  legis- 
latures of  the  thirteen  States,  and  to  Congress. 

The  delegates  from  New  Jersey  had  received  powers,  which  contemplated 
the  revision  of  the  entire  "  Articles  of  Confederation;"  beside  what  the  ori- 
ginal proposal  of  Virginia  had  suggested.  Acting  upon  this  new  counsel,  the 
commissioners  advised  the  calling  of  another  Convention,  to  be  held  at  Phila- 
delphia in  the  following  May,  to  consult  respecting  "  the  situation  of  the 
United  States ;  to  devise  such  further  provisions  as  should  appear  to  them  ne- 
cessary, to  render  the  constitution  of  the  federal  government  adequate  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  Union ;  and  to  report  such  an  act  for  that  purpose  to 
the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  as  when  agreed  to  by  them,  and 
afterwards  confirmed  by  the  legislature  of  every  State,  will  effectually  provide 
for  the  same." 

It  will  be  observed,  that  no  such  alteration  as  in  the  end  was  actually  made, 
was  purposed  by  the  Convention  at  Annapolis, — a  revision  of  the  "  Articles  " 
was  believed  to  be  all  that  was  needful  for  the  deliverance  of  the  nation  from 
its  desperate  embarrassments.  Further,  and  in  consequence  of  this,  no  appeal 
of  any  kind  to  the  people  was  intended;  that  fundamental  defect  of  the  "  Act 
of  Confederation,"  was  either  not  perceived  then,  or  else  it  was  not  thought  of 
so  much  moment  as  to  warrant  the  commencement,  absolutely  de  novo,  in 
framing  a  polity  which  would  work,  and  with  good  results  for  the  Union 
at  large.  It  was  also  noticed  that,  for  the  first  time  in  any  public  document, 
the  "  Articles  "  in  question  were  designated  a  Constitution. 

"  On  receiving  this  report,  the  legislature  of  Virginia  passed  an  act  for  the 
appointment  of  delegates,  to  meet  such  as  might  be  appointed  by  other 
States,  at  Philadelphia."  Washington's  name  was,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  placed 
first  on  the  list.  And  his  genuine  greatness  and  simplicity  were  most  strik- 
ingly exhibited  by  the  way  in  which  he  received  this  flattering  proof  of  the 
reverence  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Added  to  his  love  for  the  retirement  he  had 
now  begun  so  heartily  to  enjoy,  and  in  which  he  had  trusted  to  spend  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life ; — his  unwillingness  to  give  offence  to  the  Cincinnati,  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  647 

presidency  of  whom  he    had  resigned,  and  who  had  invited  him  to  attend  a  chap. 

general  meeting  at  Philadelphia,  about  the  time  of  the  projected  Convention ; — 

and  the  doubts  entertained  by  some  of  his  friends  respecting  the  legality  of  '  im. 
the  scheme,  as  it  did  not  originate  with  Congress,  and  the  "  Articles  "  con- 
tained no  provision  for  such  a  method  of  reform,  and  who  consequently  dis- 
suaded him  from  being  implicated  in  a  matter  which  (as  they  thought)  could 
only  issue  in  failure  and  disgrace ; — put  obstacles,  apparently  insuperable,  in 
the  way  of  his  accepting  the  proffered  distinction.  But  when  he  found  that 
to  decline  it  would  be  regarded  "  as  dereliction  of  republicanism,"  and  a  con- 
firmation of  those  suspicions  which  could  never  be  completely  eradicated, 
after  the  proposal  of  the  officers  at  Newburgh  to  make  him  king;  besides 
putting  him  into  opposition  to  the  majority  of  the  most  enlightened  members 
of  the  community ;  he  accepted  the  office,  and  at  once  devoted  himself  to 
those  studies  which  would  best  fit  him  for  the  discharge  of  its  duties. 

Seven  States  responded  immediately  to  the  invitation,  for  the  conviction  of 
the  necessity  of  such  a  thorough  reform  had  existed  in  the  legislatures  of  New 
York  and  Massachusetts,  from  the  year  succeeding  that  in  which  the  "  Arti- 
cles "  were  ratified.  The  assent  of  Congress  was,  however,  considered 
necessary,  and  the  hopeless  disorganization  of  Congress,  the  members  of  which 
seemed  quite  disinclined  to  entertain  the  project  of  a  Convention,  occasioned 
much  delay.  At  length,  in  February,  1T8T,  a  president  was  chosen,  and 
attention  given  to  the  report :  New  York  sent  its  ultimatum  regarding  the 
proposal  to  raise  a  federal  revenue,  which  destroyed  that  scheme.  The  dele- 
gates of  the  same  State  were  instructed  by  their  constituency  to  move  a  reso- 
lution, recommending  the  appointment  of  deputies  to  the  proposed  Convention 
for  revising  and  suggesting  amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  And  on 
the  21st  of  that  month,  such  a  resolution  was  moved  and  carried :  "  the  alarm- 
ing insurrection  then  existing  in  Massachusetts,"  remarks  Judge  Story,  "  with- 
out doubt,  having  no  small  share  in  producing  this  result." 

"  The  report  of  Congress  on  that  subject,"  says  the  same  distinguished 
writer,  "  at  once  demonstrates  their  fears,  and  their  political  weakness." 
There  is  unquestionably  much  truth  in  this.  But  it  would  be  unjust  not  to 
quote  the  more  generous  judgment,  passed  by  De  Tocqueville  upon  the  same 
event ;  more  especially  as  he  withholds  from  the  revolutionary  war  the  meed 
of  praise  which  is  almost  universally  bestowed  upon  it,  for  the  sake  of  those 
who  conducted  it  to  its  triumphant  close. 

"  If,"  writes  this  philosopher  of  modern  democracy, — "  if  America  ever 
approached  (for  however  brief  a  time)  that  lofty  pinnacle  of  glory,  to  which 
the  proud  fancy  of  its  inhabitants  is  wont  to  point,  it  was  at  the  solemn  mo- 
ment at  which  the  power  of  the  nation  abdicated,  as  it  were,  the  empire  of  the 
land.  Every  age  has  furnished  the  spectacle  of  some  people  struggling  with 
energy  to  win  its  independence,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Americans,  in  throwing 
off  the  English  yoke,  have  been  considerably  exaggerated.  *  *  *  But  it 
was  a  novelty  in  the  history  of  society,  to  see  a  great  people  turn  a  calm  and 
scrutinizing  eye  upon  itself,  when  apprized  by  the  legislature  that  the  wheels 


648  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    of  government  were  stopped;  to  see  it  carefully  examine  the  extent  of  the 

■ —  evil,  and  patiently  wait  for  two  whole  years  until  a  remedy  was  discovered, 

'  1787.  '  which  it  voluntarily  adopted  without  having  wrung  a  tear,  or  a  drop  of  blood, 
from  a  single  human  being." 

Four  other  States  acceded  to  the  device  of  a  constituent  Convention  ;  New 
Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island  alone  stood  aloof.  The  latter,  from  the  most 
unworthy  motives,  took  no  part  at  all  in  these  proceedings ;  but  the  former  sent 
Representatives  to  Philadelphia,  in  time  to  identify  itself  with  the  movement, 
and  to  do  good  service.  It  was  noticed,  subsequently,  as  a  matter  to  excite 
reflection,  that  the  absence  of  these  two  States,  at  a  particular  conjuncture,  gave 
the  majority  to  those  who  were  aiming  at  the  formation  of  a  plan,  by  which 
the  dangers  that  all  had  deplored  seemed  to  be  most  effectually  forefended ; 
and  in  effect  set  up  one  corner-stone  of  the  new  edifice.  But  though  Congress 
had  fixed  the  2nd  of  May,  1787,  as  the  day  for  the  assembling  of  the  Conven- 
tion at  Philadelphia,  not  till  the  25th  did  the  delegates  of  the  requisite  ma- 
jority of  the  Union  appear. 

The  State  House,  rich  in  associations  already  historical, — for  there  the 
"  Declaration  of  Independence  "  had  been  signed ;  and  there  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  meet  that  Congress,  which  we  have  seen  growing  from  a  mere  con- 
sultative committee  into  a  government,  as  the  will  of  the  people  grew  from 
instinctive  reluctation  against  oppression,  to  enjoyment  of  imperial  freedom  ;— 
this  was  to  be  the  scene  of  their  labours.  And  there  were,  in  that  half-hun- 
dred of  men,  spirits  worthy  of  those  associations.  Washington,  the  Agamemnon 
of  the  host;  Franklin,  its  Nestor;  both  looked  up  to  as  leaders,  but  without 
any  feeling  of  rivalry ;  for  each  had  been  first  in  his  own  course  of  life  and  of 
patriotic  duty,  and  neither  could  have  compensated  for  the  lack  of  the  other. 
An  entire  generation  had  passed  since  Franklin  had  participated  in  the  first 
effort  after  union,  which  the  Albany  Convention  made ;  and  his  name  had 
never  ceased  from  that  time  to  be  before  the  public,  both  of  America  and 
Europe.  Nor  was  there  a  movement  of  continental  magnitude,  or  a  depart- 
ment of  public  service,  in  the  whole  period  of  the  contest,  that  was  unrepre- 
sented at  Philadelphia.  There  were  members  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress, 
and  of  the  entire  series  of  administrative  Congresses,  from  the  year  1774. 
Signers  of  the  Declaration  were  there,  and  officers  of  the  army  of  liberty ;  with 
men  of  the  highest  mark  and  promise  in  the  eleven  States,  whence  commis- 
sioners to  the  Convention  had  been  deputed.  And  last  of  all  it  must  be 
noted,  that  there  was  present  not  one  recognised  chief  of  the  party,  which 
maintained  opinions — demo-despotic,  rather  than  democratic  merely  ;  and  con- 
sidered Jefferson,  (who  was  then  ambassador  at  Paris,)  to  be  the  Jupiter  to- 
nans  of  the  political  Olympus.  To  this  circumstance  it  will  be  needful  to 
recur,  in  our  narrative  of  the  times  when  this  party  obtained  the  ascendency 
in  the  States,  and  took  charge  of  the  institutions  embodying  the  principles  and 
the  policy  of  their  utterly  discomfited  opponents. 

One  fact,  of  the  greatest  significance  as  displaying  the  spirit  of  the  men  now 
assembled,  must  not  be  passed  over  without  remark.     There  was  more  than 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  649 

the  absence  of  parade  in  all  their  proceedings ;  they  adopted  a  course  that  was    c  h  a  p. 
its  exact  contradictory.     The  debates  were  carried  on  with  closed  doors ;  ab- 


solute secrecy  was  enjoined  respecting  them ;  the  transcription  of  any  part  of  A'  iVsV.86* 
the  journals  was  forbidden ;  and  thirty  years  passed  away  before  Congress 
published  those  documents,  which  had  been  placed  in  the  keeping  of  Wash- 
ington, and  by  him  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  nation.  All  this  stands 
in  startling  contrast  with  the  course  adopted  by  the  imitative  ally  of  Ame- 
rica, France.  The  labours  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention  had  been  rewarded 
by  the  acceptation  of  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  and  to  him  who  had  so 
largely  aided  in  its  construction  had  been  committed  the  task  of  first  administer- 
ing under  the  new  constitution ;  when  the  French  commenced  their  cycles  of 
revolution.  It  seems  incredible  that  no  permanent  institution  would  have 
been  established,  by  any  one  of  its  constituent  assemblies,  if,  instead  of  being 
moulded  by  theorists,  amid  the  reverberations  of  popular  rage,  and  applied  un- 
tempered  and  untested  to  purposes  unimagined  by  their  makers,  their  polities 
had  been  painfully  elaborated  in  the  low  heat  of  such  a  conclave  as  this,  and 
subjected  to  every  available  proof,  before  being  turned  to  any  of  the  uses  of 
men.  But  this  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  the  histrionic  fervour  of  the 
Gauls  has  aimed  at  the  attainment  of  results,  that  only  the  methodical  phlegm 
of  Saxondom  could  arrive  at.  And,  indeed,  one  main  source  of  interest  in 
the  story  of  the  constitution-building  of  the  United  States,  consists  in  its  hav- 
ing furnished  the  lure  and  the  model  for  the  earliest  and  most  fatal  essays  of 
France,  in  that  art  which  has  been  ever  since  both  its  boast  and  its  ridicule 
throughout  the  world. 

The  general  objects  of  the  Convention  were,  to  delegate  to  the  central  power 
sufficient  authority  to  enable  it  to  maintain  (both  in  external  affairs  and  in 
internal)  the  national  dignity  and  credit; — and  (though  less  consciously  at 
first)  to  bring  tkat  power  into  immediate  relations  with  every  citizen.  The 
errors  in  statesmanship,  which  the  "  Articles  "  had  showed,  were  also  to  be 
corrected  effectually. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  in  his  "  Life  of  Madison,"  states  his  view  of  its  scope, 
and  of  the  impediments  to  its  fulfilment,  thus  :  "  In  most  of  the  inspirations  of 
genius  there  is  a  simplicity,  which,  when  they  are  familiarized  to  the  general 
understanding  of  men  by  their  effects,  detracts  from  the  opinion  of  their  great- 
ness. That  the  people  of  the  British  colonies,  who  by  their  united  counsels 
and  energies  had  achieved  their  independence,  should  continue  to  be  one 
people,  and  constitute  a  nation  under  the  form  of  one  organized  government, 
was  an  idea  in  itself  so  simple,  and  addressed  itself  at  once  so  forcibly  to  the 
reason,  to  the  imagination,  and  to  the  benevolent  feelings  of  all,  that  it  can 
scarcely  be  supposed  to  have  escaped  the  mind  of  any  reflecting  man  from 
Maine  to  Georgia.  It  was  the  dictate  of  nature.  But  no  sooner  was  it  con- 
ceived than  it  was  met  by  obstacles  innumerable  to  the  general  mass  of  man- 
kind. They  resulted  from  the  existing  social  institutions,  diversified  among 
the  parties  to  the  projected  national  union,  and  seeming  to  render  it  impracti- 
cable.    There  were  chartered  rights,  for  the  maintenance  of  which  the  war  of 

4  o 


650  HISTORY    OF    AMEPwICA. 

chap,  the  revolution  itself  had  first  been  waged.     There  were  State  sovereignties, 

■ corporate  feudal  baronies,  tenacious    of  their   own   liberty,  impatient  of  a 

1787.  '  superior,  and  jealous  and  disdainful  of  a  paramount  sovereign,  even  in  the 
whole  democracy  of  the  nation.  There  were  collisions  of  boundary,  and  of 
proprietary  right, — westward,  in  the  soil, — southward,  in  its  cultivation.  In 
fine,  the  diversities  of  interests,  of  opinions,  of  manners,  of  habits,  and  even  of 
extraction,  were  so  great,  that  the  plan  of  constituting  them  one  people 
appears  not  to  have  occurred  to  any  of  the  members  of  the  Convention  before 
they  were  assembled  together." 

The  deputies  from  Pennsylvania  proposed  Washington  as  president;  a 
secretary  was  appointed,  and  a  committee  having  drawn  up  the  rules  by  which 
the  proceedings  should  be  regulated, — including  the  assignment  of  one  vote 
to  each  State,  balloting  for  the  members  of  committees,  and  the  fixing  as  the 
quorum  the  delegates  from  seven  States, — business  was  commenced.  Randolph, 
in  the  name  of  his  State,  which,  having  suggested  the  Convention,  was  bound 
to  open  the  deliberations,  laid  before  the  assembly  what  was  afterwards  dis- 
tinguished as  the  "  Virginia  plan."  This  was  considered  in  a  committee  of 
the  whole  house,  in  which  Charles  Pinckney  offered  a  "  sketch  "  as  an  amend- 
ment. Of  the  latter  it  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  it  was  a  rough  draft  of  just 
such  a  constitution  as  was  ultimately  framed ;  and  that  it  was  examined  at  a 
later  stage.  Randolph's  "  plan  "  embraced  a  unitary  government,  consisting 
of  a  house  of  representatives,  elected  by  the  people,  in  the  proportion  of  the 
free  citizens,  or  of  general  taxation ;  of  a  second  house  chosen  by  the  first, 
from  candidates  proposed  by  the  State  legislatures ;  of  a  central  executive, 
appointed  by  the  central  legislature;  and  of  a  general  judiciary, — with  a 
council  of  revision,  consisting  of  a  portion  of  the  judiciary  and  of  the  executive, 
having  a  "  suspensive  veto  "  upon  both  State  and  central  legislation.  It  also 
proposed,  that  whatever  form  of  government  the  Convention  finally  agreed 
upon,  the  people  of  the  several  States  should  by  conventions,  especially  as- 
sembled, sanction  it  before  it  was  regarded  as  established. 

As  soon  as  the  debating  in  committee  commenced,  it  appeared  that  there 
was  a  previous  question,  which,  if  not  settled,  explicitly  or  tacitly,  would  pre- 
vent the  settlement  of  every  other : — the  powers  of  the  Convention,  did  they 
extend  beyond  the  revisal  of  the  "  Articles,"  and  suggesting  amendments  in 
the  frame  of  the  federal  government  contained  in  them  ?  Was  it  competent 
to  the  proposal  of  a  scheme  in  every  essential  feature  new  ?  And  beneath 
that  question  appeared  another,  and  that  was  in  fact  the  root  of  almost  all 
the  prominent  party  differences  of  the  times; — State  sovereignty  or  Na- 
tional sovereignty,  which  was  to  be  the  characteristic  of  the  transatlantic 
democracy? 

At  length  the  battle-ground  was  chosen  ;  it  was  the  ratio  of  representation 
and  of  votes,  which  had  been  the  same  for  all  the  States,  and  which  it  was 
proposed  to  make  proportional  to  their  population  and  wealth.  Delaware 
and  New  Jersey  of  course  voted  for  State  sovereignty,  for  they  were  equalized 
with  Virginia  and    Pennsylvania  by  that  principle.     Connecticut  took  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  651 

same  side,  and  by  means  of  majorities  in  the  commissions,  the  votes  of  New  chap. 
York   and    Maryland   were   given   against  a  strong   National   government. 


Against  the  disintegrating  view  appeared  the  two  great  central  States  named  '  i7s7.  ' 
before,  Massachusetts,  and  the  three  southern  States.  The  bare  majority  on 
this  division — six  against  five — will  suggest  to  us  the  secret  of  the  subsequent 
triumph  of  the  anti-national  party,  and  which  neither  the  reasonableness  of 
their  views,  nor  the  general  character  of  their  advocates  as  statesmen  and 
orators,  at  all  serves  to  demonstrate. 

It  is  hardly  credible  that  a  debate  arose  upon  the  election  of  the  members 
of  the  first  house  by  the  people.  Two  of  the  signers  of  the  "  Declaration  of 
Independence,"  Gerry  and  Sherman,  New  Englanders  both,  were  opposed  to 
it.  Their  objections  did  not,  however,  prevail  with  the  Convention.  Annual 
elections  were  contended  for  by  those  two  veterans  in  the  cause  of  liberty ; 
but  neither  did  they  carry  that  point;  Madison's  proposition  of  triennial 
renewals  of  the  representation  being  accepted.  For  the  second  house,  seven 
years  was  the  term  of  service  agreed  on ;  its  members  to  be  chosen  by  the 
State  legislatures,  and  in  the  same  proportion  as  to  numbers  as  those  of  the 
lower  house.  And  after  warm  discussion,  that  proportion  was  determined  to 
be  the  number  of  free  citizens,  and  "  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons," — a 
euphemism  for  slaves,  which  provoked  the  remark,  (precursive  of  so  much 
angry  contention,)  that  persons  and  not  property  were  the  true  basis  of 
representation. 

Upon  the  executive,  opinions  were  more  at  variance.  Governor  Randolph 
denounced  the  proposal  to  intrust  it  to  a  single  person,  as  the  setting  up  of 
"  the  fcetus  of  a  king ;  "  to  which  Franklin  replied,  that  if  a  number  were 
employed  it  would  soon  be  set  aside,  and  the  evil  predicted  not  only  assuredly 
arrive,  but  more  speedily ;  and  it  was  finally  settled  in  favour  of  unity.  But  how 
to  choose  the  executive  ?  By  the  people,  said  Mason  of  Virginia,  if  you  could 
devise  a  plan.  Let  the  central  legislature  elect  him,  rejoined  Roger  Sherman. 
A  few  thought  a  gradual  election — the  people  choosing  the  ultimate  electors — 
best ;  but  the  legislature  scheme  triumphed.  Then,  again;  what  should  be  the 
length  of  the  reign  of  this  embryonic  monarch  ?  and,  when  dethroned,  should 
he  be  suffered  again  to  assume  his  pro-regal  condition  ?  Some  replied  to  the 
second  question  in  the  affirmative,  and  fixed  upon  three  years  for  the  term  of 
the  quasi-sovereign ty ;  others  gave  it  a  negative,  but  extended  his  authority 
to  seven  years ;  and  thus  it  was  for  this  time  determined.  Franklin,  in  most 
matters  the  best  of  advisers,  wished  it  should  be  resolved,  that  the  honour  and 
the  duty  should  be  the  sole  reward  of  the  chief  magistracy  in  the  republic. 
For  he  had  a  noticeable  element  of  utopianism  in  his  character,  shrewd  and 
hard-headed  as  he  customarily  was.  It  was  well  for  the  Union  that  not  even 
the  respect  paid  to  him  sufficed  to  recommend  his  opinions  upon  salaries. 

Lastly,  the  nomination  of  the  judges  was  intrusted  to  the  second  house  ;  a 
"  suspensive  veto,"  which  the  concurrence  of  three-fourths  of  both  houses 
was  required  to  remove,  was  conceded  to  the  executive  ;  and  to  the  national 
legislature  an  "  absolute  veto  "  upon  State  laws  contravening  the  Articles  of 

4  o  2 


652  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.  Confederation,  or  foreign  treaties  ;  and  so  the  first  discussion  of  the  "Virginia 

—  plan  "  ended. 

'  1787.  '  A  new  series  of  resolutions  was  presented  to  the  Convention,  by  William 
Patterson  of  New  Jersey,  as  soon  as  this  general  committee's  labours  were 
over.  And  now  it  was  seen,  that  the  large  minority  opposed  to  a  strong, 
centralized  authority,  did  not  intend  to  abide  by  so  nearly  balanced  a  vote 
against  them.  Once  more  a  committee  of  the  entire  house  was  required  to  ex- 
amine and  determine  the  questions  of  the  power  of  the  Convention,  and  State 
sovereignty  or  National.  It  must  have  been  sufficiently  vexatious  to  debate 
propositions,  which  it  seemed  impossible  to  close.  But  the  open  avowal  of 
Hamilton's  speculative  monarchism,  and  the  production  of  his  plan  of  expedient 
republicanism,  in  which  the  second  house  or  senate  and  the  chief  magistrate 
held  office  during  good  behaviour ;  and  to  the  latter  a  greater  amount  of  power 
was  given,  and  to  the  central  governments  greater  authority  over  the  State 
governments,  than  by  either  Randolph's  (original  or  amended)  plan,  or  Pinck- 
ney's, or  Patterson's;  and  his  withdrawal  from  the  Convention  for  a  time,  oc- 
casioned much  more  chagrin.  And  it  appeared  to  justify  the  opinion  of  the 
National-sovereignty  party,  which  Jefferson  in  his  Anas  long  afterwards  re- 
corded. We  will  quote  this  now,  as  it  will  be  best  understood  here ;  and  it 
may  be  ranked  with  that  notable  discovery  of  the  designs  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, which  we  have  already  mentioned,  in  illustration  of  the  effects  produced 
in  an  unusually  perspicacious  mind,  by  virulent  Anglo-phobia. 

"  The  want  of  some  authority,  which  should  procure  justice  to  the  public 
creditors,  and  an  observance  of  treaties  with  foreign  nations,  produced  the 
call  of  a  Convention  of  the  States  at  Annapolis.  Although  at  this  meeting  a 
difference  of  opinion  was  evident  on  the  question  of  a  republican  or  kingly 
government,  yet,  so  general  through  the  States  was  the  sentiment  in  favour  of 
the  former,  that  the  friends  of  the  latter  confined  themselves  to  a  course  of 
obstruction  only,  and  delay  to  every  thing  proposed  :  they  hoped,  that  nothing 
being  done,  and  all  things  going  from  bad  to  worse,  a  kingly  government 
might  be  usurped,  and  submitted  to  by  the  people,  as  better  than  anarchy 
and  wars  internal  and  external,  the  certain  consequences  of  the  present  want 
of  a  general  government.  The  effect  of  their  manoeuvres,  with  the  defective 
attendance  of  deputies  from  the  States,  resulted  in  the  measure  of  calling  a 
more  general  Convention,  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia.  At  this,  the  same 
party  exhibited  the  same  practices,  and  with  the  same  views  of  preventing  a 
government  of  concord,  which  they  foresaw  would  be  republican;  and  of 
forcing  through  anarchy  their  way  to  monarchy.  But  the  mass  of  that  Con- 
vention was  too  honest,  too  wise,  and  too  steady,  to  be  baffled  and  misled  by 
their  manoeuvres." 

This  is  a  sufficiently  amusing  version  of  the  three  days'  sitting  at  Annapo- 
lis, and  of  the  hinderances  occasioned  by  those  who  were  fighting  the  battles 
of  Jefferson's  own  party ;  for  it  was  the  State-sovereignty  men  who  brought 
forward  and  supported  the  "  New  Jersey  plan,"  and  who,  to  the  end,  would 
not  acknowledge  themselves  defeated.    After  the  mention  of  Hamilton's  plan, 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  653 

our   misseeing   writer   concludes;    "  Those    opinions   and   efforts,  secret  or  chap 
avowed,  of  the  advocates  for  monarchy,  had  begotten  great  jealousy  through 


the  States  generally  ;  and  this  jealousy  it  was  which  excited  the  strong  oppo-  1787.  ' 
sition  to  the  Conventional  constitution ;  a  jealousy  wThich  yielded  at  last  only 
to  a  general  determination  to  establish  certain  amendments,  as  barriers  against 
a  government  either  monarchical  or  consolidated."  The  correctness  of  this 
estimate  of  the  opposition  to  the  Constitution  we  shall  enable  our  readers  to 
judge  for  themselves,  in  the  next  chapter  ;  and  now  we  may  return  to  the  Phi- 
ladelphia assembly,  and  its  debates. 

After  the  resolution  of  the  committee  concerning  Patterson's  plan,  affirm- 
ing the  principle  of  National  sovereignty,  by  a  majority  of  seven  over  three, 
— the  Connecticut  delegates  having  reconsidered  their  former  vote, — the  en- 
tire plan  was  brought  before  the  Convention  in  due  form,  and  examined  over 
again,  article  by  article.  This  led  to  the  great  struggle  between  the  opposing 
principles,  in  the  course  of  which  the  cause  itself,  wherein  the  upholders  of 
both  were  embarked,  and  for  which  they  had  dared  and  done  so  much,  was 
well  nigh  lost.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  term  "  national "  was  disused,  and 
"  United  States  "  substituted,  to  express  the  central  government.  Franklin, 
disclosing  another  element  in  his  character,  which  was  not  so  apparent  to  his 
contemporaries  as  it  is  to  those  who  know  him  by  his  works  and  letters  alone, 
proposed  the  opening  of  the  proceedings  of  each  day  by  prayers,  "  one  or 
more  of  the  clergy  of  the  city  being  requested  to  officiate  in  the  service;"  and 
to  his  great  amazement  "  the  Convention,  except  three  or  four  persons,  thought 
prayers  unnecessary !  " 

The  proportional  representation  of  the  States  in  the  first  house  was  re- 
affirmed. The  opponents  of  that  measure  now  more  strenuously  endeavoured 
to  reverse  the  vote,  which  bad  given  the  same  kind  of  representation  to  them 
in  the  second  house.  It  was  passionately  urged  on  the  National  party,  as  a 
"  compromise  "  required  by  the  critical  position  of  affairs  ;  but  a  balanced  di- 
vision indicated  how  little  strength  the  State-sovereignty  party  had  gained. 
The  fear  was  entertained  that  the  defeated  partisans  would  quit  the  Convention, 
which  would  have  rendered  all  that  had  been  done  nugatory,  and  made  the  ulti- 
mate deliverance  of  the  Union  from  its  perils  most  problematical.  In  this  crisis  a 
committee  for  conference,  composed  of  one  of  the  delegates  from  each  State, 
was  nominated  at  the  suggestion  of  Roger  Sherman  ;  and  a  safety  valve  for 
the  too  highly  excited  feelings  of  the  deputations  of  the  small  States  was 
afforded  by  the  celebration  of  Independence  Day,  which  just  then  occurred. 

Whilst  the  Conventionalists  are  in  this  unexceptionable  manner  giving  vent 
to  their  jealous  fondness  for  liberty,  we  will  read  a  fragment  of  a  letter  of 
Washington's,  written  the  day  before  the  committee  for  conference  was 
devised. 

"  Happy  indeed  will  it  be,  if  the  Convention  shall  be  able  to  recommend 
such  a  firm  and  permanent  government  for  this  Union,  that  all  who  live  under 
it  may  be  secure  in  their  lives,  liberty,  and  property ;  and  thrice  happy 
would  it  be  if  such  a  recommendation  should  obtain.     Every  body  wishes, 


654  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  every  body  expects,  something  from  the  Convention;  but  what  will  be  the 

- —  final  result  of  its  deliberation  the  book  of  fate  must  disclose.     Persuaded  I 

'\m.  '  am,  that  the  primary  cause  of  all  our  disorders  lies  in  the  different  State 
governments,  and  in  the  tenacity  of  that  power  which  pervades  the  whole  of 
their  systems.  Whiht  independent  sovereignty  is  so  ardently  contended  for  ; 
whilst  the  local  views  of  each  State,  and  separate  interests  by  which  they  are 
too  much  governed,  will  not  yield  to  a  more  enlarged  scale  of  politics  ;  incom- 
patibility in  the  laws  of  different  States,  and  disrespect  to  those  of  the  general 
government,  must  render  the  situation  of  this  great  country  weak,  inefficient, 
and  disgraceful.  It  has  already  done  so  almost  to  the  final  dissolution  of  it. 
Weak  at  home  and  disregarded  abroad  is  our  present  condition;  and  con- 
temptible enough  it  is." 

The  result  of  the  conference  of  the  select  committee,  was  the  concession  to 
the  State-sovereignty  advocates  of  equal  votes  in  the  second  house,  which  was 
effected  by  the  agency  of  Franklin,  who  proposed  it,  and  won  a  slow  and 
unwilling  assent  from  the  opposite  party.  As  a  small  satisfaction  to  those 
who  looked  upon  themselves  as  circumvented,  it  was  appended,  that  all  bills 
for  raising  revenue  should  originate  in  the  popular  assembly,  as  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons.  But  this  did  not  prevent  a  very  stormy  reception  being 
given  by  the  majority  in  the  Convention  to  the  report  of  the  peace  thus  pro- 
cured ;  and  the  jubilant  delight  of  those  who  in  no  other  way  could  have  suc- 
ceeded, and  who  would  rather  have  destroyed  the  Union  than  not  have  carried 
their  point,  enhanced  their  vexation  and  disappointment. 

There  was,  however,  and  there  still  is,  a  question  of  infinitely  greater  con- 
cernment to  the  Union  than  this  which  lay  between  the  petty  States  and  those 
of  imperial  extent.  It  regarded  the  supremacy  of  the  two  predominant 
"  interests  "  in  every  free  community,  agriculture  and  commerce.  But  the 
form  under  which  it  appeared  was  so  extraordinarily  complicated,  that  solution 
was  impossible ;  and  so  it  remains  to  the  present  hour,  a  source  of  continual 
irritation,  always  demanding  the  attention  of  the  legislature,  always  dis- 
posed of  for  the  time  by  some  confessed  expedient  merely,  and  therefore 
always  reappearing  in  a  shape  more  menacing,  and  embodying  a  larger  danger 
than  before.  And  it  was  in  the  following  manner  that  this  abyss  of  peril  was 
first  disclosed. 

When  the  equal  representation  in  the  second  house  was  obtained  by  the 
States  party,  the  apportionment  of  the  representatives  in  the  lower  house  was 
the  matter  of  most  intense  interest  undetermined.  And  after  many  a  brisk 
skirmish  upon  accessory  propositions  and  contingent  problems  of  policy, — after 
a  provisional  arrangement  of  the  members  and  distribution  of  the  delegates 
for  the  commencement  of  the  new  regime  they  hoped  to  inaugurate, — the 
Convention  was  called  to  discuss  the  rule  for  their  subsequent  distribution. 
Population  was  manifestly  the  basis  upon  which  alone,  with  any  consistency, 
the  representation  in  a  democratic  republic  could  be  founded.  That  was 
generally  admitted.  How  then  should  the  slaves  be  regarded  ?  If  they  were 
properly,  as  the  men  of  the  South  contended,  why  should  not  other  species  of 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  655 

property  be  included  in  the  estimate  of  comparative  importance?     And  then    chap. 

the  wealth  of  the  northern  States  would  give  them  the  preponderance.     If ■ — ■ 

they  were  men,  as  the  men  of  the  North  avowed,  then,  to  distribute  the  repre-    '  i7*87. 
sentatives  in  accordance  with  an  enumeration  of  them  along  with  their  owners 
would  give  the  political  preponderance  to  the  southern  States. 

It  was  one  of  those  dilemmas  into  which  nations  as  well  as  individual  men 
always  fall,  when  they  oppose  themselves  to  truth  and  right.  In  the  debate, 
the  northern  deputies  argued  upon  the  ground  of  the  slaveholders,  and  the 
southern  deputies  upon  that  of  the  emancipators ;  the  former  insisting  that 
slaves  should  not  be  reckoned  at  all,  the  latter  that  the  full  tale  of  them 
should  be  counted  in  the  population.  A  compromise  was  proposed  by  a 
North  Carolina  delegate,  to  compute  three-fifths  of  them  along  with  the  free 
population,  (as  had  been  agreed  on  in  respect  of  taxation,)  and  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  majority, — two  non-slaveholding  States — Delaware  and  New 
Jersey — voting  against  it,  and  one  Slave  State — South  Carolina — with  another 
of  the  opposite  principle — Massachusetts — being  divided,  and  consequently 
neutral. 

Such,  in  ordinary  and  unofficial  language,  was  the  sum  of  this  remarkable 
debate,  which  ended  in  the  second  compromise  of  the  constitution.  Readers 
of  the  "  Journals  "  will  observe  that  the  usual  phraseology  was  retained  on 
both  sides ;  but  the  meaning  of  the  terms,  as  the  drift  and  the  context  always 
show,  was  exactly  the  reverse  of  that  commonly  intended.  The  Slave  States, 
it  will  be  observed,  in  this  first  passage  of  arms,  just  as  in  the  last  on  record, 
were  really  the  victors,  and  they  succeeded  in  both  instances  by  the  use  of  the 
same  manoeuvre, — the  threat  of  dissolving  the  Union.  It  was  remotely  hinted 
on  this  occasion,  but  it  was  not  the  less  effective.  This  fact  history  is  bound 
to  note, — that  the  State-sovereignty  party  and  the  Slave-State  party  compassed 
their  ends  in  the  Convention  by  the  employment  of  the  same  means — the 
threat  of  desperate  proceedings ;  but  that  neither  was  able,  even  by  such  a 
ruse,  to  carry  off  more  than  a  portion  of  the  stakes  they  played  so  high  for. 
We  must  also  observe,  that  at  this  time  it  was  believed  that  the  Slave  States 
were,  both  in  wealth  and  population,  the  strength-  of  the  Union; — a  belief 
singularly  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  experience,  and  most  significantly  con- 
tradicted by  their  after-history. 

One  final  effort  was  made  by  the  commissioners  of  the  larger  States  to 
reverse  the  former  decision,  and  introduce  the  proportionate  representa- 
tion into  the  upper  division  of  the  national  legislature  ;  but  it  was  without 
avail.  There  was  more  temper  displayed  in  this  debate  than  in  any  of  those 
foregoing.  The  deputies  of  New  York,  whom  Hamilton  had  left  at  Phila- 
delphia, withdrew ;  and  the  dispute  ran  so  high  that  a  confederation  of  the 
larger  States,  apart  from  their  resolute  opponents,  which  might  ultimately 
force  them  to  accept  the  objectionable  principle  as  a  favour, — or  rather  re- 
open the  whole  contest,  and  afford  a  firm  footing  for  European  intrigue, — 
was  mooted.  The  discussion  of  the  legislative  branch  of  the  central  govern- 
ment was  brought  to  a  close  by  the  declaration  that  the  acts  of  Congress,  and 


656  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  the  foreign  treaties  of  the  federal  power,  should  be  supreme  throughout  the 
Union,  over-riding  every  State  law. 


"1787."''  Respecting  the  executive  branch, — notwithstanding  numerous  propositions, 
with  votes  and  counter-votes  of  every  conceivable  kind,  and  discussions  with 
more  or  less  of  party  heat,  no  alteration  was  made  in  the  committee's  report. 
And  the  same  result  followed  the  debates  on  the  judiciary. 

A  Committee  of  Detail,  consisting  of  five  members,  next  received  the  three 
plans,  which  were  before  the  Convention, — the  amended  "  Virginia  plan," 
that  of  New  Jersey,  and  "  Pinckney's  sketch,"  (which  has  been  mentioned 
above,) — for  more  complete  digestion ;  and  the  suggestion  of  the  qualifications 
for  the  various  officers,  judicial,  legislative,  and  executive,  in  respect  of  pro- 
perty, was  intrusted  to  them.  The  fruit  of  their  deliberations  was  not  long 
waited  for.  In  little  more  than  a  week,  they  laid  before  the  whole  body, 
what  was  the  second  step  in  approximation  to  the  plan  ultimately  adopted ; 
and  another  struggle  of  parties,  in  which  the  comparative  importance  of  the 
under-questions  we  have  spoken  of  came  prominently  to  light,  ensued. 

We  must  rapidly  glance  at  the  particulars  of  this  contest ;  for  in  them  was 
shadowed  forth,  and  that  not  faintly,  much  of  the  future  of  the  Union ;  and 
these — the  conflicts  of  peace — were  truly  of  incomparably  greater  influence 
on  the  career  by  which  the  country,  whose  story  we  are  telling,  has  reached 
the  proud  position  it  now  occupies  in  the  wide  republic  of  nations,  than  all 
the  victories  of  the  War  of  Independence. 

In  the  draft  which  this  skilful  committee  reported,  the  designations  now 
borne  by  the  executive  and  the  two  branches  of  the  legislative  of  the  United 
States, — President  and  Congress,  consisting  of  Senate  and  House  of  Represent- 
atives,— were  introduced.  It  equalized  the  national  franchise  with  that  of  the 
States  severally, — a  plan  opposed  (but  in  vain)  by  the  proposition  of  freehold 
suffrage.  Terms  of  residence  in  America,  as  qualifications  for  members  of  Con- 
gress,— a  most  necessary  provision, — were  stated.  But  the  Convention  raised 
that  for  senators  from  four  years  to  nine ;  and  that  for  representatives  from 
three  to  seven.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  it  appeared  that  some  of  the 
most  eminent  citizens  of  the  Union  were  not  natives  of  the  New  World ;  a 
circumstance  which  had  its  weight  in  the  conclusion  arrived  at.  The  property 
qualifications  had  not  been  settled ;  nor  could  the  Convention,  any  more  than 
the  committee,  determine  so  invidious  a  distinction,  and  one  so  inconsistent 
with  the  general  spirit  of  the  proposed  institutions.  The  name  of  Franklin 
ought  to  be  mentioned  as  connected  with  this  result,  which  renders  the  oper- 
ation of  the  Constitution  a  political  experiment  of  the  greatest  worth  to  the 
whole  world. 

One  prolific  source  of  corruption  was  in  good  part  stopped,  by  the  limitation 
of  the  eligibility  of  the  members  of  Congress  for  office ;  and  that  evil,  which 
had  in  no  small  degree  necessitated  the  holding  of  the  Convention,  the  issuing 
of  government  paper-money,  was  precluded  for  the  time  to  come,  by  making 
gold  and  silver  the  only  legal  tenders.  These  measures  provoked  little  oppo- 
sition ;   neither  did  certain  others,  restricting  the  powers  of  the  individual 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  *  657 

States,  in  matters  such  as  the  creation  of  titles  of  nobility,  the  enactment  of  c  ha  p. 
laws  affecting  the  inter-State  trade,  and  the  assumption  of  independent  sove- 


V. 


reignty  in  dealings  with  foreign  states,  hostile  or  pacific;  it  was  perceived  mr. 
that  there  must  be  some  conditions  of  confederacy,  and  that  these  did  not 
really  interfere  with  the  principle  of  state  sovereignty.  The  militia  question 
was  not  so  easily  settled;  but  after  much  excited  argument,  a  committee 
formed  of  one  representative  from  each  State  present  devised  the  existing 
arrangement,  which  places  this  force  at  the  disposal  of  the  central  legislature, 
but  leaves  its  drilling  and  commanding  to  'the  State  legislatures  ;  by  which 
the  jealousy  of  the  latter  was  appeased. 

This  comparatively  smooth  flow  of  affairs  was  broken,  when  the  next  sub- 
jects were  introduced ;  and  in  the  angry  turbulence  of  the  debate,  that 
"  abyss  of  peril "  (as  we  have  named  it)  for  the  States-Union  was  disclosed 
more  distinctly  than  before.  The  commercial  regulations  reported  in  the 
draft,  were  the  occasion  of  this  fierce  contestation ;  and  very  noticeable  it  is, 
that  here  this  danger  appears  without  that  ingredient,  which  in  the  question 
of  the  apportionment  of  the  votes  really  mingled  it  with  the  other  chief 
danger  of  the  country — the  pride  of  sovereignty  in  the  petty  States.  Still  it 
was  a  most  "  composite  "  matter  that  thus  sorely  distracted  the  Convention,  as 
our  very  closely  condensed  account  of  it  will  show. 

In  the  draft  it  was  provided,  that  exports  should  not  be  burdened  by  cus- 
toms, that  none  should  be  laid  on  the  "  migration  or  importation  of  such  per- 
sons as  any  of  the  States  might  think  proper  to  admit,"  and  that  two-thirds  of 
the  States  must  consent  to  any  "  Navigation  act,"  before  it  could  become  law. 
The  second  provision,  with  the  tortuosity  of  conscious  wrong-doing,  was  in- 
tended to  establish  the  foreign  slave-trade, — a  branch  of  commerce  which,  it 
will  be  remembered,  in  the  ingenuous  earnestness  of  the  "  first-love  "  of 
liberty,  had  been  denounced  as  a  British  crime,  which  the  "  American  Asso- 
ciations" and  the  continental  Congress  pledged  all  true  patriots  to  abstain 
from, — just  as  from  tea,  and  other  un-American  luxuries.  All  three  were 
inserted  to  avert  the  hostility  of  Charles  C.  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina  ;  and 
were  contrived  for  the  advantage  of  the  Southern,  agricultural  and  slave- 
holding,  States,  solely. 

Navigation  laws  were  then  universally,  and  still  are  in  the  United  States, 
regarded  as  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  a  nation's  commerce  ;  and  to  require 
the  assent  of  two-thirds  of  the  States  to  the  imposition  of  them,  would  have 
been  interpreted  by  the  New  Englanders,  and  their  nearest  neighbours,  as  a 
declaration  that  their  "  interests  "  were  of  no  concern  to  the  country  at  large. 
The  Northern  States,  with  almost  as  much  decision  as  Great  Britain  itself,  con- 
demned the  African  Slave-trade.  And,  in  the  financiering  of  the  day  it  was  con- 
sidered, that  exported  produce  was  legitimately  taxable,  in  aid  of  the  general 
revenue ;  and  the  Southern  States  were  the  exporting  members  of  the  Union. 

Little  can  be  said  in  commendation  of  the  political  economics  of  either  side. 
But  the  party  which  could  propose  by  the  mercantile  laws  of  the  Confeder- 
ation, to  secure  all  the  advantages  it  could  think  of  for  its  own  "  interest," 

4  p 


658  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    and  to  deprive  the  other  "  interest "  of  all  that  might  operate  in  its  favour, 

■ —  must  be  regarded  as  having  pushed  its  selfishness  to  the  verge  of  insanity.  In 

'  1787.  '  this  debate,  the  deputies  of  the  Northern  States  undoubtedly  took  up  the  true 
ground  concerning  what  Governor  Morris  called  the  "  nefarious  institution," 
which  was  so  decently  veiled  under  that  provision,  for  the  "  emigration  or 
importation  of  such  persons  as  the  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit ;  "  and 
were  generally  opposed  to  the  laying  of  a  tax  upon  such  imports,  as  involving 
the  acknowledgment  that  human  beings  could  be  "  property."  But  they 
could  not  see  how  to  resuscitate  their  own  almost  ruined  trade  without  a 
"  navigation  act," — which  the  "  agricultural  interests  "  had  artfully  made  the 
price  of  their  consent  to  the  foreign  traffic  in  slaves.  The  threat  of  dissolv- 
ing the  Union  was  also  resorted  to,  and  with  more  obstinate  purpose,  by  the 
two  southmost  States. 

Once  more  the  men  of  the  North  recoiled  from  the  consequences,  which 
seemed  to  be  inevitable,  if  they  pushed  to  the  right  conclusion  the  principles 
they  held.  A  committee  of  one  from  each  State  proposed  what  was  well 
named  a  "  bargain,"  by  which  each  "  interest  "  consented  to  so  much  that  it 
did  not  agree  to,  as  was  needful  to  secure  what  it  most  desired.  Thus, — ex- 
ports were  not  to  be  taxed,  which  the  South  demanded ;  and  Congress  was 
left  free  to  enact  navigation  laws,  which  the  North  required; — whilst  the 
North  allowed  the  importation  of  slaves  for  a  further  term  of  years,  and  the 
South  undertook  to  pay  a  duty  of  not  more  than  ten  dollars  a  head  on  all  it 
imported.  This  report  was  modified  in  a  final  discussion  by  the  extension  of 
the  term  for  the  continuance  of  the  slave-trade  to  the  year  1808,  by  the  votes 
of  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts, 
against  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware.  The  condemna- 
tion of  this,  which  has  been  distinguished  as  "  the  third  great  compromise  of 
the  Constitution,"  will  always  be  read,  not  in  the  eloquent  denunciations  of 
those  who  refused  to  vote  for  the  merchandise  in  men,  but  in  the  compli- 
ments of  the  politician  of  South  Carolina,  who  laid  the  snare  by  which  the 
compromisers  of  New  England  were  caught.  "  He  had  entertained,"  he 
said,  "  prejudices  against  the  Eastern  States,  before  he  met  their  delegates  in 
the  Convention  ;  but  he  would  acknowledge  that  he  had  found  them  to  be  as 
liberal  and  candid  as  any  men  in  the  world." 

The  chasm  being  thus  bridged  over  once  more,  the  articles  relating  to  the 
executive  were  considered.  A  committee  of  one  from  each  State  added  to 
the  plan  a  Vice-President,  and  the  results  in  other  respects  so  little  differed 
from  what  was  ultimately  resolved  on,  that  we  do  not  need  to  specify  them. 
Nor  do  any  of  the  unsuccessful  proposals  require  notice,  except  that  which 
would  have  set  up  a  "  Privy  Council,"  an  imitation  of  Great  Britain ;  and 
another,  which  attempted  the  re-introduction  of  the  "  Council  of  Revision  " 
from  the  original  "  Virginia  plan."  The  article  providing  for  the  extradition 
of  run-away  slaves  was  skilfully  introduced  along  with  that  which  took  away 
shelter  from  fugitive  criminals ;  and  the  Free  States,  unwilling  to  renew  the 
.contest  which  had  been  closed  with  such  difficulty,  and  at  such  a  cost,  scarcely 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  C59 

seemed  to  notice  it     And  nothing  further  occurred,  worthy  of  mention,  at  this   chap. 
stage  of  the  proceedings.  v 

A  fresh  committee  of  five,  including  Hamilton,  who  had  returned  to  the  Con-  A  Ws/.86 
vention,  and  Madison, — both  of  whom  we  shall  meet  with  in  the  next  chapter, 
as  expounders  and  vindicators  of  the  New  Constitution, — was  appointed  for  the 
revision  of  the  draft,  amended,  as  we  have  narrated,  in  its  language  and  method  ; 
and  then  it  was  again  submitted  to  the  entire  assembly.  This  time  the  veto 
conceded  to  the  executive,  was  lessened  in  its  force  by  the  alteration  of  the 
counterpoise  from  three-fourths  to  two-thirds  of  the  votes  of  the  legislative 
branch.  And,  what  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind,  the  proposition  to  enact 
a  "  Bill  of  Rights  "  was  lost ;  the  five  States  below  the  Chesapeake  opposing 
it,  and  five  north  of  it  assenting ;  Hamilton,  the  only  representative  of  New 
York,  refusing  to  vote,  and  Massachusetts,  one  of  whose  deputies  made  the  pro- 
position, being  equally  divided.  The  conditions  for  the  revision  of  the  Consti- 
tution were  also  inserted.  As  a  last  measure,  Governor  Randolph,  who  had 
opened  the  whole  business,  moved  the  summoning  of  another  Convention  to 
consider  the  amendments  which  the  different  State  Conventions  might  be 
expected  to  suggest ;  but  not  a  vote  was  given  in  favour  of  such  a  course. 

It  was  then  that  the  last  change  in  the  relations  of  the  parties  in  the  Con- 
vention was  manifested ;  and  it  is  sufficiently  curious  to  merit  a  passing  word. 
The  natural  effects  of  the  long-continued  attention  to  various  aspects  of  the 
same  subject  began  to  show  themselves,  not  only  in  the  weariness  which 
declined  debate  more  and  more,  but  in  the  fears  of  too  strong  a  central  govern- 
ment expressed  by  some  of  the  National-sovereignty  party,  and  in  the  efforts  to 
strengthen  the  national  legislature  made  by  many  of  the  partisans  of  State-rights. 

Some  of  the  delegates,  after  all,  spoke  of  "  the  contemptible  weakness  and 
dependence  of  the  executive,"  and  refused  to  sign  the  constitution  ;  and 
others  augured  the  development  of  nothing  less  mischievous  than  a  King  and 
a  House  of  Lords,  from  the  operations  of  the  system  constructed,  and  also 
refused  to  sign.  Whilst  a  few,  wiser,  if  not  more  consistent, — for  Hamilton 
was  one  of  the  number, — declared  that  though  not  the  best  conceivable,  it  was 
the  best  Constitution  they  could  get ;  and  as  such  must  be  accepted  thankfully, 
and  honestly  worked.  Franklin  made  a  last  attempt  to  win  the  signatures  of 
all,  by  a  good-tempered,  common-sense  speech,  which  was  read  for  him;  in 
which,  reminding  the  irate  deputies  of  the  quarrelsome  French  lady,  who  was 
surprised  that  she  never  met  with  anybody  but  herself  who  was  always  on  the 
right  side,  he  exhorted  them  "  a  little  to  doubt  their  own  infallibility,"  and 
to  put  their  names  to  the  engrossed  copy,  under  the  formula,  "  Done  in  Con- 
vention, by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  States  present  on  the  17th  day 
of  September,  a.  d.  1787,  and  in  the  12th  year  of  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  in  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our 
names."  Another  change  was  made  in  the  minimum  number  of  inhabitants 
needed  for  the  return  of  each  popular  representative ;  and  then,  thirty-nine 
out  of  the  fifty-five  members  signed.  So  ended  this  deservedly  famous  Con- 
stituent Convention,  after  sitting  for  five  months,  less  one  week. 

4  p  2 


660  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE   NEW   CONFEDERATION.— THE   ADOPTION   OF   THE    CONSTITUTION.— WASHINGTON   ELECTED,   AND 
INSTALLED    AS   THE   FIRST   PRESIDENT. 

CI*rAP-  On  the  same  day  on  which  the  signatures  were  appended  to  the  Constitution, 
■ — - — -  the  17th  of  September,  1787,  two  resolutions  were  carried;  by  which  it  was 
to  1789.  ordered  that  the  product  of  the  long  deliberations  of  the  Convention  should 
be  presented  to  Congress,  for  the  purpose  of  being  laid  before  State-Conven- 
tions, chosen  for  the  purpose,  to  be  ratified;  notice  of  such  ratification  (if  ac- 
corded) being  afterwards  sent  to  Congress.  And  the  opinion  was  expressed, 
that  as  soon  as  nine  States  had  ratified,  Congress  should  fix  a  day  for  appoint- 
ing electors  in  every  State  to  choose  a  President,  and  for  electing  Represent- 
atives and  Senators ;  that  without  delay  the  new  polity  might  be  brought  into 
operation.  These  resolutions  were  forwarded  to  Congress,  together  with  a 
letter,  the  importance  of  which,  as  a  historical  document  relating  to  the  strife 
of  parties  in  the  United  States,  is  so  great,  that  we  give  it  entire. 

"  In  Convention.     September  11th,  1787. 
"  Sir, 

We  have  now  the  honour  to  submit  to  the  consideration  of  the  United 
States,  in  Congress  assembled,  that  Constitution,  which  has  appeared  to  us 
most  advisable. 

"  The  friends  of  our  country  have  long  seen  and  desired  that  the  power  of 
making  war,  peace,  and  treaties,  that  of  levying  money  and  regulating  com- 
merce, and  the  correspondent  executive  and  judicial  authorities,  should  be 
fully  and  effectually  vested  in  the  general  government  of  the  Union :  but  the 
impropriety  of  delegating  such  extensive  trust  to  one  body  of  men  is  evident. 
Hence  results  the  necessity  for  a  different  organization. 

"It  is  obviously  impracticable  in  the  federal  government  of  these  States,  to 
secure  all  rights  of  independent  sovereignty  to  each,  and  yet  provide  for  the 
interest  and  safety  of  all.  Individuals  entering  into  society  must  give  up  a 
share  of  liberty  to  preserve  the  rest.  The  magnitude  of  the  sacrifice  must  de- 
pend as  well  on  situation  and  circumstance,  as  on  the  object  to  be  obtained. 
It  is  at  all  times  difficult  to  draw  with  precision  the  line  between  those  right? 
which  must  be  surrendered,  and  those  which  may  be  reserved ;  and  on  the 
present  occasion,  this  difficulty  was  increased  by  a  difference  among  the  several 
States,  as  to  their  situation,  extent,  habits,  and  particular  interests. 

"  In  all  our  deliberations  on  this  subject,  we  kept  steadily  in  our  view,  that 
which  appears  to  us  the  greatest  interest  of  every  true  American,  the  consoli- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  661 

dation  of  our  Union,  in  which  is  involved  our  prosperity,  felicity,  safety,  per-   chap. 

haps   our   national  existence.      This   important  consideration,  seriously   and  •- ' — 

deeply  impressed  on  our  minds,  led  each  State  in  the  Convention  to  be  less    to  i>89. 
rigid  on  points  of  inferior  magnitude,  than  might  have  been  otherwise  ex- 
pected, and  thus  the  Constitution,  which  we  now  present,  is  the  result  of  a 
spirit  of  amity,  and  of  that  mutual  deference  and  concession,  which  the  pecu- 
liarity of  our  political  situation  rendered  indispensable. 

"  That  it  will  meet  the  full  and  entire  approbation  of  every  State,  is  not 
perhaps  to  be  expected :  but  each  will  doubtless  consider,  that  had  her  inter- 
ests alone  been  consulted,  the  consequences  might  have  been  particularly  dis- 
agreeable or  injurious  to  others:  that  it  is  liable  to  as  few  exceptions  as  could 
reasonably  have  been  expected,  we  hope  and  believe :  that  it  may  promote 
the  lasting  welfare  of  that  country  so  dear  to  us  all,  and  secure  her  freedom 
and  happiness,  is  our  most  ardent  wish. 

"  With  great  respect  we  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 

Your  Excellency's  most  obedient  and  humble  Servants. 
(Signed)     George  Washington,  President, 
By  unanimous  order  of  the  Convention. 
"  His  Excellency  the  President  of  Congress." 

The  moribund  legislature  was  a  little  perplexed  by  this  movement  of  the 
Convention.  Some  members  questioned  the  formal  propriety  of  requiring 
from  Congress  a  sanction  for  a  scheme  which  was  intended  to  nullify  and 
overthrow  the  foundation  of  their  own  existence  as  a  legislative  body ;  and 
many  doubted  the  legality  of  the  whole  proceeding,  fancying  that  prescription 
could  give  a  title  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  people.  Others  desired  to 
constitute  themselves  into  a  "  Council  of  Revision,"  and  to  prefix  a  "  Bill  of 
Rights,"  and  enact  a  variety  of  amendments.  These  humours  did  not,  how- 
ever, last  long ;  the  position  of  affairs  was  too  critical  to  allow  the  indulgence 
of  crotchets ;  and  eleven  days  after  the  close  of  the  Convention,  copies  of  the 
proposed  Constitution  were  forwarded  to  the  legislatures  of  the  thirteen  States, 
to  be  dealt  with  by  them  according  to  the  resolutions  of  the  legislators,  by 
whom  it  had  been  constructed. 

But  before  we  relate  the  transactions  of  the  State-Conventions,  summoned 
to  consider  the  momentous  question  for  each  one,  and  for  the  Union  at  large, 
— whether  or  not  to  adopt  the  Constitution  ;  we  must  present  to  our  readers  a 
sketch  of  this  palladium,  not  of  the  liberties,  so  much  as  of  the  very  existence, 
of  the  United  States.  And  we  shall  append  to  it  a  popular  view  of  the  princi- 
ples by  which  such  a  Constitution  must  be  interpreted ;  that  our  readers  may 
be  prepared  for  the  right  understanding  of  the  protracted  party-contests,  which 
have  now  been  carried  on  for  more  than  sixty  years  around  it ;  and  that  our 
subsequent  notices  of  the  constitutional  history  of  the  Union  may  be  rendered 
more  interesting  and  valuable,  being  thus  regarded  as  processes  in  a  political 
experiment,  the  vastest  in  extent,  and  the  most  successful  in  its  results  hither- 
to, of  all  that  have  been  made  in  modern  times. 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap.       This  scheme  of  Federal  government  is  divided  into  seven  articles,  which 

■ ■ —  are  subdivided  into  sections  and   paragraphs,  when  necessary  from  the  diver- 

to  1789. '  sity  and  number  of  particulars  included  in  them;  and  it  opens  with  the 
following  preamble : — "  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity, 
provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish 
this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Article  the  first  treats  of  the  legislative  portion  of  the  national  government, 
and  appoints  a  Congress,  consisting  of  a  Senate  and  a  House  of  Representatives, 
to  discharge  that  function.  The  members  of  the  latter  branch  are  to  be 
chosen  biennially  by  those  possessed  of  the  elective  franchise  in  each  State, 
and  they  must  be  twenty-five  years  old,. citizens  of  seven  years'  standing,  and 
inhabitants  of  the  States  they  represent.  The  ratio  of  representation  and  of 
direct  taxation  are  determined  in  the  same  manner,  being  distributed  according 
to  the  population,  or,  more  exactly,  "  the  whole  number  of  free  persons, — in- 
cluding those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not 
taxed, — three-fifths  of  all  other  persons."  Provision  is  also  made  for  the 
periodical  enumeration  of  the  people ;  one  representative  being  assigned  to 
each  State,  whatever  its  population  may  be,  and  thirty  thousand  being  the 
minimum  number  entitled  to  one  in  other  cases.  The  provisional  representa- 
tion of  the  States,  until  the  first  actual  census,  being  for  New  Hampshire 
three,  for  Massachusetts  eight,  Rhode  Island  one,  Connecticut  five,  New 
York  six,  for  New  Jersey  four,  Pennsylvania  eight,  for  Delaware  one,  Mary- 
land six,  Virginia  ten,  North  Carolina  five,  South  Carolina  five,  and  for 
Georgia  three  representatives.  The  executive  of  each  State  issues  writs  for 
the  filling  up  of  vacancies  in  its  representation ;  and  the  House  chooses  its 
officers,  and  has  the  sole  power  of  impeachment. 

Two  senators  are  allotted  to  each  State,  and  the  State  legislature  elects  them. 
They  serve  for  six  years,  each  having  a  vote.  By  division  into  three  classes 
at  first,  and  afterwards  by  regular  succession,  one-third  goes  out  of  office 
every  other  year;  casual  vacancies  being  temporarily  supplied  by  the  State- 
executives,  until  the  legislatures  can  permanently  appoint  representatives. 
Each  senator  must  be  resident  in  the  State  which  deputes  him,  and  must 
further  be  thirty  years  old,  and  for  nine  years  a  citizen  of  the  Union.  This 
branch  of  the  legislature  of  the  Confederation  is  presided  over  by  the  vice- 
president  of  the  Union  for  the  time  being,  with  a  casting  vote;  but  its  other 
officers  it  chooses  for  itself,  and  its  president  too,  when  the  national  vice- 
president  is  not  able  to  act.  The  Senate  tries  all  impeachments,  its  members 
being  on  oath  (or  affirmation) ;  and  the  chief  justice  is  to  preside,  if  the 
president  of  the  United  States  should  be  impeached  before  it.  Two-thirds  of 
the  number  present  must  concur  in  any  conviction,  and  the  sentence  only 
removes  from  and  disqualifies  for  office  in  the  Federal  government;  but  the 
persons  convicted  may  be  further  proceeded  against  according  to  law. 

The  legislature  of  each  State  appoints  the  time,  place,  and  mode  of  election 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  663 

for  both  branches   of  the  national   legislature.       Congress   may,   however,  chap. 

regulate  the  elections  for  the  House  of  Representatives.     The  first  Monday  in ■ — 

every  December  is  the  time  for  the  opening  of  the  annual  session  of  Congress,  toi'7S9. 
unless  another  day  be  appointed  by  law.  The  power  needful  for  the  legal 
conduct  of  its  own  business,  such  as  judging  of  the  validity  of  elections,  &c,  is 
secured  to  each  House;  a  majority  of  each  being  a  quorum,  except  for  ad- 
journments from  day  to  day;  and  the  consent  of  the  other  House  being 
requisite,  if  either  would  adjourn  for  more  than  three  days,  or  to  another 
place.  A  journal  is  to  be  kept  by  each  House,  and  published,  unless  it  is 
resolved  to  the  contrary;  and  one-fifth  of  those  present  may  require  the 
registry  of  the  votes  in  either  on  any  question.  All  members  of  Congress  are 
paid  for  their  services  out  of  the  Federal  treasury,  the  amounts  being  fixed  by 
law;  they  are  not  liable  to  arrest,  save  for  treason,  felony,  and  breach  of  the 
peace,  whilst  on  actual  duty;  and  are  not  to  be  called  in  question  in  any  other 
place,  "  for  any  speech  or  debate  in  either  House."  Members  of  Congress 
during  their  time  of  service,  may  not  hold  any  civil  office  under  the  Federal 
government  which  has  been  created,  or  the  emoluments  of  which  have  been 
increased  in  the  course  of  that  time;  and  all  Federal  oflice-holders  are  dis- 
qualified for  membership. 

Bills  for  raising  revenue  must  originate  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
but  the  power  of  the  Senate  is  the  same  with  them  as  with  other  bills.  After 
passing  through  both  divisions  of  Congress,  every  bill  is  to  be  presented  to 
the  president,  to  be  signed  by  him  if  approved.  He  may,  however,  return  it 
with  a  statement  of  his  objections  to  the  House  whence  it  originated;  and  if, 
on  re-consideration  by  both  Houses,  it  is  passed  by  the  consent  of  two-thirds  of 
each  House,  "it  shall  become  a  law."  Also,  any  bill  not  signed  or  returned 
by  the  president  within  ten  days  (Sundays  excepted)  after  having  been  pre- 
sented to  him,  "  shall  be  a  law,"  as  if  he  had  signed  it,  unless  an  adjournment 
of  Congress  have  prevented  its  return.  Two-thirds  of  the  Senate  and  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  must  agree  in  every  case  in  which  the  president 
disapproves  of  "  any  order,  resolution,  or  vote  "  to  which  his  approval  is 
requisite,  or  it  cannot  take  effect. 

Congress  has  power  "  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises ; 
to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  of 
the  United  States;  but  all  duties,  imposts,  and  excises  shall  be  uniform 
throughout  the  United  States : — to  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  IJnited 
States: — to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the  several 
States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes: — to  establish  a  uniform  law  of  naturalization, 
and  uniform  laws  on  the  subject  of  bankruptcies,  throughout  the  United 
States: — to  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin,  and 
fix  the  standard  of  weights  and  measures ; — to  provide  for  the  punishment  of 
counterfeiting  the  securities  and  current  coin  of  the  United  States: — to 
establish  post-offices  and  post-roads : — to  promote  the  progress  of  science  and 
useful  arts,  by  securing  for  limited  times  to  authors  and  inventors  the  exclu- 
sive right  to  their  respective  writings  and  discoveries : — to  constitute  tribunals 


664:  HISTOKY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  inferior  to  the  supreme  court: — to  define  and  punish  piracies  and  felonies 

! —  committed  on  the  high  seas,  and  offences  against  the  law  of  nations : — to 

AtoDiVs9.87  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  and  make  rules  concerning 
captures  on  land  and  water  : — to  raise  and  support  armies  ;  but  no  appropria- 
tion of  money  to  that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer  term  than  two  years  ? — to  pro- 
vide and  maintain  a  navy : — to  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation 
of  land  and  naval  forces  : — to  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the 
laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  insurrection,  and  repel  invasions : — to  provide 
for  organizing,  arming,  and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  such 
part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  ;  reserv- 
t  ing  to  the  States  respectively  the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and  the  authority 

of  training  the  militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress  : — to 
exercise  exclusive  legislation  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  over  such  district  (not 
exceeding  ten  miles  square)  as  may  by  cession  of  particular  States,  and  the 
acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  exercise  like  authority  over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent 
of  the  legislature  of  the  State  in  which  the  same  shall  be,  for  the  erection  of 
forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dockyards,  and  other  needful  buildings : — and  to 
make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution 
the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or  office  thereof." 

In  the  next  section,  the  power  of  Congress  is  limited  in  various  ways  : — it 
may  not  prohibit  "  the  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the 
States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,"  before  the  year  1808 ;  but 
it  may  impose  a  tax  or  duty  on  such  importations,  "  not  exceeding  ten  dollars 
for  each  person :  " — it  may  not  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  Habeas  corpus 
writ,  except  as  a  measure  to  secure  the  public  safety  in  times  of  invasion  or 
rebellion  : — it  may  not  pass  either  bill  of  attainder,  or  ex  post  facto  law  ;  nor 
lay  a  capitation,  or  any  other  direct  tax,  save  in  proportion  to  the  census: — no 
duty  may  be  levied  on  exports  from  any  State ;  nor  any  preference  given  by 
law  to  the  ports  of  any  State  ;  nor  may  any  vessel  be  required  to  pay  any 
duty  or  charge  in  any  other  State  than  that  to  or  from  which  it  is  bound : — it  can 
make  drafts  on  the  treasury  by  law  alone ;  and  must  periodically  publish  an 
account  of  all  receipts  and  expenditures  of  public  money : — and  not  only  may 
not  any  title  of  nobility  be  granted  by  the  United  States ;  without  consent  of 
Congress,  no  office-bearer  of  the  States  may  accept  "  present,  emolument, 
office,  or  title  of  any  kind  whatever  "  from  any  foreign  power. 

Individual  States  are  forbidden  to  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance,  or  con- 
federacy; to  grant  letters  of  marque;  to  coin  money;  to  issue  bills  of  credit; 
to  legalize  any  other  tender  than  gold  and  silver  coin  ;  to  pass  bill  of  attainder, 
ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  invalidating  contracts  ;  and  to  grant  titles  of  nobility. 
Their  imposition  of  duties  on  imports  or  exports  must  be  by  consent  of  Con- 
gress, (except  in  the  case  of  the  "  inspection  laws  "  of  a  State,)  and  the  pro- 
duce of  it  for  the  use  of  the  general  treasury ;  ll  and  all  such  laws  shall  be 
subject  to  the  revision  and  control  of  the  Congress."     The  laying  of  tonnage 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  665 

duties,  the  maintenance  of  troops  or  war-ships  in  time  of  peace,  the  formation   chap 


of  agreements  and  compacts  with  other  States  or  foreign  powers,  and  engaging '. — 

in  war,  except  when  invaded,  or  under  pressure  of  absolute  necessity,  are  also    to  nuL 
prohibited. 

The  second  Article  is  devoted  to  the  executive  power  of  the  United  States, 
which  it  vests  "  in  a  President,"  who,  "  together  with  a  Vice-President," 
holds  office  for  four  years,  and  is  to  be  thus  chosen.  The  legislature  of  each 
State  must  appoint  "  a  number  of  electors  equal  to  the  whole  number  of 
senators  and  representatives  "  which  it  sends  to  Congress  ;  but  they  must  not 
be  members  of  Congress,  nor  office-bearers  "  under  the  United  States."  They, 
meeting,  are  to  choose  by  ballot  two  persons,  one  (at  least)  being  an  inhabitant 
of  another  State ;  and  make  out  a  list  of  persons  voted  for,  and  of  the  votes 
given ;  which,  certified  by  their  signatures,  is  to  be  sent  sealed  to  the  president 
of  the  Federal  Senate.  He,  in  the  presence  of  both  Houses,  is  to  open  these 
certificates,  and  count  the  votes ;  the  person  receiving  the  greatest  number 
of  votes,  (if  they  are  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  the  electors,)  is  to  be 
President.  If,  however,  two  have  such  a  majority,  and  are  equal,  the  House 
of  Representatives  shall  choose  one  of  them  by  ballot,  as  President ;  but  if  no 
person  have  such  a  majority,  the  same  House  is  to  choose  by  ballot  from  the 
five  who  stand  highest  on  the  original  list  of  votes.  In  these  ballo tings,  all 
the  representatives  of  each  State  have  but  one  vote,  and  two-thirds  of  the 
States  are  a  quorum ;  a  majority  of  all  the  States  being  requisite  to  carry  the 
appointment.  The  second  in  any  case,  after  the  choice  of  the  President,  is 
to  be  Vice-President ;  and  the  Senate  determines  by  ballot  if  there  should 
be  a  tie-vote  here.  The  time  of  this  election,  Congress  determines ;  and  it 
is  to  take  place  on  the  same  day  throughout  the  States. 

Only  a  natural-born  citizen  of  the  Union,  or  a  citizen  at  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  is  eligible  as  President ;  and  it  is  further  needful  to  have  resided 
in  the  States  for  fourteen  years,  and  to  be  thirty-five  years  old.  The  powers 
and  duties  of  the  executive  devolve  on  the  Vice-President,  if  the  President 
(from  any  cause)  vacate  his  office ;  and  Congress  may  appoint  a  temporary 
successor,  if  both  offices  should  be  vacant  at  once.  The  pay  which  the  Pre- 
sident shall  receive  at  stated  times,  for  his  services,  is  to  undergo  no  change 
during  his  term  of  office  ;  but  he  must  receive  no  other  emolument,  either  from 
the  Union  or  from  any  of  the  States,  within  that  period.  And  on  entering 
upon  his  functions,  he  must  take  the  following  oath,  or  affirmation: — "  I  do 
solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  will,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

His  powers  and  duties  are  stated  in  the  remaining  sections  of  this  Article. 
He  is  commander-in-chief  of  the  Federal  army  and  navy,  and  of  the  militia 
wrhen  on  Federal  service.  He  may  require  the  opinion,  in  writing,  of  the  prin- 
cipal officer  in  each  of  the  executive  departments,  upon  matters  relating  to 
them ;  and  may  reprieve  and  pardon  all  offences  against  the  United  States, 
"  except  in  cases  of  impeachment."  By  the  advice  of  the  Senate,  and  with  the 

4  Q 


666  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    consent  of  two-thirds  of  it,  he  may  make  treaties.     He  has  the  nomination  of 


■ ■ —  all  officers  of  the  United  States,  whose  mode  of  appointment  is  not  otherwise 

to  17&9.  determined ;  but  Congress  may  give  the  power  of  appointing  "  such  inferior 
officers,"  either  to  him,  to  the  courts  of  law,  or  to  the  heads  of  departments. 
Vacancies  occurring  in  the  Senate,  when  in  recess,  he  may  fill  up  till"  the  end 
of  their  next  session."  Further,  he  is  required  to  give  information  to  Congress 
of  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  to  recommend  appropriate  measures ;  he  may, 
"  on  extraordinary  occasions,"  convene  both  Houses,  or  either;  and  adjourn 
them  to  any  time  he  chooses,  if  they  cannot  agree  upon  a  time.  The  recep- 
tion of  ambassadors  and  public  ministers  is  his  duty.  He  is  bound  to  see  that 
the  laws  are  faithfully  executed ;  and  he  gives  commissions  to  all  officers  of 
the  United  States.  Lastly ;  he,  and  all  civil  officers  of  the  confederation,  must 
be  displaced  on  impeachment  for  and  conviction  of  "  treason,  bribery,  or  other 
high  crimes  and  misdemeanours." 

From  the  executive,  the  Constitution  proceeds  to  define  and  establish  the 
judicial  power,  in  the  third  Article ;  vesting  it  in  one  Supreme  Court,  and 
such  inferior  courts  as  Congress  may  choose,  from  time  to  time,  to  set  up. 
All  the  judges  are  irremovable  during  good  behaviour,  and  are  to  receive 
for  their  services  salaries,  which  are  not  to  be  reduced  whilst  they  are  in  office. 
Their  power  extends,  both  in  law  and  in  equity,  to  all  cases  arising  under  the 
Constitution,  to  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and  to  treaties  made  by  its  authority;  to 
all  cases  affecting  public  ministers,  or  admiralty  and  maritime  jurisdiction;  to 
causes  in  which  the  United  States  are  a  party;  to  those  lying  between  the 
States,  or  between  one  State  and  the  citizens  of  another,  or  between  the  citizens 
of  different  States ;  also  to  those  in  which  citizens  of  the  same  State  claim 
lands  under  grants  from  different  States;  and  where  a  State,  or  its  citizens,  are 
litigants  against  "  foreign  states,  citizens,  or  subjects." 

The  Supreme  Court  has  original  jurisdiction  in  cases  affecting  public  minis- 
ters, and  where  a  State  is  a  party,  and  appellate  jurisdiction  in  all  others.  And 
it  determines — with  exceptions,  and  under  regulations,  to  be  settled  by  Con- 
gress— both  law  and  fact.  All  criminal  trials,  except  in  cases  of  impeach- 
ment, are  by  jury ;  and  must  be  held  in  the  State  where  the  crime  is  alleged 
to  have  been  committed,  at  places  fixed  by  Congress.  Treason  is  defined  as 
levying  war  against  the  United  States,  and  adhering  to  their  enemies,  and 
giving  them  aid  and  comfort :  confession  in  open  court,  or  the  testimony  of 
two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  is  necessary  for  conviction ;  and  the  punish- 
ment, which  Congress  is  to  determine,  "shall  work  no  corruption  of  blood, 
or  forfeiture,  except  during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted." 

Article  the  fourth,  secures  to  the  public  acts,  &c,  of  every  State,  "  full  faith 
and  credit "  in  all  the  rest,  leaving  to  Congress  the  prescribing  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  proof,  &c. ;— and  to  the  citizens  of  each  State,  all  the  privileges  of 
citizenship  in  every  other.  The  extradition  of  fugitives  from  justice  is  mu- 
tually guaranteed,  and  there  is  added  this  paragraph  ; — "  No  person  held  to 
service  or  labour  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another, 
shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  667 

service  or  labour,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  chap. 

service  or  labour   may  be  due."     New  States  are  admissible  into  the  Union ; ■ — ■ 

but  the  consent  of  the  State-legislatures  is  required  for  the  formation  of  new  toik 
States  in  territory  claimed  by  already  existing  States,  as  well  as  that  of  Con- 
gress. Congress  has  also  the  control  of  the  territory  and  property  of  the 
United  States,  but  neither  the  claims  of  the  United  States,  nor  of  any  particu- 
lar State,  may  be  prejudiced,  on  the  ground  of  any  thing  in  the  Constitution. 
To  every  State  in  the  Union,  "  the  republican  form  of  government "  is 
guaranteed;  and  protection  against  invasion  insured,  and  against  domestic 
violence,  on  application  of  the  legislature,  or  of  the  executive,  if  the  legislature 
cannot  be  convened. 

By  the  fifth  Article  it  is  provided,  that  whenever  two-thirds  of  both  Houses 
shall  deem  it  necessary,  Congress  shall  propose  amendments  to  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  or  a  Convention  shall  be  summoned  for  that  purpose,  if  the  legislatures 
of  two-thirds  of  the  several  States  shall  apply  for  it.  And,  when  ratified  by 
the  legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  States,  or  by  Conventions  in  three- 
fourths  of  them,  those  amendments  shall  become  parts  of  the  Constitution.  Only, 
the  importation  of  "  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  shall  think  proper  to  ad- 
mit "  must  not  be  prohibited  before  the  year  1808  ;  nor  may  a  capitation-tax  be 
laid,  except  according  to  the  census  of  "  all  the  free  persons,"  and  "  three-fifths 
of  all  others ; "  nor  may  any  State,  without  its  consent,  be  deprived  of  its 
equal  suffrage  in  the  Senate. 

All  debts  and  engagements  existing  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
are  assumed  by  the  United  States  under  it,  by  Article  the  sixth.  Which  also 
declares  the  Constitution,  and  the  laws  which  may  be  made  "  in  pursuance  "  of 
it,  and  treaties  entered  into  by  the  authority  of  the  United  States — "the 
supreme  law  of  the  land;"  the  judges  of  every  State  being  bound  thereby, 
notwithstanding  all  that  may  be  contrary  in  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
several  States: — and  further,  repudiating  all  religious  tests,  it  requires  of 
every  member  of  Congress,  and  of  all  the  State  legislatures,  and  of  all  execu- 
tive and  judicial  officers,  both  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  States  severally, 
an  oath  or  affirmation  "  to  support  the  Constitution." 

The  last  Article  cuns  thus  : — "  The  ratification  of  the  Conventions  of  nine 
States  shall  be  sufficient  for  the  establishment  of  this  Constitution,  between 
the  States  so  ratifying  the  same." 

Such  was  the  frame  of  government  devised  by  the  Convention  at  Phila- 
delphia, which  was  now  to  be  submitted  to  Conventions  called  in  every  State 
for  the  acceptance  of  the  people,  as  a  bond  to  knit  the  too  slightly  connected 
members  of  the  Confederation  into  a  nation, — strong  enough  to  respect  itself 
at  home  ;  and  abroad,  to  make  itself  respected  by  the  older  nations,  with  which 
by  commerce  and  other  means  it  might  be  brought  into  connexion.  "Whether 
it  could  effect  this,  time  alone  could  satisfactorily  prove ;  and  opinions  might 
well  vary  concerning  its  probable  consequences,  before  it  had  been  brought 
into  operation.  There  can  scarcely,  however,  be  any  diversity  of  opinion 
respecting  it,  now  that  it  has  lived  through  the  changes  of  above  half  a  cen- 

4  q  2 


668  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  tury,  and  has  had  at  its  helm  those  who  were  adverse  to  this — its  principal 

- — .  object,  far  more  frequently  than  such  as  desired  its  accomplishment.     But  in 

to  1789.  fact,  we  find  that  the  warmest  controversies  arising  from  it  throughout  its 
whole  course  have  related  to  the  advisableness  of  this  object,  rather  than  to 
the  possibility  of  reaching  it  thus : — they  who  have  maintained  the  negative, 
and  who,  from  being  clearly  in  the  minority,  have  at  length  attained  an  over- 
whelming majority,  having  always  accused  the  Constitution  of  tending  to  the 
obliteration  of  the  distinctions  between  the  States,  and  of  giving  to  the  central 
government  an  amount  of  power  exceedingly  dangerous  to  the  freedom  of  the 
people. 

To  the  people,  however,  it  directly  appealed ;  founding  itself  upon  their 
will ;  addressing  them  personally,  and  without  the  intervention  of  the  State 
legislatures ;  and  seeking  to  habituate  them  to  the  pacific  and  moral  coercion 
of  the  law ;  and  to  invest  them,  whatever  their  particular  State  might  be,  with 
the  dignity  and  influence  of  the  citizenship  of  the  entire  Union.  And  in 
every  part  it  showed  that  its  fabricators  had  accurately  appreciated  those 
faults  in  detail  which  had  so  injuriously  characterized  the  "Articles  of  Con- 
federation." The  opinions  actually  entertained  respecting  this  Constitution 
will  be  seen  at  large  when  we  speak  of  its  adoption  ;  here,  as  an  introduction 
to  the  observations  we  desire  to  offer  upon  it,  we  may  give  a  few  passages 
containing  the  views  of  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  times. 

In  his  conciliatory  speech,  at  the  close  of  the  Convention,  when  endeavour- 
ing to  persuade  all  the  legislators  to  affix  their  signatures  to  the  instrument 
which  had  been  drawn  up,  Franklin  said ; — "  I  consent,  sir,  to  this  Constitu- 
tion, because  I  expect  no  better,  and  because  I  am  not  sure  that  this  is  not 
the  best.  The  opinions  I  have  had  of  its  errors  I  sacrifice  to  the  public 
good."  Writing  to  some  of  his  French  friends,  he  enters  a  little  into  particu- 
lars, thus  : — "  It  is  very  possible,  as  you  suppose,  that  all  the  Articles  of  the 
proposed  new  government  will  not  remain  unchanged  after  the  first  meeting 
of  the  Congress.  I  am  of  opinion  with  you,  that  the  two  chambers  were  not 
necessary,  and  I  disliked  some  other  Articles  that  are  in,  and  wished  for  some 
that  are  not  in  the  proposed  plan ;  I  nevertheless  hope  it  may  be  adopted." 
"  Our  public  affairs  begin  to  wear  a  more  quiet  aspect.  -The  disputes  about 
the  faults  of  the  New  Constitution  are  subsided.  The  first  Congress  will 
probably  mend  the  principal  ones,  and  future  Congresses  the  rest.  That  which 
you  mention  did  not  pass  unnoticed  in  the  Convention.  Many,  if  I  remember 
right,  were  for  making  the  President  incapable  of  being  chosen  after  the 
first  four  years ;  but  the  majority  were  for  leaving  the  electors  free  to  choose 
whom  they  pleased ;  and  it  was  alleged  that  such  incapacity  might  tend  to 
make  the  President  less  attentive  to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  to  the  interests  of 
the  people,  than  he  would  be  if  a  second  choice  depended  on  their  good  opinion 
of  him.  We  are  making  experiments  in  politics;  what  knowledge  we  shall 
gain  by  them  will  be  more  certain,  though  perhaps  we  may  hazard  too  much 
in  that  mode  of  acquiring  it."  And  in  a  letter  to  a  member  of  the  first  Con- 
gress, he  says, — '•"  If  -iny  form  of  government  is  capable  of  making  a  nation 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  669 

happy,  ours,  I  think,  bids  fair  now  for  producing  that  effect.     But,  after  all,  chap. 

much  depends  upon  the  people  who   are   to  be  governed.     We  have  been ^— 

guarding  against  an  evil  that  old  States  are  most  liable  to,  excess  of  power  in    toiVs9. 
the  rulers  ;  but  our  present  danger  seems  to  be  defect  of  obedience  in  the  sub- 
jects.    There  is  hope,  however,  from  the  enlightened  state  of  this  age  and 
country,  we  may  guard  effectually  against  that  evil  as  well  as  the  rest." 

Washington  appears,  from  his  correspondence,  to  have  regarded  the  Con- 
stitution with  similar  feelings.  "  Your  own  judgment,"  he  wrote  to  Patrick 
Henry,  "  will  at  once  discern  the  good  and  the  exceptionable  parts  of  it ;  and 
your  experience  of  the  difficulties  which  have  ever  arisen  when  attempts  have 
been  made  to  reconcile  such  a  variety  of  interests  and  local  prejudices  as  per- 
vade the  several  States,  will  render  explanation  unnecessary.  I  wish  the 
Constitution  which  is  offered  had  been  more  perfect ;  but  I  sincerely  believe 
it  is  the  best  that  could  be  obtained  at  this  time.  And,  as  a  constitutional 
door  is  opened  for  amendments  hereafter,  the  adoption  of  it  under  the  present 
circumstances  of  the  Union  is  in  my  opinion  desirable."  "  Should  it  be 
adopted,"  he  said  to  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  "  and  I  think  it  will  be, 
America  will  lift  up  her  head  again,  and  in  a  few  years  become  respectable 
among  the  nations."  To  others  he  wrote ; — "  There  are  some  things  in  the 
new  form,  which  never  did,  and  I  am  persuaded  never  will,  obtain  my  cordial 
approbation ;  but  I  did  then  conceive,  and  do  now  most  firmly  believe,  that 
in  the  aggregate  it  is  the  best  Constitution  that  can  be  obtained  at  this  epoch; 
and  that  this  or  a  dissolution  awaits  our  choice,  and  is  the  only  alternative." 

One  other  passage,  in  a  letter  to  La  Fayette,  is  at  once  so  characteristic  of 
the  man,  and  so  instructive  in  reference  to  this  subject,  that  we  must  quote  it, 
though  it  is  of  some  length.  "  I  expect,"  he  says,  "  that  many  blessings  will 
be  attributed  to  our  new  government,  which  are  now  taking  their  rise  from 
that  industry  and  frugality,  into  the  practice  of  which  the  people  have  been 
forced  from  necessity.  I  really  believe,  that  there  never  was  so  much  labour 
and  economy  to  be  found  before  in  the  country  as  at  the  present  moment.  If 
they  persist  in  the  habits  they  are  acquiring,  the  good  effects  will  soon  be  dis- 
tinguishable. When  the  people  shall  find  themselves  secure  under  an  ener- 
getic government,  when  foreign  nations  shall  be  disposed  to  give  us  equal 
advantages  in  commerce  from  dread  of  retaliation,  when  the  burdens  of  war 
shall  be  in  a  manner  done  away  by  the  sale  of  western  lands,  when  the  seeds 
of  happiness  which  are  sown  here  shall  begin  to  expand  themselves,  and  when 
every  one  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree  shall  begin  to  taste  the  fruits  of 
freedom,  then  all  these  blessings  (for  all  these  blessings  will  come)  will  be 
referred  to  the  fostering  influence  of  the  new  government.  Whereas  many 
causes  will  have  conspired  to  produce  them.  You  see  I  am  not  less  enthu- 
siastic than  I  ever  have  been,  if  a  belief  that  peculiar  scenes  of  felicity  are 
reserved  for  this  country  is  to  be  denominated  enthusiasm.  Indeed,  I  do  not 
believe  that  Providence  has  done  so  much  for  nothing.  It  has  always  been 
my  creed,  that  we  should  not  be  left  as  a  monument  to  prove,  '  that  mankind, 
under   the  most  favourable  circumstances   for  civil  liberty  and   happiness, 


670  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  are  unequal  to  the  task  of  governing  themselves,  and  therefore  made  for  a 

J —  master.'  " 

^iVJs?7  The  opinions  of  other  members  of  the  Convention  we  must  give  in  our 
notice  of  "  the  Federalist ; "  and  we  may  therefore  turn  to  the  letters  of  one,  who, 
not  engaged  in  the  making  of  the  Constitution,  was,  both  at  the  time  and  after- 
wards, one  of  its  severest  censors ;  and  who,  though  himself  subsequently 
chief  magistrate  under  it,  has  always  been  looked  up  to  by  the  party  hostile 
to  it  as  their  most  illustrious  leader  ; — and  when  we  see  how  Thomas  Jefferson 
expressed  himself  regarding  it,  we  may  with  the  more  confidence  fall  back 
upon  the  representations  of  Washington  and  Franklin. 

"  My  own  general  idea  was,"  he  wrote  to  his  old  preceptor  from  France, 
"  that  the  States  should  generally  preserve  their  sovereignty  in  whatever  con- 
cerns themselves  alone ;  and  that  whatever  may  concern  another  State,  or  any 
foreign  nation,  should  be  made  a  part  of  the  Federal  sovereignty.  That  the 
exercise  of  the  Federal  sovereignty  should  be  divided  among  three  several  bodies 
— legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary,  as  the  State  sovereignties  are  ;  and  that 
some  peaceable  means  should  be  contrived  for  the  Federal  head  to  force  com- 
pliance on  the  part  of  the  States."  This  "  idea  "  was  certainly  at  the  root  of 
the  Constitution  which  the  Philadelphia  Convention  framed;  only  the  "  Fede- 
ral sovereignty  "  was  brought  by  it  face  to  face  with  the  people,  as  Jefferson 
himself  desired,  according  to  a  letter  quoted  in  the  last  chapter ;  and  instead 
of forcing  compliance,  a  willing  submission  to  the  Federal  head  was  aimed  at, 
by  the  employment  of  courts  of  law,  as  the  ordinary  sanction  of  its  authority. 

In  a  letter  to  Madison,  he  unfolded  his  views  of  the  polity  which  had  been 
constructed,  with  considerable  fulness ;  we  will  therefore  borrow  the  con- 
densed account  of  it,  given  in  Professor  Tucker's  Biography.  "  The  features 
of  the  Constitution  which  he  approved,  were,  the  self-acting  power  of  the  ge- 
neral government,  by  which  it  could  peaceably  go  on  without  recurring  to  the 
State  legislatures ;  the  separation  of  the  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary 
powers ;  the  power  of  taxation  given  to  the  legislature ;  and  the  election  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  the  people.  He  doubted,  however,  whether 
the  members  could  be  as  well  qualified  for  their  duties,  when  chosen  by  the 
people,  as  if  they  were  chosen  by  the  legislature.  He  was  captivated  by  the 
compromise  between  the  great  and  the  small  States ;  the  latter  having  the  equality 
they  asserted  in  the  Senate ;  the  former,  the  proportion  of  influence  they  re- 
garded as  their  right  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  preferred  too  the 
voting  by  persons  instead  of  by  States ;  and  he  approved  the  qualified  nega- 
tive given  to  the  executive,  though  he  would  have  liked  it  still  better  if  the 
judiciary  had  been  invested  with  a  similar  check. 

i(  The  grounds  of  his  disapprobation  were,  the  omission  of  a  bill  of  rights, 
providing  clearly,  and  without  the  aid  of  sophisms,  for  the  freedom  of  religion, 
freedom  of  the  press,  security  against  standing  armies,  restrictions  of  monopo- 
lies, trials  by  jury,  and  against  all  suspensions  of  the  Habeas  corpus.  He  de- 
nied the  principle  that  all  is  reserved  which  is  not  given  to  the  general  govern- 
ment; because  he  thought  that  inferences  to  the  contrary  might  be  drawn 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  671 

from  the  Instrument  itself,  and  because  in  the  '  Articles  '  of  the  old  Confeder-   chap. 
ation  there  was  such  an  expn  ss  reservation.  He  also  disliked  the  abandonment ■ — 

.  •  AD    1787 

of  the  principle  of  rotation  in  office,  especially  in  that  of  the  President,  and  infers  to  i>w. 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  omission,  he  will  be  elected  for  life."  He  dwells 
with  great  earnestness  upon  this  point,  and  betrays  apprehensions,  which  no- 
thing that  had  then  occurred  could  have  begotten,  and  nothing  that  has  since  oc- 
curred will  justify;  and  attributes  to  the  alarm  felt  during  the  Massachusetts 
insurrection,  the  liberal  grant  of  power  to  the  Federal  government.  And  after 
appealing  to  experience,  to  decide  whether  peace  is  best  preserved  by  giving 
energy  to  the  government,  or  information  to  the  people,  he  concludes, — 
u  This  last  is  the  most  certain  and  the  most  legitimate  engine  of  government. 
Educate  and  inform  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  Enable  them  to  see  that  it  is 
their  interest  to  preserve  peace  and  order,  and  they  will  preserve  them.  And 
it  requires  no  very  high  degree  of  education  to  convince  them  of  this.  They 
are  the  only  sure  reliance  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberty.  After  all,  it  is 
my  principle  that  the  will  of  the  majority  should  prevail.  If  they  approve 
the  proposed  Constitution  in  all  its  parts,  I  shall  concur  in  it  cheerfully,  in 
hopes  they  will  amend  it  whenever  they  find  it  works  wrong." 

There  is  a  strange  deficiency  of  statesmanlike  foresight  displayed  in  this 
letter,  and  a  more  remarkable  want  of  knowledge  of  what  most  powerfully 
moves  men  in  masses,  and  which  certainly  is  not  self-interest.  And  per- 
haps it  may  be  as  well  to  insert  here  the  following  observations  upon  "  rebel- 
lions," that  the  writer's  exact  view  of  the  value  of  "  peace  and  order,"  and 
the  radical  contrariety  between  his  theory  of  government  and  that  which  un- 
derlies the  Constitution,  may  be  made  distinctly  manifest. 

"  God  forbid,"  he  writes  to  Colonel  Smith,  respecting  Shays'  insurrection, 
"  God  forbid  we  should  ever  be  twenty  years  without  such  a  rebellion !  The 
people  cannot  be  all,  and  always,  well  informed.  The  part  which  is  wrong 
will  be  discontented,  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the  facts  they  miscon- 
ceive. If  they  remain  quiet  under  such  misconceptions,  it  is  a  lethargy,  the 
forerunner  of  death  to  the  public  liberty.  *  *  *  What  country  can  preserve 
its  liberties,  if  its  rulers  are  not  warned,  from  time  to  time,  that  its  people  pre- 
serve the  spirit  of  resistance  ?  Let  them  take  arms.  The  remedy  is  to  set  them 
right  as  to  facts,  pardon,  and  pacify  them.  What  signify  a  few  lives  lost  in  a 
century  or  two  ?  The  tree  of  liberty  must  be  refreshed,  from  time  to  time, 
with  the  blood  of  patriots  and  tyrants.  It  is  its  natural  manure.  Our  Con- 
vention has  been  too  much  impressed  by  the  insurrection  of  Massachusetts ; 
and  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  they  are  setting  up  a  kite  to  keep  the  hen- 
yard  in  order." 

Nevertheless,  we  should  do  Jefferson  injustice  if  we  did  not  show  that  he  also 
used  the  same  language  about  the  Constitution,  that  Washington  and  Franklin 
employed ;  a  fact  which  illustrates  most  broadly  the  true  character  of  that 
Instrument,  which  we  hope  to  set  in  a  sufficiently  clear  light  for  the  general 
purposes  of  our  History.  "  I  see  in  it,"  he  wrote  from  France  to  the  French 
ambassador  in  America,  "  a  great  deal  of  good.     The  consolidation  of  our 


672  HISTORY    OF    AMERTCA. 

chap,  government,  a  just  representation,  an  administration  of  some  permanence,  and 

other  features  of  great  value,  will  be  gained  by  it.     There  are,  indeed,  some 

'to  1789.    faults,  which  revolted  me  a  good  deal  in  the  first  moment ;  but  we  must  be 
contented  to  travel  on  towards  perfection,  step  by  step." 

To  Colonel  Humphreys,  whose  dress  (he  told  another  correspondent)  was 
"  in  so  gay  a  style  "  as  to  cause  general  disgust,  he  wrote  more  fully.  "  The 
example  of  changing  a  Constitution,  by  assembling  the  wise  men  of  the  state, 
instead  of  assembling  armies,  will  be  worth  as  much  to  the  world  as  the  former 
examples  we  had  given  them.  The  Constitution  too,  which  was  the  result  of 
our  deliberations,  is  unquestionably  the  wisest  ever  yet  presented  to  men,  and 
some  of  the  accommodations  of  interest  which  it  has  adopted,  are  greatly 
pleasing  to  me,  who  have  before  had  occasions  of  seeing  how  difficult  those 
interests  were  to  accommodate."  And  then  he  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  defects, 
that,  as  an  extract  from  his  letters  already  given  has  showed  us,  he  believed 
he  had  detected  in  it ;  in  doing  which  he,  singularly  enough,  makes  such  a 
distinction  between  "  rulers,"  "  governors,"  "  government,"  &c,  and  the  peo- 
ple, that  we  might  easily  suppose  he  had  Great  Britain,  or  even  France,  in  his 
mind,  rather  than  the  United  States,  where  legislatures  and  governments 
are  the  creatures  and  representatives  of  the  people,  and  the  same  spirit  that 
achieved  independence  of  external  despotism,  has  ever  been  ready  to  resist 
the  first  infraction  of  the  principle  of  popular  liberty,  which  was  thereby 
established.  But  we  must  proceed  to  our  brief  "  commentary "  on  the 
Constitution. 

The  problem  which  the  Convention  undertook  to  solve,  was  (as  we  have 
said)  to  bring  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who  truly  were,  by  their  trials, 
their  struggle,  and  their  victory,  as  well  as  by  race,  one  nation,  into  such 
actual,  political  oneness,  as  was  requisite,  amongst  themselves,  to  prevent  the 
loss  of  all  they  had  striven  for ;  and  in  respect  of  other  nations,  both  antago- 
nist and  allied,  to  give  them  substantive  existence.  And  this  it  had  to  effect 
not  only  so  as  to  leave  intact  the  popular  liberties ;  but  so,  too,  as  to  respect 
the  sovereignty  of  the  States  individually,  and  to  preserve  from  collision  the 
differing  interests  of  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  members  of  the  Union. 

In  consequence  of  these  conditions,  the  Instrument  of  government  which 
was  devised,  besides  bearing  on  its  face  those  "three  great  compromises"  we 
have  noticed  above,  is  not  purely  a  Constitution,  nor  yet  a  Confederation 
alone ;  but  in  various  parts  presents  the  features  of  one  or  the  other,  and  in 
some,  those  of  both  at  the  same  time.  And  it  is  hence  that  the  most  acri- 
monious controversies  respecting  it  have  sprung, — a  kind  or  extent  of  homo- 
geneity, which  it  does  not  possess,  being  attributed  to  it ;  and  the  analogies 
and  parallels  to  it,  presented  by  history,  being  overlooked,  and  its  true  origin 
obscured. 

For  it  is  in  fact  a  legitimate  offshoot  of  the  old  British  Constitution ;  and 
resembles  it  not  merely  in  many  of  its  particulars,  but  yet  more  in  that  jea- 
lousy of  irresponsible  and  unchecked  authority,  joined  with  a  disposition  to 
give  all  the  strength  that  could  be  required  in  practice,  to  the  executive,  which 


A.  I).  1787 
to  1789. 


HTSTORY    OF    AMERICA.  673 

we  have  seen  the  different  parties  in  the  Convention,  and  out  of  it,  displaying,  chap 
It  is  not  theory  or  speculation,  realized  (on  paper),  as  so  many  of  the  French 
Constitutions  have  been ;  but  a  further  development  of  that  one  which  had 
cost  the  best  blood  of  the  Saxon  race  to  establish  it ;  and  its  differences  are 
only  such  as  were  necessary  to  bring  it  into  vital  relation  to  the  people,  for 
whom  it  was  constructed,  and  by  whom  it  was  adopted.  And  for  its  inter- 
pretation and  administration,  the  Common  Law  of  England  is  still  the  guide 
of  its  judiciary ;  whilst,  still  more  convincingly  to  demonstrate  its  lineage,  it 
is  now  giving  back  to  Britain  the  results  of  its  experience,  to  aid  her  in  the 
attainment  of  social  and  political  benefits  similar  to  those  which  have  followed 
from  its  operation  at  home. 

And  History,  which  (as  the  writers  of  "  the  Federalist "  showed)  had  ex- 
amples in  abundance  of  powerful  nations  enfeebled,  and  given  over  as  a  prey 
to  any  able  or  crafty  adversary,  by  means  of  their  divisions,  and  the  deter- 
mined retention  of  complete  self-government  by  every  section ;  could  also 
point  to  many  an  instance  of  such  a  combination  of  central  national  rule,  with 
with  local  autonomy,  as  formed  the  strength  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States. 

Thus,  if  ancient  Greece  with  its  petty  sovereignties,  mediaeval  Italy  and  its 
rival  republics,  and  in  more  recent  times  Switzerland  with  its  confederated 
cantons,  and  the  empire  of  Germany  with  its  hierarchy  of  kingdoms,  princi- 
palities, duchies,  &c.,  afforded  lively  illustrations  of  the  flagrant  evils  arising 
under  a  polity,  like  that  which  had  grown  up  during  the  sittings  of  the  Ame- 
rican Congress,  and  had  been  embodied  in  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation," 
— if  every  monarchy  of  continental  Europe,  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  feudal 
system,  with  its  turbulent  and  powerful  barons,  vassals  in  name  and  form  only 
to  their  suzerain,  who  was  no  more  than  "  the  first  amongst  his  peers," — illus- 
trated that  state  of  things  in  the  Union,  when  the  pressure  of  a  common  and 
imminent  danger  was  scarcely  sufficient  to  bring  about  so  hearty  and  generous 
a  co-operation,  as  alone  could  outface  and  overcome  the  peril ; — there  might 
also  be  pointed  out  England,  whose  proud  nobles  derived  strength  and 
lustre  from  the  throne,  to  which  they  paid  a  homage  that  was  only  the  sym- 
bol of  their  subjection  to  the  sovereign  in  all  constitutional  affairs  ;  and  there 
were  too,  in  far  more  striking  analogy  to  the  proposed  frame  of  a  Federal 
government,  which  should  both  recognise  the  authority  of  the  State  govern- 
ments, and  effect  what  neither  singly  nor  collectively  they  could  accomplish, 
— there  were  in  the  dawn  of  the  modern  ages,  from  Cadiz  to  Novgorod,  from 
Marseilles  to  Berwick,  those  free  imperial  or  municipal  cities,  scattered 
through  almost  every  country  of  the  civilized  world  that  then  was,  invested 
by  grant,  or  purchase,  or  conquest,  with  the  inestimable  privilege  of  self-rule, 
in  subordination  to  the  general  well-being  of  the  land  wherein  each  stood, 
in  which  was  first  of  all  nurtured  into  lusty  life  that  very  spirit,  which  was 
the  animating  principle  of  the  war  of  Independence,  and  which  now  spoke 
both  by  those  who  impugned  and  by  those  who  vindicated  the  New  Consti- 
tution. \ 

4  B 


674  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.        Nay,  the  early  history  of  the  States  themselves  could  furnish  an  analogy  in 

■ — -  favour  of  the  proposition  of  the  Convention  ; — for  in  the  days  of  the  colonies, 

to  1789. '  each  had  its  own  political  organization,  and,  as  a  province  of  the  British  empire, 
was  distinct  from  all  the  rest.  And  yet  each  was  consciously  part  of  a  whole, 
and  knew  that  it  was  related  to  its  neighbours,  not  only  by  intercommunity 
of  privileges,  but  far  more  straitly  by  identity  of  interest ;  and  throughout  this 
entire  group  of  dependencies  of  Great  Britain,  such  a  love  of  freedom,  and 
capacity  for  its  enjoyment,  had  been  implanted  and  cultivated  in  the  people, 
that  they  rose  as  one  man  against  the  "  Fatherland,"  as  soon  as  they  felt  that 
in  no  other  way  they  could  hope  to  make  good  their  claims.  The  remem- 
brance of  this  would  have  prevented  much  of  the  alarm  which  was  professed, 
if  not  really  entertained,  by  those  who  considered  the  establishment  of  a  self- 
acting  central  government  a  dangerous  infringement  of  the  independence  of 
the  States.  And  although  such  a  supreme  government,  having  its  seat  amidst 
the  Union,  would  certainly  require  closer  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  confeder- 
ated members,  than  the  Imperial  government,  at  a  distance  of  four  thousand 
miles,  had  needed ;  yet,  as  it  was  composed  of  officers  of  their  own  choosing, 
all,  except  the  judges,  appointed  for  specified  and  limited  periods,  it  could 
not  reasonably  be  expected  to  work  more  unpropitiously  for  the  popular 
rights  than  this  had,,  which,  by  the  confession  of  all,  was  the  very  school  of 
constitutional  liberty. 

It  must  be  most  needfully  observed,  that  the  question  at  issue,  between  the 
partisans  and  the  opponents  of  the  New  Constitution,  was  not  the  freedom  of 
the  people.  That  point  was  settled  beyond  the  possibility  of  disturbance  for 
many  an  age  ;  and  Jefferson  himself,  when,  on  the  ground  of  his  rival's,  Hamil- 
ton's, speculative  preference  for  a  monarchy,  he  charged  all  "  the  Federalist  " 
party  with  monarchical  tendencies,  and  a  desire  to  set  up  a  king  on  the  ruins 
of  the  scarcely  established  republic, — Jefferson  knew  that  they  were  as  hearty 
and  earnest  republicans  as  he  was  himself. 

The  matter  actually  in  dispute  was  the  sovereignty  of  the  State  legislatures ; 
for  by  some  unaccountable  process,  they  always  appeared  as  the  combatants, 
where  we  should  have  expected  to  see  the  real  sovereigns — the  people  of  the 
States,  in  the  field.  The  tenacity  with  which  local  or  territorial  self-govern- 
ment, once  exercised,  is  grasped,  and  with  what  wakeful  suspicion  every 
movement  that  threatens  most  remotely  to  affect  it  injuriously  is  regarded,  all 
students  of  history  know.  Even  in  the  times  of  colonial  bondage,  as  provinces, 
the  States  had  severally  enjoyed  great  freedom  in  the  management  of  their 
own  affairs  ;  it  could  not,  therefore,  be  expected  that  they  should  be  contented 
with  less,  now  that  they  had  become  independent  sovereignties,  and  called 
neither  King  nor  State  master. 

In  New  England,  as  De  Tocqueville  has  showed,  this  principle  of  self- 
government  was  pushed  as  far  as  it  could  in  practice  be  made  to  go, — each 
autonomous  State  being  an  aggregate  of  the  autonomous  counties  it  con- 
tained ;  each  of  which  again  was  made  up  of  its  self-governed  townships, — 
the  "  monads  "  of  the  political  system.     And  this  fact,  which  will  show  how 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA.  675 

deeply  rooted  in  the  habits  of  the  people  was  the  feeling, from  which  arose  chap. 

the  resistance  offered  to  the  Constitution,  and  the  subsequent  victory  of  the ■ — 

democratic  party ;    will  also   exhibit,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  analogies    to  iVs<>. 
we  have  considered,  the  perfect  compatibility  between  the  exercise  of  local 
authority,  in  local  affairs,  with  that  of  general  authority  in  matters  concerning 
the  country  at  large  ; — which  was  all  that  the  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of 
the  polity  propounded  by  the  Convention  of  Philadelphia  contended  for. 

There  were  necessarily  peculiar  adjuncts  and  conditions,  but  the  contest 
carried  on  so  hotly  through  the  year  1788  in  the  State  legislatures  and  Con- 
ventions, in  all  the  public  journals  of  the  Union,  and  by  many  a  pamphlet 
besides,  was  between  centralized  and  local  government ;  those  who  maintained 
the  extremes  of  opinion,  attacking  not  only  each  other,  but  the  friends  of  trie 
Constitution  also,  who  occupied  a  place  midway  between  them.  The  follow- 
ing representation  of  the  structure  of  the  Constitution  by  Madison,  in  "  the 
Federalist,"  precisely  agrees  with  this  view,  and  with  our  own  remarks  above. 
"  Even  when  tested  by  the  rules  laid  down  by  its  antagonists,"  he  says,  "  it 
is  in  strictness  neither  a  National  nor  a  Federal  Constitution  ;  but  a  composition 
of  both.  In  its  foundation,  it  is  federal,  not  national ;  in  the  sources  from 
which  the  ordinary  powers  of  the  government  are  drawn,  it  is  partly  federal 
and  partly  national ;  in  -the  operation  of  these  powers  it  is  national,  not 
federal;  in  the  extent  of  them,  again,  it  is  federal,  not  national;  and  finally,  in 
the  authoritative  mode  of  introducing  amendments,  it  is  neither  wholly  fede- 
ral nor  wholly  national." 

"We  must  further  observe,  that  the  designation  "  Democrat "  was  not  cor- 
rectly applied  to  the  adversaries  of  the  Constitution, — as  Madison  showed  be- 
forehand in  "  the  Federalist," — inasmuch  as  they  held  "  the  great  principle  of 
representation  "  as  well  as  those  who  favoured  the  new  polity ;  and  did  not 
desire  to  see  the  business  of  the  State  transacted  in  the  comitia  of  the  people, 
— a  plan  impracticable  wherever  the  State  is  more  than  a  single  township. 
And  just  so,  the  name  "Federalist"  was  not  fairly  assumed  as  distinctive  of 
those  who  upheld  the  Constitution,  which  was  "  neither  a  National  nor  a 
Federal  one,  but  a  composition  of  both."  And  so  it  happened  that  Jefferson 
could  write  of  himself,  to  Judge  Hopkinson,  thus  : — 

"  I  am  not  a  Federalist,  because  I  never  submitted  the  whole  system  of  my 
opinions  to  the  creed  of  any  party  of  men  whatever,  in  religion,  in  philosophy, 
in  politics,  or  in  any  thing  else,  where  I  was  capable  of  thinking  for  myself. 
Such  an  addiction  is  the  last  degradation  of  a  free  and  moral  agent.  If  I  could 
not  go  to  heaven  without  a  party,  I  would  not  go  there  at  all.  Therefore  I 
protest  to  you,  I  am  not  of  the  party  of  Federalists.  But  I  am  much  further 
from  that  of  the  Anti -federalists.  I  approved,  from  the  first  moment,  of  the 
great  mass  of  what  is  in  the  New  Constitution."  And  then  he  specifies  the 
parts  he  was  especially  pleased  with,  and  those  which  he  disapproved  ;  and 
tells  his  correspondent  in  conclusion,  that  he  had  wished  the  first  nine  States 
to  accept  the  Constitution,  and  the  other  four  to  reject  it,  for  the  sake  of  ob- 
taining amendments  to  it ;  but  that  he  prefers  the  plan  of  accompanying  the 

4  r  2 


676  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  adoption  of  it  With  the  recommendation  of  amendments.     "We  return  from 

! this  glimpse  of  the  agitation  now  proceeding  throughout  the  whole  of  the 

Atoi789.8?  Union,  to  our  comments. 

Any  one  who  attentively  reads  the  instrument  presented  through  Congress 
to  the  several  States,  by  the  Convention,  will  be  struck  by  the  omission  of 
other  provisions,  besides  those  which  Jefferson  has  noted.  And  this  suggests 
to  us  a  point  of  comparison  between  it  and  the  Constitution  of  Great  Britain, 
which  deserves  fuller  consideration  than  we  can  give  to  it  here.  The  latter, 
as  is  well  known,  is  unwritten,  and  consists,  in  fact,  of  certain  principles  which 
it  is  the  business  of  the  legislature  and  the  judiciary  age  after  age  to  ascertain, 
to  develope,  to  define,  and  to  apply.  Its  history,  in  the  present  stage,  dates 
from  the  (misnamed)  "  glorious  "  Revolution  of  1688 ;  and  its  first  expression 
was  the  "  Bill  of  Rights."  During  the  two  hundred  years  before  that  epoch, 
it  was  being  constructed; — the  Tudor  sovereigns  supplied  the  executive;  the 
Puritans,  the  Lower  House  of  the  legislature ;  the  Whig  nobles  of  James 
II. 's  reign,  the  Upper  House  and  the  judges.  And  in  the  generations 
before  Henry  VII.,  as  far  back  as  the  dimly  discerned  period  of  the 
arrival  of  the  three  Jutish  "  Keels  "  on  the  coast  of  Kent,  and  the  alliance  of 
the  treacherous  brothers  with  the  ill-fated  Vortigern,  may  be  traced,  in  con- 
tinually growing  density  and  distinctness  as  time  advanced,  the  germs  from 
which  this  marvellous  and  ethereal  structure — the  pattern  and  the  preceptor 
of  political  liberty  to  the  whole  modern  world — has  sprung. 

A  written  Constitution,  which  alone,  according  to  some,  ought  to  be  so  de- 
signated, is  a  system  of  rules, — embodying  principles,  truly, — but  requiring 
no  recurrence  to  them  on  the  part  of  most  men,  who  receive  from  such  as  are 
commissioned  to  impart  them,  authoritative  interpretations,  which  are  their 
guides  and  tests,  respecting  the  affairs  and  men  of  the  state.  It  has  thus  the 
inestimable  advantage  of  being,  for  men  in  general,  easily  understood ;  and, 
for  practical  purposes,  directly  applicable  to  the  matters  it  bears  upon.  But 
whenever,  by  the  progress  of  the  people  to  whom  it  has  served  as  a  bond  of 
social  existence,  it  ceases  to  be  regarded  as  a  true  symbol  of  the  principles  of 
their  political  faith,  the  changes  its  rigid  form  necessitates  are  too  often  revo- 
lutions. "Whereas,  the  unwritten  Constitution  calls  into  exercise  the  noblest 
faculties  of  men;  renders  statesmanship,  legislation,  and  judicature,  artistic 
pursuits  of  the  loftiest  kind ;  and  being  in  a  state  of  constant  flux,  can  be 
made,  without  shock. or  convulsion,  accurately  to  keep  pace  with  the  advance- 
ment of  the  nation,  whose  inner  and  ideal  life  it  is. 

Perhaps  there  never  was  a  written  Constitution,  which  did  not,  either  of 
purpose  or  through  the  forgetfulness  of  its  framers,  leave  many  points  to  be 
ascertained  by  the  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  administrators  under  it, 
as  occasion  might  arise.  Certainly  it  is  so  with  the  one  before  us ;  not  only 
are  there  omissions,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  but  in  the  second  para- 
graph of  section  three,  in  the  fourth  Article,  which  provides,  that  "  nothing 
in  this  Constitution  shall  be  so  constructed,  as  to  prejudice  any  claims  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  any  particular  State," — there  is  a  distinct  glimpse  afforded 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  677 

us  of  the  consciousness,  on  the  part  of  the  Conventionalists,  of  the  existence  of  chap. 

under-principles,  more  stable  than  any  "  Article  "  could  be:  and  the  same  may -_ 

be  observed  in  other  parts  of  the  Instrument.  to  \7m. 

It  will  not  be  possible  to  avoid  the  discussion  of  some  points  (both  provisos 
and  omissions)  of  the  Constitution,  in  the  subsequent  parts  of  our  History, 
when  we  reach  the  times  in  which  they  became  matters  of  the  first  interest  to 
the  people  at  large;  nor  will  it  be  desirable  here  to  anticipate  all  the  objections 
which  have  been  suggested  by  the  working  of  the  system  of  government  un- 
der review.  Continuous  "  Commentaries  "  would  be  out  of  place  in  a  popular 
account  of  the  formation  and  progress  of  the  Union,  even  if  we  could  not 
refer  to  such  accessible  works,  as  "the  Federalist,"  and  Judge  Story's 
"  Abridgment;  "which  are  invaluable  for  all  who  desire  to  know  the  true  in- 
terest of  their  country.  We  shall,  therefore,  (in  pursuance  of  our  purpose,)  only 
insert  a  few  miscellaneous  remarks,  as  aids  to  the  attainment  of  a  "  point  of 
view,"  rather  than  as  "  views,"  which  may  be  gained  from  any  particular  point. 

One  fact,  of  the  greatest  moment  for  the  right  understanding  of  the  consti- 
tutional and  political  controversies  of  the  United  States,  we  have  endeavoured 
continually  to  keep  before  our  readers '  minds, — that  the  distinction  between 
the  parties  which  arose,  as  soon  as  national  independence  was  realized,  was 
altogether  peculiar;  having  no  analogy  whatever  to  that  which  prevailed  be- 
tween the  great  parties  in  every  other  civilized  state  at  that  time.  It  was 
actually  based  on  the  various  adjustments  which  could  be  made  in  the  balance 
of  power  between  the  central  and  the  State  governments.  We  must  now  indi- 
cate one  of  a  very  different  character ;  which,  as  our  narrative  advances,  will 
become  prominent  enough,  and  which  is  most  suggestive  to  those  who  care  to 
trace  "the  philosophy"  of  movements  like  these. 

An  inevitable  consequence  of  such  a  struggle  as  that  which  ended  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Saxon  empire  in  the  New  World,  was  that  both  the  irri- 
tation occasioned  by  the  causes  of  the  war,  and  the  triumph  springing  from 
its  victorious  issue,  should  create  in  the  more  impetuous  and  mobile  spirits 
feelings  of  contempt  and  dislike  for  all  that  was  English ;  whilst  the  willing 
and  effective  help  afforded  by  France  would  correspondingly  attract  their 
regards  to  the  country,  which,  at  this  very  period,  seemed  to  them  about  to 
improve  upon  the  example  of  America,  and  to  teach  the  peoples  of  the  Eastern 
hemisphere  the  way  to  obtain  the  largest  liberty,  peacefully  and  surely. 
They  of  more  solid  and  mature  judgment,  on  the  other  hand,  would  as  natur- 
ally discriminate  between  the  persons  and  the  policy,  which  had  roused  them 
to  resistance,  and  those  monuments  of  political  sagacity  and  wisdom,  which 
their  forefathers  had  reared  in  Britain ;  and,  whilst  they  abhorred  the  former, 
they  would  earnestly  endeavour  to  avail  themselves  of  the  guidance  and  the 
aid  which  the  latter  could  afford  them  in  their  novel  position  of  leaders  of  a 
nation.  These  last  were  the  framers  and  the  advocates  of  the  New  Constitu- 
tion,— the  Federalists,  as  they  called  themselves;  and  the  others  were  the 
Anti-federalists,  or  Democrats,  as  they  were  afterwards  named,  who  objected 
to  or  opposed  the  Constitution. 


6^8  HISTORY    OF    AMERTCA. 

chap.       Amongst  Jefferson's  anticipations  regarding  the  effect  of  some  of  the  Arti- 

cles  which  did  not  please  him,  we  find  this :    "  Their  President  seems  a  bad 

io  1789.  edition  of  a  Polish  king.  He  may  be  elected  from  four  years  to  four  years, 
for  life.  *  *  *  When  one  or  two  generations  shall  have  proved  that  this  is  an 
office  for  life,  it  becomes  on  every  succession,  worthy  of  intrigue,  of  bribery,  of 
force,  and  even  of  foreign  interference.  It  will  be  of  great  consequence  to 
France  and  England  to  have  America  governed  by  a  Galloman  or  Anglo- 
man.  "  He  often  insisted  upon  this;  and  this  might  be  the  reason  for  the 
rancour  which  he  cherished  against  those  who  manifested  any  amicable  feel- 
ings towards  Britain ;  for  he  was  himself  a  very  decided  "  Galloman."  He 
seems  quite  to  have  forgotten,  that  the  distance  of  the  States  from  Europe, 
which  had  so  materially  contributed  to  the  ease  with  which  they  had  con- 
quered their  freedom,  must  always  operate  as  a  barrier  to  any  active  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  European  powers.  So  vehemently  does  he,  on  all 
occasions,  suspect  the  British,  that  nothing  but  the  fact  that  it  was  his  own 
party  which  now,  and  in  the  Convention,  threatened  to  destroy  the  Union, 
could  have  kept  him  from  seeing  in  it  the  agency  of  the  foe;  for  had  their 
threat  been  fulfilled,  or  had  the  central  government  been  (like  the  old  Con- 
gress) a  fiction  merely,  Great  Britain  mast  have  recovered  some  of  the  terri- 
tory it  had  lost,  and  the  dream  of  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence  "  would 
have  been  ended. 

The  actual  oneness  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  has  often  been  ques- 
tioned; or  it  has  been  made  a  matter  of  form.  But  setting  aside  their  com- 
munity of  origin,  the  pride  of  the  Americans  in  their  nation  has  never  been 
restricted  to  their  particular  States;  unless  it  be  amongst  some  of  the  New 
Englanders.  And  the  formal  signs  of  unity  indicate  a  oneness  far  deeper 
than  form  alone.  How  could  the  old  Congress  have  played  the  part  it  did  in 
the  Revolutionary  contest,  if  the  Union  had  been  factitious?  The  adoption  of 
a  national  flag, — the  very  words  of  the  national  motto,  betoken  a  unity  that  a 
mere  compact  could  not  give.  How  vividly  it  was  realized  by  the  writer  of 
the  "  Declaration  of  Independence,"  and  by  its  signers,  that  document,  the 
publication  of  which  is  celebrated  with  such  enthusiasm  year  by  year,  will 
show.  The  treaties  which  had  been  formed  at  this  time,  all  proceed  upon  the 
same  ground ;  and  the  complaints  uttered  against  the  operation  of  the  British 
Navigation  laws  would  have  been  far  more  piercing  if  the  Union  had  not  been 
regarded  as  one  State,  and  American  vessels  allowed  to  carry  the  produce  of 
any  of  its  States,  and  not  merely  that  of  the  independent  sovereignty  to  which 
each  belonged.  And  now  that  the  principle  of  State  sovereignty  had  been 
carried  out  so  far,  as  to  make  even  France  doubt  whether  there  was  such  a 
power  as  the  United  States,  to  which  it  had  advanced  money,  and  with  which 
it  had  contracted  alliance;  whilst  Britain  could  not  discover  any  authority 
competent  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  "  Treaty  of  Versailles  " ;  it  was  high  time  to 
reconstruct,  and  give  a  new  embodiment  to  the  unity  of  the  people,  which  had 
thus  been  bi  ought  into  question  through  the  palpable  diversity  of  the  several 
State  governments. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  679 

It  is  not  easy  to  discover  the  secret  of  the  stubborn  maintenance  and  most  chap. 
<                               •                                           •                      .                                          VI. 
ill-timed  displays  of  the  principle  of  State  sovereignty;  which  descended  to — 

disputes  respecting  boundaries,  and  territories,  neither  occupied,  nor  even  toiVs9.' 
claimed  before.  This  exact  preservation  of  the  old  colonies  in  the  new  form 
of  States,  is  a  most  noticeable  feature  of  this  revolution.  It  must  be  attributed 
in  part  to  accident ;  and  in  part,  to  that  conservative  spirit  which  is  character- 
istic of  the  race.  And,  as  we  cannot  but  think,  the  increased  opportunities  af- 
forded for  the  gratification  of  petty  personal  ambition,  in  part  also  led  to  the 
preservation  of  so  many  distinct  legislatures. 

Another  feeling  may  have  aided  in  producing  this  result.  The  radical  one- 
ness of  the  people  we  have  insisted  upon ;  but  we  have  also  spoken  of  the 
different  interests  prevailing  amongst  them.  The  jealousy  with  which  the 
planters  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  traders  of  those  in  the  North,  mu- 
tually regarded  each  other,  may  be  taken  as  a  glaring  instance  of  the  feelings 
which  set  State  against  State,  and  the  inhabitants  of  one  district  against  those 
of  another,  throughout  the  Union.  These  rivalries,  territorial  and  economical, 
exerted  considerable  influence  in  the  formation  and  ratification  of  the  Consti- 
tution :  and  by  their  operation  was  brought  to  light  that  remarkable  fact, 
which  still  remains  the  paradox  of  American  politics, — that  the  Southern 
States,  which  in  their  own  affairs  have  manifested  most  of  the  aristocratic  spirit, 
and  present  the  only  analogies  to  the  British  Tories  to  be  found  in  the  coun- 
try, are,  in  respect  of  the  Union,  the  most  democratic : — but  their  democracy 
(as  we  can  read  most  distinctly  in  the  Honourable  A.  P.  Upshur's  defence 
of  the  doctrine  of  "  Nullification  ")  in  reality  lessens  the  power  of  the 
people,  and  makes  the  government,  rather  than  the  people,  in  each  instance 
the  State. 

Some  further  assistance  in  getting  a  true  understanding  of  this  Constitution, 
may  be  obtained,  by  considering  the  duty  which  the  central  government  ful- 
fils towards  all  the  States  alike.  It  distinctly  undertakes  the  conduct  of  the 
diplomatic  relations  of  the  Union  to  foreign  powers  :  it  actually  performs  the 
same  offices  for  the  States  with  each  other.  As  independent  sovereignties,  if 
there  were  no  general  government,  every  one  must  have  its  agents  at  the  seat 
of  government  of  every  other ;  and  it  will  be  easily  perceived,  that  it  would 
have  been  impossible  long  to  maintain  a  peaceful  mutual  intercourse  by  this 
means.  Without  noticing  the  concomitant  evil,  that  each  must  carry  on  its 
communications  with  more  remote  States  for  itself, — a  circumstance  that  might 
grievously  embarrass  their  dealings  one  with  another, — we  can  see  enough  in 
this  necessary  consequence  of  pushing  State  sovereignty  to  the  extremity, 
which  some  contemplated  "  without  horror,"  to  know  what  the  conclusion  of 
the  Anglo-American  States'  history  would  have  been ;  and  we  can  better  ap- 
preciate the  internal  benefits  arising  from  the  adoption  of  the  Conventionalists' 
polity. 

The  stability  of  the  Constitution,  for  it  has  lasted,  unamended,  since  the 
earliest  years  of  its  existence  to  the  present  day,  requires  a  slight  notice,  for 
that  too  roay  be  of  help  in  such  a  review  as  we  are  engaged  in.     We  should 


680  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    ascribe  it,  in  the  first  place,  to  its  being,  as  we  said,  an  offshoot  of  the  British 
■ —  Constitution.     The  people  had  been  by  this  trained  to  a  certain  height  in 

A   D   1787  .    .  .  .  .  , 

to  1789.  political  knowledge  and  experience ;  and  it  was  out  of  their  practical  acquaint- 
ance with  constitutional  principles,  and  not  because  any  one  of  them  flattered 
himself  that  he  had  perfected  or  exhausted  the  science  of  polity,  speculatively, 
that  the  leaders  in  the  Convention  framed  this  plan.  For,  as  the  great  histo- 
rian of  the  Revolution  in  France  says,  "  a  Constitution  will  march,  when  it 
images,  if  not  the  old  Habits  and  Beliefs  of  the  Constituted,  then  accurately 
their  Rights,  or  better  indeed,  their  Mights; — for  these  two,  well  understood, 
are  they  not  one  and  the  same  ?  " — and  this  did  both.  And,  in  the  next  place, 
we  ascribe  it  to  its  being,  in  part,  unwritten ;  so  that  there  was  room  for  ex- 
pansion and  adjustment  to  the  necessities  of  the  community  for  which  it  was 
framed,  which  was,  and  still  is,  in  a  state  of  most  rapid  growth. 

But  there  have  been  other  influences  at  work,  in  the  same  direction.  The 
first  Presidents  elected  under  it  were  men  of  the  Federal  party ;  "  Anglo- 
men,"  as  splenetic  Jefferson  would  have  called  them ;  and  it  was  owing  to 
this,  (as  we  shall  clearly  perceive,)  that  an  interval  of  peace  was  secured, 
during  which  the  new  institutions  had  time  to  take  root,  and  develope  them- 
selves ; — to  demonstrate  their  beneficial  tendency,  and  to  become  "  habitual  " 
to  the  people.  Afterwards,  the  administration  was  most  frequently  in  the 
hands  of  Anti-federalists ;  and  this  we  note  as  also  conducing  to  the  stability 
of  the  Constitution.  Its  general  wisdom,  as  an  embodiment  of  State  principles; 
and  its  adaptation  to  the  requirements  of  the  United  States,  in  most  of  its  pro- 
visions ;  were  admitted,  as  we'  know,  by  the  leaders  of  both  parties  :  but  had 
the  administration  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Federalists,  whilst  demo- 
cratic habits  were  gaining  ground  continually  amongst  the  people,  (and  such  a 
conjuncture  was  not  impossible,) — there  would  have  arisen  such  angry  colli- 
sion, and  so  wide  a  breach  between  the  general  government  and  the  people 
would  have  been  occasioned,  that  the  polity  must  have  perished.  It  is  a  Fe- 
deralist Constitution,  worked  (and  in  most  things  honestly)  by  Democrats: — 
and  this  greatly  contributed  to  its  permanence. 

We  shall  also  discover,  that  the  Federal  legislature  has  confined  its  attention 
almost  exclusively  to  questions  of  imperial  magnitude ;  and  far  from  having 
exceeded  its  privileges,  and  trenched  upon  those  of  the  State  legislatures,  it 
has  kept  itself  quite  within  the  boundaries  marked  out,  for  its  operation,  by 
the  Constitution.  And  at  the  same  time  those  State  legislatures  have  afforded 
•  safe  outlets  for  the  turbulence  of  the  real  democracy  of  the  country,  as  their 
"  immense  activity,"  testified  by  the  extent  of  their  "  Statutes  at  large,"  will 
prove. 

Here,  too,  we  ought  to  observe,  that  the  spirit  which  required  those  "  com- 
promises "  in  the  Constitution  has  never  died  out ;  and  that  it  has  exercised 
its  influence  in  maintaining  that  polity  as  it  is.  For  in  the  shifting  strife  and 
balance  of  parties, — there  being,  also,  as  the  "  compromises  "  indicate,  a  cross 
division, — none  who  might  desire  a  change  in  the  provisions  of  the  instru- 
ment of  government,  could  be  certain  that,  if  they  were  to  succeed,  they  should 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  681 

not  also  effect  other  changes,  to  them  most  undesirable.     And  further, — there    chap. 

yet  remains  a  vast  territory,  in  which  those  classes,  which  are  most  trouble- ' — 

some  to  old  States,  and  most  dangerous  to  new  ones,  of  limited  area,  can  ex-  to  i>89. 
patiate  almost  at  will ;  and  indulge  in  their  congenial  savagery,  without  harm 
to  their  civilized  fellows  ; — nay,  to  their  great  advantage,  for  they  have  served 
as  the  pickeerers  and  skirmishers  before  the  bands,  which  evermore  pressing 
westward,  have  effected  those  marvellous  industrial  conquests,  that  are  the 
truest  glory,  as  they  involve  the  most  unparalleled  achievements,  of  the  men 
of  the  New  World. 

Did  our  space  and  our  scope  permit,  we  might  draw  a  comparison  between 
the  troubled  careers  of  the  republics  which  have  risen  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
old  Spanish  empire  in  the  West,  and  the  undisturbed  course  of  this  one ;  and 
by  this  means  trace  the  operation  of  those  peculiarities  of  race  and  religion, 
that  characterize  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Instead  of  which,  we  must 
glance  once  more  at  those  first  and  unhappiest  imitators  of  the  Americans, 
whose  endless  series  of  revolutions  were  unquestionably  occasioned  by  the 
sympathy  and  aid  they  gave  to  the  revolted  colonists  of  Britain.  In  direct 
contrast  with  these,  the  French  abolished  the  old  landmarks,  re-distributing 
their  whole  territory  into  departments ;  they  set  up  a  republic,  "  one  and  in- 
divisible," making  Federalism  a  term  of  reproach,  in  a  sense  exactly  opposite 
to  that  which  was  attached  to  it  in  America ;  they  adopted  the  hint  given  by 
the  "  Committees  of  Safety,"  but  they  made  the  very  name  a  portent  and  a 
terror  to  mankind;  and  instead  of  a  Constitution,  representing,  ever  so  ap- 
proximately, the  old  habits  of  France,  they  set  up  a  "  Paper-theorem,"  which, 
unlike  its  model,  that  nourishes  with  all  its  first  vigour  at  the  end  of  sixty 
years,  burst  to  pieces  before  the  conclusion  of  a  twelvemonth,  and  has  been 
succeeded  by  some  score  of  others,  the  last  of  which,  at  the  present  date,  (De- 
cember, 1852,)  is  a  repetition,  or  rather  parody,  of  one  that,  thirty-seven  years 
ago,  most  signally  and  shamefully  failed. 

And  this  leads  to  one  last  "  comment."  To  us,  with  this  fearful  history 
before  us,  it  seems  strange,  and  indeed  more  than  strange,  that  the  Constitu- 
ent Convention  should  have  supposed,  that  it  was  of  any  avail  to  insert  a 
method  of  amending  the  Constitution,  into  the  Instrument  they  offered  to  the 
nation.  The  "  Articles  "  contained  a  provision  for  amendments,  and  they  had 
met  at  Philadelphia  in  defiance  of  it  ;  and  now  they  laid  before  Congress  a 
scheme  it  was  bound,  if  paper-provisos  could  bind,  to  reject,  as  contrary  to 
the  Constitution  under  which  it  existed.  But  they  also  thus  conveyed  their 
understanding  of  this  very  provision.  They  did  not  look  upon  their  legisla- 
tion as  being  like  "  the  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  which  altereth  not ;  " 
they  knew  that  the  powei,  which  really  makes  laws,  can  abrogate  them;  and 
at  the  same  time  they  appealed  to  that  spirit  of  obedience  to  law,  which  is  so 
strong  in  the  Saxon,  knowing  that,  save  on  its  proved  inefficiency  to  pro- 
duce the  effects  it  aimed  at,  their  work  would  not  be  overthrown. 

If,  however,  the  people  should  will  it  to  be  so,  the  United  States  might,  in- 
stead of  a  Confederated  Republic,  become,  like  France  of  yore,  a  "  republic 

4  s 


0S£  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,  one  and  indivisible."     And  looking  far  onward  into  the  future,  as  the  study 

_ —  of  these  things  inclines  us  to  do,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  such  a  phase 

At0Li76987  awaits  the  Union,  for  we  cannot  suppose  the  constant  extension  of  its  borders 
unproductive  of  change, — the  general  government  becoming,  in  all  respects, 
national ;  and  the  State  legislatures  being  converted  into  local  or  municipal 
governments, — for  which  functions  they  are  admirably  adapted ;  and  in  which 
relation  to  the  central  authority,  they  would  both  be  strong,  and  confer 
strength. 

Our  readers  must  suffer  the  preceding  remarks  to  represent  the  animated 
discussion,  which  arose  through  the  entire  Union,  as  soon  as  the  provisions  of 
the  proposed  Constitution  became  known.  And  now  we  will  proceed  to  give 
an  account  of  the  results  of  this  second  great  national  debate,  which,  like  the 
first,  produced  effects  most  satisfactory  to  the  prudent  and  far-seeing  among 
the  well-wishers  to  their  country,  although  to  others  they  were  not  so 
gratifying. 

With  what  distinctness  parties  were  now  separated,  it  is  needless  to  say ; 
the  bitterness  of  the  contest  waged  by  them  can  well  be  imagined.  The  self- 
styled  Federalists  were  designated  by  their  opponents,  Tories,  and  "  sheltered 
aliens,"  as  if  they  had  not  espoused  the  righteous  cause  in  the  war  with 
Britain,  but  had  lifted  parricidal  hands  against  their  country ;  or  "  conspir- 
ators," as  if  the  offer  of  a  new  frame  of  government  for  the  acceptance  of  the 
people  were  a  plot  against  their  freedom.  Those  whom  their  adversaries 
styled  Anti-federalists,  called  themselves  Constitutionalists,  —  a  worse  mis- 
nomer than  that  of  "  Federalists"  for  the  others;  for  the  "Articles,"  which 
it  was  proposed  to  set  aside,  were  most  distinctly  "Articles  of  Confederation  ; " 
so  that  the  self-assumed  titles  ought  to  have  been  reversed,  as  is  so  frequently 
the  case  in  strifes  of  this  kind, — the  party  names  showing  what  the  parties 
fear  they  shall  be  accused  of  not  being,  rather  than  what  they  really  are. 

Generally,  in  the  great  towns,  and  wherever  manufacturing  or  commercial  in- 
dustry had  workshop  or  mart,  Federalism  prevailed  ;  but  where  men's  minds 
had  acquired  the  slow  habits  that  agriculture  and  its  allied  occupations  tend 
to  form,  the  New  Constitution  was  opposed.  Yet  this  generalization  very  in- 
sufficiently represents  the  topographical  distribution  of  opinion  on  this  in- 
tensely interesting  subject.  The  dates  and  the  circumstances  of  the  rati- 
fication of  the  Instrument,  in  the  several  States,  will  afford  another  view; 
and  one  which,  on  the  whole,  more  exactly  displays  the  variations  in  public 
feeling. 

Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey  adopted  the  Constitution  in  the 
month  of  December,  1787 ;  the  first  and  the  last  unanimously,  and  all  three 
without  suggesting  any  amendments.  The  Pennsylvania  Convention  had 
vigorously  debated  every  paragraph  containing  any  restriction  on  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  States,  or  any  investment  of  the  central  government  with  power 
to  provide  for  matters  concerning  all  the  States  alike ;  but  in  the  end,  by  a 
majority  of  forty-six  over  twenty- three,  the  scheme  was  accepted.  The  popular 
excitement  far  exceeded  that  of  the  assembly,  and  as  it  had  become  known 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  683 

that  many  of  the  original  Convention  desired  to  give  peculiar  privileges  to  chap. 

property,  there  were  abundant  displays  of  "the  levelling  spirit  of  democracy," ' — 

in  opposition.  Franklin,  who  published  a  paper,  comparing  the  Anti-feder-  to  iVsy. 
alists  with  the  ancient  Jews,  who  were  reluctant  to  submit  to  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed polity  which  Moses  gave  them ;  told  one  of  his  correspondents  in 
France,  "  though  there  is  a  general  dread  of  giving  too  much  power  to  our 
governors,  I  think  we  are  more  in  danger  from  too  little  obedience  in  the 
governed" 

In  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  1788,  Georgia,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  and 
without  recommending  any  changes  or  additions,  ratified  the  Constitution ; 
and  Connecticut  accepted  it  as  it  was,  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty-eight  to  forty.  The  next  State  that  undertook  the  decision  . 
of  the  question  was  New  Hampshire ;  but  it  had  all  through  its  history  de- 
pended so  entirely  upon  Massachusetts,  that  as  it  had  not  pronounced,  the 
Federalists  of  the  client  State  themselves  brought  about  the  adjournment  of  the 
Convention,  until  their  patron  had  settled  what  course  to  follow.  Other  States 
waited  with  manifest  anxiety  for  the  determination  of  the  old  Bay  State, 
which  had  so  customarily  taken  the  lead  in  seasons  of  peril;  for  the  opposite 
opinions  were  known  to  be  so  nicely  balanced  in  that  region,  that  the  ultimate 
fate  of  the  Constitution  might  be  regarded  as  foreshadowed  by  the  reception 
it  met  with  there. 

Its  final  resolution  is  ascribed,  by  Sullivan  and  others,  to  the  fact,  that  Han- 
cock, who  had  resigned  the  governorship  in  1785,  was  two  years  afterwards 
re-elected  in  the  place  of  Bowdoin,  who  was  objectionable  to  many,  both  on 
account  of  the  energy  with  which  he  had  acted  on  the  occasion  of  Shays'  re- 
bellion, (although  he  had  thereby  saved  the  State,)  and  also  because  he  was 
said  to  have  "  English  partialities."  Hancock  was  trusted  by  the  numerous 
Anti-federalists,  and  his  proposition,  as  chairman,  to  ratify  the  Constitution, 
accompanied  by  the  offer  of  nine  amendments,  commanded  a  majority.  The 
wealthy  and  the  educated  classes  were  almost  all  Federalists,  and  where  they 
opposed  the  Constitution,  it  was  on  the  ground  taken  by  Elbridge  Gerry,  who 
maintained  that  it  was  too  democratic ;  which  ought  to  have  commended  it  to 
those  who  professed  themselves,  par  excellence,  the  friends  of  the  people. 
Foremost  amongst  the  Anti-federalists  were  the  jobbers  in  the  depreciated 
paper-money  ;  the  men  of  Maine,  who  saw  in  the  Constitution  a  new  hinderance 
in  the  way  of  their  being  raised  into  a  separate  sovereignty ;  and  those  who 
abetted  or  sympathized  with  the  late  rebellion. 

"  There  is  no  doubt,"  writes  Sullivan,  "that,  if  the  question  had  been  taken 
without  discussion,  there  would  have  been  a  large  majority  against  the  adop- 
tion. Each  member  would  have  voted  on  his  own  objections,  and  there  were 
objections  in  almost  every  mind."  "  The  course  of  discussion,"  he  adds, 
describing  the  proceedings  in  the  Massachusetts  Convention,  "  was,  to  take 
up  the  paragraphs  of  the  Constitution  in  their  order,  and  for  each  member, 
who  saw  fit,  to  express  his  opinion.  The  final  and  only  question  was,  on  the 
acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  Instrument,  in  whole."  There  was  much  debate 

4  s  2 


684  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  respecting  the  legislative  power,  which  it  was  proposed  to  create,  and  its  pos- 

'. —  sible  abuse,  but  no  objections  were  made  to  the  executive  power. 

to  i>89.  Fisher  Ames  made  his  first  speech  on  this  occasion,  in  defence  of  the  bien- 
nial elections  of  Representatives  for  the  popular  House.  Samuel  Adams,  a 
democratic  republican  in  opinion,  and  deservedly  popular  on  account  of  the 
part  he  had  taken  in  the  Revolution,  was  averse  to  the  new  "  platform;"  but, 
conciliated  by  Hancock's  proposal  of  amendments,  he  consented  to  its  ratifi- 
cation. Rufus  King,  already  a  public  man,  and  who  continued  to  be  so  to  the 
end  of  his  life,  was  also  conspicuous  in  this  Convention ;  as  were  Benjamin 
Lincoln,  Charles  Jar  vis,  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Dana,  Cabot,  Strong,  Gore,  and, 
in  truth,  most  of  "  the  ablest  men  in  the  State." 

Whilst  this  assembly  was  sitting,  a  great  meeting  of  mechanics  was  held  in 
Boston,  and  "  resolutions  were  passed,  with  unanimity  and  acclamation,  in 
favour  of  the  adoption  "  of  the  Constitution.  "  But,  notwithstanding  Han- 
cock's conciliatory  proposition,  and  this  expression  of  public  feeling,  it  was 
adopted  by  the  small  majority  of  nineteen  out  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-five 
votes.  The  adoption  was  celebrated  in  Boston  by  a  memorable  procession, 
in  which  the  various  orders  of  mechanics  displayed  appropriate  banners.  It 
was  hailed  with  joy  throughout  the  States.  General  Washington  is  well 
known  to  have  expressed  his  heartfelt  satisfaction,  that  the  important  State  of 
Massachusetts  had  acceded  to  the  Union." 

Dr.  Sullivan  proceeds  to  say,  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of  intriguing  by 
the  partisans  of  both  sides,  to  carry  the  adoption  or  the  rejection  of  the  new 
plan  of  Federation  ;  and  we  cannot  doubt,  that  if  the  "  secret  history  "  of  a 
State  Convention,  like  this  of  Massachusetts,  could  be  written,  it  would  pre- 
sent a  picture  very  revolting  to  a  patriotic  heart ;  nor  would  the  consideration 
that  thus,  in  all  ages,  movements  of  great  mark  and  lofty  character  have  been 
carried  on,  lessen  the  grief  of  knowing  the  means  by  which  the  good  of 
one's  country  has  actually  been  promoted. 

Massachusetts  ratified  early  in  February,  and  then  occurred  a  long  pause ; 
for  almost  two  months,  no  advance  was  apparently  made  towards  the  settle- 
ment of  the  government  of  the  nation.  Yet  there  was  in  reality  great  progress 
made,  for  during  these  early  months  of  1788,  appeared  the  articles  signed 
Publlus,  in  a  New  York  paper,  which  having  been  collected  into  a  volume, 
and  entitled  "  The  Federalist,"  have  taken  the  rank  of  a  classical  work, 
and  are  considered  the  fullest  and  most  masterly  Commentary  on  the  Consti- 
tution, "  of  scarcely  less  authority  than  the  Constitution  itself." 

The  series  extended  to  eighty-five  numbers ;  of  which  fifty-one  were  from 
the  pen  of  Alexander  Hamilton, — the  speculative  monarchist;  twenty-nine 
from  that  of  Madison,  afterwards  the  partisan  of  Jefferson ;  and  the  remaining 
five  by  John  Jay,  then  secretary  of  Congress  for  foreign  affairs.  Hamilton 
furnished  the  Introductory  Essay ;  and  Jay  followed  with  an  exposition  of 
"  the  dangers  from  foreign  force  and  influence,"  preparatory  to  the  consider- 
ation of  the  usefulness  and  necessity  of  Union.  This  was  discussed  by  Ha- 
milton, who  treated  of  the  possibility  and  the  evils  of  internal  war,  insurrec- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  685 

tion,  and  faction;  and  of  the  advantages  of  a  Union,  in  respect  of  commerce,   chap. 

and  a   navy,  revenue,  and   the   economical   management   of  public  affairs. ■ — 

Madison  also  wrote  a  paper  on  the  safe-guard  furnished  by  the  Union  against    to  i789. 
domestic  faction  and  insurrection  ;  distinguishing  between  &  Democracy  and  a 
Republic;  and  on  the  objection  derived  from  the  extent  of  the  country,  which 
he  combated  by  inferences  from  that  distinction. 

Eight  numbers  were  devoted  to  the  examination  of  the  defects  of  the  ex- 
isting Confederation;  three  of  them,  consisting  of  examples  of  anarchical 
federal  governments,  being  by  Madison ;  and  the  others  by  Hamilton ;  who 
followed  with  six  essays  on  the  necessity  of  a  government,  "  at  least  equally 
energetic  with  the  one  proposed,"  even  though  the  maintenance  of  a  standing 
army  might  be  objected,  as  a  necessary  incident  of  such  a  government.  And 
then  came  an  article  on  the  militia,  and  seven  on  taxation,  by  the  same  hand. 

From  the  thirty-seventh  to  the  fifty-eighth  number,  inclusive,  the  papers  were 
written  by  Madison.  u  They  related  to  the  difficulties  which  the  Convention 
had  experienced  in  the  formation  of  a  proper  plan;  to  its  conformity  with  re- 
publican principles,  with  an  apologetic  defence  of  the  body  for  transcending 
their  powers ;  to  a  general  view  of  the  powers  vested  by  the  plan  in  the 
general  government,  and  a  comparative  estimate  of  the  reciprocal  influence  of 
the  general  and  of  the  State  governments  with  each  other.  They  contain  a 
laborious  investigation  of  the  maxims,  which  require  a  separation  of  the  de- 
partments of  power,  and  a  discussion  of  the  means  for  giving  to  it  practical 
efficacy.  And  they  close  with  an  examination,  critical  and  philosophical,  of 
the  organization  of  the  House  of  Representatives, — with  reference  to  the  qua- 
lifications of  the  electors  and  the  elected,  to  the  time  of  service  of  the  mem- 
bers, to  the  ratio  of  representation,  to  the  total  number  of  the  body,  and  to  the 
expected  subsequent  augmentation  of  the  members  ;  " — and  in  relation  to  the 
total  number,  he  disproved  the  charge  of  a  "  tendency,  in  the  plan  of  the 
Convention,  to  elevate  the  few  above  the  many." 

Madison  also  supplied  two  papers  on  the  Senate,  treating  of  the  qualifica- 
tions, number,  and  manner  of  appointing  the  members,  the  duration  of  their 
appointments,  and  the  equality  of  representation.  And  Jay  wrote  one  on  the 
treaty-making  power,  vested  in  that  House.  All  the  rest  were  by  Hamilton. 
They  consist  of  three  concerning  elections  ;  two  on  the  capacity  of  the  Senate 
"  as  a  court  for  the  trial  of  impeachments ;  "  and  eleven  on  the  Executive,  ex- 
posing misrepresentations,  expounding  the  mode  of  appointment,  the  duration 
of  the  office,  the  re-eligibility  of  the  President,  comparing  him  with  the  king 
of  Great  Britain  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  governor  of  New  York  on  the 
other ;  and  examining  the  project  of  an  executive  council,  and  the  various 
powers  intrusted  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic,  by  the  Constitution. 
In  six  essays,  he  next  investigated  the  whole  of  the  provisions  relating  to 
the  Judiciary ;  one  is  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  "  miscellaneous  objec- 
tions ; "  and  then  follows  the  concluding  number. 

Before  this  last  number  appeared,  the  Convention  of  Maryland  had  ratified 
the  proposed  polity,  without  amendments  ;  sixty-three  voting  against  twelve, 


686  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

c  h  a  p.  and   that    fact   gave    great    weight   to    ' '  the   Federalist's  "    closing   words. 
'  —  Hamilton  was  anxious  to  secure  for  the  Constitution,  in  Virginia  and  New 


to  i>89.  York,  a  ratification  u  as  it  stood,"  accompanied  by  the  proposal  of  amend- 
ments for  subsequent  and  independent  discussion  by  Congress,  on  the  plan 
adopted  by  Massachusetts.  By  any  other  course,  as  he  said,  the  chance  of 
the  final  acceptance  of  the  amendments  would  be  lessened  in  the  proportion  of 
nine  to  thirteen  ;  because,  "  the  moment  an  alteration  was  made  in  the  pro- 
posed plan,  it  became,  to  the  purpose  of  adoption,  a  new  one,  and  must  un- 
dergo a  new  decision  in  each  State." 

"  It  may  be  in  me,"  he  said,  "  a  defect  of  political  fortitude,  but  I  acknow- 
ledge that  I  cannot  entertain  an  equal  tranquillity  with  those  who  affect  to 
treat  the  dangers  of  a  longer  continuance  in  our  present  situation  as  imaginary. 
A  nation,  without  a  national  government,  is  an  awful  spectacle.  The  establish- 
ment of  a  Constitution,  in  time  of  profound  peace,  by  the  voluntary  consent 
of  a  whole  people,  is  a  prodigy,  to  the  completion  of  which  I  look  forward 
with  trembling  anxiety.  In  so  arduous  an  enterprise,  I  can  reconcile  it  to 
no  rules  of  prudence,  to  let  go  the  hold  we  now  have  upon  seven  out  of  the 
thirteen  States ;  and  after  having  passed  over  so  considerable  a  part  of  the 
ground,  to  recommence  the  course.  I  dread  the  more  the  consequences  of 
new  attempts,  because  I  know  that  powerful  individuals,  in  this  [New  York] 
and  in  other  States,  are  enemies  to  a  general  national  government  in  every 
possible  shape." 

Such  a  publication  as  this,  it  may  well  be  believed,  produced  a  great  im- 
pression ;  for  the  papers  were  reprinted  in  every  part  of  the  Union.  But  the 
authors  were  generally  known,  and,  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  parties, 
the  influence  of  their  opinions  was  not  entirely  of  the  suasive  kind.  Jefferson's 
verdict  respecting  it  deserves  record ;  it  is  contained  in  a  letter  to  Madison. 
"  With  respect  to  '  the  Federalist,'  "  he  says,  "  the  three  authors  had  been 
named  to  me.  I  read  it  with  care,  pleasure,  and  improvement ;  and  was  satis- 
fied there  was  nothing  in  it  by  one  of  those  hands,  and  not  a  great  deal  by  a 
second.  It  does  the  highest  honour  to  the  third,  as  being,  in  my  opinion, 
the  best  commentary  on  the  principles  of  government  which  ever  was  written. 
In  some  parts,  it  is  discoverable  that  the  author  means  only  to  say  what  may 
be  best  said  in  defence  of  opinions  in  which  he  did  not  concur.  But  in 
general,  it  establishes  firmly  the  plan  of  government.  I  confess,  it  has  rectified 
me  on  several  points.  *  *  *  I  should  deprecate  with  you,  indeed,  the  meet- 
ing of  a  new  Convention.  I  hope  they  will  adopt  the  mode  of  amendment 
by  Congress  and  the  assemblies,  in  which  case,  I  should  not  fear  any  dan- 
gerous innovation  in  the  plan.  But  the  minorities  are  too  respectable,  not  to 
be  entitled  to  some  sacrifice  of  opinion  in  the  majority;  especially,  wnen  a 
great  proportion  of  them  would  be  contented  with  a  Bill  of  Rights." 

Madison  did  not  share  his  correspondent's  anxiety  to  see  the  Constitution 
prefaced  by  a  Bill  of  Rights  ;  considering,  as  he  told  him,  "  the  rights  in 
question  reserved  by  the  manner  in  which  the  Federal  powers  were  granted;" 
— "  that  a  positive  declaration  of  some  of  the  most  essential,  could  not  be  ob- 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  6S7 

lained  in  the  requisite  latitude ; "  that  a  security  existed  in  the  case  of  the   chap. 

Federal  government,  in  "  its  limited  power,"  and  "  the  jealousy  of  the  sub- — 

ordinate  governments;"  and  that  "  experience  had  proved  the  in  efficacy  of  At0Di>89?7 
such  a  bill  on  those  occasions,  when  its  control  was  most  needed."  In  the  same 
letter  we  catch  glimpses  of  some  of  the  real  objections  to  the.  adoption  of  the 
plan ;  for  the  amendments  proposed  by  the  State  Conventions  did  not  always 
show  them.  "  The  articles  relating  to  treaties,  to  paper  money,  and  to  con- 
tracts, created  more  enemies  than  all  the  errors  in  the  system,  positive  and 
negative,  put  together."  "  One  of  the  objections  in  New  England  was,  that 
the  Constitution,  by  prohibiting  religious  tests,  opened  a  door  for  Jews,  Turks, 
and  Infidels."  In  which  passages,  we  see  the  real  difficulties  of  government 
in  a  democratic  republic. 

"  In  Virginia,"  Madison  says,  "  I  have  seen  the  Bill  of  Rights  violated  in 
every  instance  where  it  has  been  opposed  to  a  popular  current."  And  with 
great  foresight  and  judgment,  he  adds,  in  another  paragraph,  "  In  our  go- 
vernments the  real  power  lies  in  the  majority  of  the  community,  and  the  in- 
vasion of  private  rights  is  chiefly  to  be  apprehended,  not  from  acts  of  govern- 
ment contrary  to  the  sense  of  its  constituents,  but  from  acts  in  which  the 
government  is  the  mere  instrument  of  the  major  number  of  the  constituents. 
This  is  a  truth  of  great  importance,  but  not  yet  sufficiently  attended  to  ;  and 
is  probably  more  strongly  impressed  on  my  mind  by  facts  and  reflections  sug- 
gested by  them,  than  in  yours  [Jefferson's],  which  has  contemplated  abuses  of 
power  from  a  very  different  quarter." 

Near  the  end  of  May,  a  month  after  Maryland  had  ratified,  the  Conven- 
tion of  South  Carolina  accepted  the  Constitution,  by  a  hundred  and  forty-nine 
to  seventy-three  ;  proposing,  however,  two  or  three  amendments.  And  at  the 
end  of  another  month,  New  Hampshire  followed  the  example  of  Massachusetts, 
copying  its  amendments,  and  dividing,  in  almost  the  same  proportion,  fifty- 
seven  against  forty-six.  A  few  days  later,  the  Virginia  Convention  ratified ;  an 
event  of  the  deepest  interest,  of  which  John  Quincy  Adams  thus  speaks,  in 
his  "  Life  of  Madison." 

"  In  no  State  had  the  opposition  to  the  plan  been  so  deep,  so  extensive, 
so  formidable,  as  there.  Two  of  her  citizens,  second  only  to  Washington  by 
the  weight  of  their  characters,  the  splendour  of  their  public  services,  and  the 
reputation  of  their  genius  and  talents, — Patrick  Henry,  the  first  herald 
of  the  Revolution  in  the  South,  as  James  Otis  had  been  in  the  North,  and 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
most  intimate  and  confidential  friend  of  Madison  himself, — disapproved  the 
Constitution.  Jefferson  was  indeed,  at  that  time,  absent  from  the  State  and 
the  country,  as  the  representative  of  the  United  States  at  the  court  of  France. 
His  objections  to  the  Constitution  were  less  fervent  and  radical.  Patrick 
Henry's  opposition  was  to  the  whole  plan,  and  to  its  fundamental  principle, — 
the  change  from  a  Confederation  of  Independent  States,  to  a  complicated 
government,  partly  Federal  and  partly  national.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Virginia  Convention ;  and  there  it  was  that  Mr.  Madison  was  destined  to 


688  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  meet,  and  encounter,  and  overcome  the  all  but  irresistible  power  of  his  elo- 

r —  quence,  and  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  his  gigantic  mind. 

to  iVt9.  "  The  debates  in  the  Virginia  Convention  furnish  an  exposition  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Constitution,  and  a  Commentary  upon  its  provisions,  not  inferior 
to  the  papers  of  '  the  Federalist.'  Patrick  Henry  pursued  his  hostility  to  the 
system  into  all  its  details ;  objecting  not  only  to  the  Preamble  and  the  first 
Article,  but  to  the  Senate,  to  the  President,  to  the  judicial  power,  to  the  treaty- 
making  power,  to  the  control  given  to  Congress  over  the  militia,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  omission  of  a  Bill  of  Rights.  Seconded  and  sustained  with  great 
ability  by  George  Mason,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Convention  which 
formed  the  Constitution,  by  James  Monroe  and  William  Grayson,  there  was 
not  a  controvertible  point,  real  or  imaginary,  in  the  whole  Instrument,  which 
escaped  their  embittered  opposition.  While  upon  every  point  Mr.  Madison 
was  prepared  to  meet  them,  with  cogent  argument,  with  intent  and  anxious 
feeling,  and  with  mild  conciliatory  gentleness  of  temper,  disarming  the  ad- 
versary by  the  very  act  of  seeming  to  decline  contention  with  him.  Mr. 
Madison  devoted  himself  particularly  to  the  task  of  answering  and  replying 
to  the  objections  of  Patrick  Henry,  following  him  step  by  step,  and  meeting 
him  at  every  turn.  His  principal  co-adjutors,  were  Governor  Randolph,  [who 
had  refused  to  sign  the  Instrument,  at  Philadelphia,]  Edmund  Pendleton — 
the  President  of  the  Convention, — John  Marshal,  George  Nicholas,  and  Henry 
Lee  of  Westmoreland.  Never  was  there  assembled  in  Virginia  a  body  of  men, 
of  more  surpassing  talent,  of  bolder  energy,  or  of  purer  integrity,  than  in  that 
Convention." 

In  the  end,  the  unconditional  ratification  was  carried  by  a  small  majority, 
seventy-nine  opposing  it,  and  eighty-nine  affirming  it.  "  The  amendments 
proposed,  were  a  Bill  of  Rights,  copied  from  that  of  Virginia,  and  some  twenty 
alterations  in  the  body  of  the  Constitution."  "  No  sooner,"  wrote  Washington 
to  Charles  C.  Pinckney  three  days  later,  "  had  the  citizens  of  Alexandria,  who 
are  Federal  to  a  man,  received  the  intelligence  by  the  mail  last  night,  than  they 
determined  to  devote  this  day  to  festivity.  But  their  exhilaration  was  greatly 
increased,  and  a  much  keener  zest  given  to  their  enjoyment,  by  the  arrival  of 
an  express,  two  hours  before  day,  with  the  news  that  the  Convention  of  New 
Hampshire  had  acceded  to  the  new  confederacy.  Thus  the  citizens  of  Alex- 
andria, when  convened,  constituted  the  first  public  company  in  America 
which  had  the  pleasure  of  pouring  a  libation  to  the  prosperity  of  the  ten 
States  which  had  actually  adopted  the  general  government." 

Independence  Day  occurring  whilst  these  news  were  fresh,  its  observance, 
in  many  places,  was  signalized  by  new  pageantry.  Philadelphia  surpassed  all 
the  rest  in  these  rejoicings.  Ten  vessels,  moored  before  the  city  in  the  broad 
Delaware,  represented  the  newly  confederated  States,  and  the  name  of  each, 
inscribed  in  letters  of  gold,  might  be  read  upon  a  white  flag,  fluttering  at 
their  mast-heads.  All  the  other  shipping  and  craft  in  the  river  were  adorned 
with  colours  of  every  description.  A  grand  procession  was  marshalled,  in 
which  the  chief  persons  in  the  State,  both  private  and  official,  did  not  hesitate 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  689 

to  take  part, — appearing  in  fancy  dresses,  and  thus  giving  dignity  to  the  poli-  chap. 

tical  masque.     A  huge  car,  formed  like  the  American  Eagle, — in  which  sat 

the  chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania,  bearing  a  copy  of  the  Instrument  of  govern-  to  ma. 
ment,  in  a  frame,  depending  from  a  staff  surmounted  by  the  cap  of  liberty, 
inscribed  in  gold,  "  the  people,"  and  accompanied  by  two  other  judges  of 
the  supreme  court  of  the  State, — was  emblematical  of  the  New  Constitution. 
Independence,  Alliance  with  France,  Washington,  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  the 
Federal  Constitution,  the  New  Era,  and  other  personifications  and  person- 
ations, were  to  be  seen  in  the  ranks.  The  cessation  of  war  with  the  natives 
was  typified,  by  an  Indian  Sachem  and  an  American  citizen  smoking  the  sa- 
cred calumet  in  an  open  vehicle.  The  Federal  temple,  having  thirteen 
columns,  (three  of  which  were  unfinished,  for  the  sake  of  the  non-ratifying 
States,)  was  drawn  by  ten  white  horses.  A  miniature  twenty -gun  ship,  manned 
by  twenty-five  sailors,  and  named  "  the  Union,"  was  mounted  on  a  truck,  con- 
cealed by  canvass  painted  like  the  sea,  which  covered  the  vessel  high  enough 
to  make  it  seen  afloat.  All  the  handicrafts-men  connected  with  the  mercan- 
tile and  other  marine  service,  pilots,  carpenters,  &c.  &c,  surrounded  the  em- 
blems. Nor  were  manufactures  forgotten ;  hand  machinery  for  carding  and 
spinning  cotton,  lately  introduced  into  the  States,  was  exhibited  in  operation 
on  a  wide  carriage,  by  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Manufactures,  and  ex- 
cited great  interest. 

The  long  pomp,  civil,  artistic,  political,  and  military,  wound  its  way  through 
the  city  to  Union  Square ;  where  Wilson,  who  had  represented  the  State  in 
the  constituent  Convention,  and  to  whose  vindication  of  it,  its  early  accept- 
ance by  Pennsylvania  was  in  part  owing,  harangued  the  assembly,  which 
numbered  nearly  twenty  thousand  persons  ; — glorifying  the  Constitution,  and 
dwelling  upon  the  triumph  of  the  Convention  which  framed  it,  with  allowable 
exaggeration  and  pride.  The  unanimity  of  sentiment  in  the  city  secured  the 
observance  of  order,  throughout  the  day.  This,  however,  was  not  the  case 
universally.  The  Rhode  Islanders,  who  had  neither  sent  deputy  to  the  Con- 
vention, nor  summoned  Convention  of  their  own,  would  not  allow  the  town 
of  Providence  to  introduce  into  its  pageant  any  allusion  to  the  Constitution. 
And  at  Albany,  the  Federalists  and  their  opponents,  after  dining  apart,  con- 
trived to  meet  in  a  street  riot,  in  which  side-arms  and  bayonets  were  used,  as 
well  as  sticks  and  stones,  and  with  lamentable  effect. 

But  these  noisy  ebullitions  neither  accelerated  nor  retarded  the  progress  of 
the  new  polity.  They  who  watched  the  real  march  of  events,  were  now  en- 
gaged in  contemplating  the  discussions  of  the  New  York  Convention ;  where 
two  of  the  writers  of  "  the  Federalist,"  Hamilton  and  Jay,  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston, and  the  Schuyler  party  generally,  supported  the  proposal  to  ratify  un- 
conditionally ;  and  the  Clinton  party  maintained,  in  opposition,  the  conditional 
ratification  of  the  Constitution.  How  severe  the  contest  was,  may  be  judged 
by  the  closeness  of  the  division,  which  finally  affirmed  the  absolute  accept- 
ance by  thirty-one  votes  against  twenty-nine.  And  this  scanty  majority 
would  not  have  been  obtained,  had  not  the  proposal  been  accompanied  by  the 

4  T 


690  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

chap,  demand  for  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  and  a  great  number  of  amendments.     To 

____J which  Washington  added  the  moral  influence  of  the  fact,  that  ten  States  had 

AtoDi*789.87  ratified ;  whilst  the  Anti-federalists  declared  that  the  Tories  had  been  won 
over  by  Livingston  and  Jay,  to  support  the  Federalist  cause.  There  had  been 
a  demonstration  of  national  triumph,  rivalling  that  at  Philadelphia,  a  few  days 
before  this  decision  ;  for  New  York  city,  and  the  counties  round,  were  as 
strongly  tinged  with  Federalism,  as  the  other  counties  and  townships  were 
with  the  opposite  opinions ;  and  this  also  may  have  had  its  influence  upon 
the  vote. 

North  Carolina,  about  the  same  time,  held  its  Convention,  and  there  the 
majority  favoured  a  conditional  ratification.  But  as  this  would  have  necessi- 
tated a  repetition  of  the  process  happily  terminated  in  eleven  of  the  other 
States,  by  a  vote  absolutely  accepting  the  Constitution,  and  as  it  was  of  little 
consequence,  comparatively,  to  the  ratifying  States;  this  adverse  vote,  and  the 
refusal  of  Rhode  Island  even  to  call  a  Convention,  (that  State  choosing  rather 
to  take  the  unfavourable  votes  of  its  towns,  in  detail,)  were  not  considered 
valid  obstacles  to  the  complete  organization  of  the  National  government  on 
the  new  model. 

Whilst  the  old  Congress  was  now  endeavouring,  with  becoming  decency, 
to  compose  its  affairs,  and  make  way  for  its  young  and  vigorous  successor, 
another  element  of  discord  was  introduced  into  the  Union.  New  York,  be- 
sides insisting  upon  various  amendments,  in  ratifying  the  Constitution,  sent 
to  the  other  States  which  had  accepted  it  a  letter  recommending  the  summon- 
ing of  a  second  general  Convention,  to  discuss  and  to  decide  upon  all  the 
amendments  which  had  been  presented.  It  appears  to  be  more  than  pro- 
bable, that,  numerically,  the  Anti-federalists  were  a  clear  majority  in  the  Union ; 
although  they  were  not  in  the  various  Conventions.  When,  therefore,  this 
proposal  for  another  Convention  was  made,  it  was  welcomed  by  the  defeated 
majorities,  or  the  large  minorities,  of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massa- 
chusetts ;  by  the  discontented  in  New  Hampshire,  Georgia,  and  South  Caro- 
lina ;  and  by  almost  all  in  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island.  It  seemed  to 
be  (as  in  truth  it  then  was)  the  dernidre  ressource,  by  means  of  which  they 
might  yet  reverse  the  first  decision,  and  secure  a  national  verdict  against  the 
Instrument  of  government  published  by  the  Philadelphia  Convention. 

It  is  exceedingly  remarkable,  that  the  staunchest  partisans  of  the  Constitu- 
tion now,  were  precisely  those  States,  which,  in  that  assembly,  had  been  most 
frequently  in  the  opposition, — New  Jersey  and  Maryland,  Delaware  and 
Connecticut.  There  are,  however,  many  obvious  reasons  for  this,  which  are 
sufficiently  instructive,  both  as  to  the  position  of  parties  at  the  time,  and  con- 
cerning what  might  be  expected  in  the  future.  One  (which  we  give  as  an 
example)  being,  that  they  had  secured  greater  advantages  than  they  had  ex- 
pected, or  could  expect  to  secure,  if  all  the  questions  which  had  been  deter- 
mined should  be  re-opened. 

Eventually,  this  demand  for  a  new  Convention  had  to  be  postponed  till  the 
Constitution  was  brought  into  operation.     For  the  weight  of  opinion  in  the 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  691 

country,  was  rather  in  favour  of  amending  the  plan,  than  of  overthrowing  it ;  chap. 


A.  D.  1787 


and  it  was  perceived  that  the  nation  would  sink  into  a  state  of  hopeless  dis- 
organization, if  this  polity  were  destroyed.     Only  one  meeting  was  held  in  AtoUiVs9* 
consequence  of  this  circular  ;  yet  it  was  not  without  its  influence  in  the  elections 
which  Congress  soon  afterwards  ordered  in  the  States  which  had  ratified. 

The  matters  which  this  existing  legislature  was  occupied  with,  beside  the 
directing  of  these  elections,  were  chiefly  the  financial  affairs  of  the  Confeder- 
ation since  the  peace.  In  some  branches  they  were  in  inextricable  confusion, 
through  the  mismanagement  or  knavery  of  those  whose  duty  it  had  been  to 
attend  to  them.  But  in  the  principal  department — the  interest  and  the  re- 
payment of  the  foreign  debt — it  appeared  that  by  means  of  fresh  loans  from 
Holland,  above  half  had  been  paid,  and  that  there  remained  due  of  the  re- 
quisitions in  specie  already  made,  sufficient  to  meet  the  lesser  half.  The  total 
exceeded  six  millions  of  dollars.  The  interest  on  the  domestic  debt  was  more 
in  arrear,  the  requisitions  in  indents  (or  certificates  for  the  over-due  interest, 
which  had  been  issued  from  the  loan-offices  in  the  various  States,  from  the 
close  of  the  war,)  having  been  most  imperfectly  attended  to.  There  were  now 
seventeen  hundred  thousand  dollars  required  in  these  certificates  !  These  pay- 
ments of  course  would  leave  the  principals  of  all  the  debts  (except  the  French, 
which  was  to  be  returned  by  instalments)  untouched.  A  further  account  of 
this  most  concerning  portion  of  the  national  affairs  must  be  given  in  the 
next  Book;  and  therefore  we  may  dismiss  the  subject  now,  with  this  brief 
mention. 

Another  matter  to  be  provisionally  determined  by  the  old  Congress  was 
the  seat  of  the  National  legislature,  during  the  coming  era.  "  Philadelphia 
was  first  proposed,  and  had  six  and  a  half  votes,"  says  Jefferson,  writing  to 
Short ;  "  the  half  vote  was  Delaware,  one  of  whose  members  wanted  to  take 
a  vote  on  Wilmington.  Then  Baltimore  was  proposed  and  carried,  and 
afterwards  rescinded."  And  so  the  choice  lay  between  New  York  and  Phi- 
ladelphia, with  the  greatest  probability  in  favour  of  the  latter,  as  far  as  the 
general  feeling  and  historical  associations  could  go.  But,  in  the  end,  upon 
the  principle  of  uti  possidetis,  New  York,  "  the  present  seat  of  Congress," 
carried  off  the  honour  of  being  the  place  where  the  much-expected  govern- 
ment should  be  organized. 

And  now  the  elections  were  proceeding,  and  all  through  the  winter  of 
1788-9,  the  bustle  and  excitement  of  preparation  for  the  opening  of  the  new 
chapter  in  the  History  of  the  United  States,  occupied  the  attention  and  the 
thoughts  of  the  people.  Various  modes  were  pursued  in  the  several  States; 
each  adopting  the  one  that  seemed  most  to  conduce  to  the  result  desired  by 
its  legislature  for  the  time  being.  Thus,  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  New  Jersey, 
and  New  Hampshire,  (for  once  not  following  its  leader,)  hoping  to  exclude 
opponents  of  the  Constitution,  voted  for  the  full  tale  of  their  representatives 
as  entire  States.  Whilst  Massachusetts,  and  Virginia,  New  York,  South 
Carolina,  and  Maryland,  were  divided  into  districts,  each  of  which  returned 
a  representative.     Connecticut  first  chose  thrice  its  apportioned  number,  and 

4  T  2 


692  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap,    by  a  second  election,  selected  from  them  those  who  should  represent  it  in 
! — -  Congress.       Some  too  required  majorities  of  the  electors,  for  a  valid  appoint- 
to  1 789. '  ment;  others,  only  majorities  of  votes.     The  eleven  ratifying   States  would 
return  in  all  fifty-nine  Representatives. 

Massachusetts  (passing  by  Samuel  Adams,  as  of  uncertain  fidelity  to  the 
consolidated  government,)  sent  the  young  orator,  Fisher  Ames,  with  Elbridge 
Gerry,  who  had  feared  "  democracy,"  but  now  avowed  himself  a  supporter  of 
the  Constitution ;  Theodore  Sedgwick,  of  the  old  Congress ;  and  Jonathan 
Grout,  an  Anti-federalist.  Madison  was  the  only  name  of  mark  in  the  repre- 
sentation from  Virginia.  Patrick  Henry,  "  omnipotent "  in  the  assembly 
there,  (says  Jefferson,)  "  so  modelled  the  districts  for  Representatives,  that 
Madison  might  not  be  elected  into  the  lower  Federal  House,  which  was  the 
place  he  had  wished  to  serve  in,  and  not  the  Senate."  He  even  "  pronounced 
a  philippic  "  against  Madison,  whilst  he  was  absent  at  Philadelphia.  The  de- 
fender of  the  Constitution  however,  by  declaring  himself  in  favour  of  amend- 
ing it  without  summoning  another  Convention,  succeeded  in  frustrating  his 
antagonist's  intentions.  Egbert  Benson  and  John  Lawrence,  who  represented 
New  York  in  the  old  Congress,  were  chosen  to  the  same  office  in  the  new 
one.  Pennsylvania  sent  a  batch  of  distinguished  men  ; — George  Clymer,  and 
Thomas  Fitz-simmons,  both  members  of  the  Constituent  Convention,  and  of 
the  old  Congress  ;  Thomas  Scott  from  the  trans-Appalachian  settlements  ; 
Thomas  Hartley,  and  General  Peter  Muhlenberg,  officers  in  the  army  of 
liberation  ;  and  Frederic,  the  brother  of  the  last  named,  formerly  a  member  of 
Congress. 

There  were  Trumbull  and  Wads  worth,  commissaries-general  during  the 
war,  from  Connecticut,  and  Roger  Sherman,  a  veteran  in  the  "  good  cause." 
New  Hampshire  sent  S.  Livermore.  Elias  Boudinot  of  New  Jersey  had 
enjoyed  the  Presidency  of  the  old  Congress,  and  was  now  deputed  by  that 
State  to  the  popular  House.  John  Vining  represented  Delaware.  For  Mary- 
land appeared  one  member  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  Daniel  Carroll. 
William  Smith,  whose  "  qualification  "  was  questioned  at  first,  but  afterwards 
fully  admitted,  came  from  South  Carolina ;  and  with  him  General  Sumter,  of 
partisan  celebrity ;  and  iEdanus  Burke,  who  with  no  "  uncertain  sound," 
blew  the  alarm  about  the  Cincinnati.  And  Abraham  Baldwin  of  the  former 
Congress,  and  the  Federal  Convention,  with  James  Jackson,  sat  for  Georgia. 
Such  were  the  leading  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  at  the  out- 
set of  the  political  organization  of  the  Union. 

It  was  warmly  debated,  whether  the  Senators  under  the  new  Constitution 
should  be  nominated  by  the  ballot  of  both  houses  in  the  several  State  legisla- 
tures, or  by  their  separate  votes ;  in  which  last  case,  concurrence  was  indis- 
pensable. The  influence  of  the  governors  was,  as  might  be  expected,  deter- 
mined so  as  to  demonstrate  to  those  functionaries  that  they  were  emphatically 
ministers  of  the  States. 

Virginia  alone  sent  to  the  Senate  avowed  opponents  of  the  Constitution, 
owing  to  Henry's  power;    Madison  being  rejected,  and  William  Grayson 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  693 

with  Richard  H.  Lee,  a  man  of  deserved  note,  appearing  for  it.     Tristram  chap. 

Dalton,  and  Caleb  Strong,  the  latter  a  Conventionalist,  represented  the  legis '■ — 

lature  of  Massachusetts.  New  York,  where  Clinton  was  governor,  after  failing  to  i789. 
to  secure  a  concurrence  in  the  votes,  decided  in  favour  of  Philip  Schuyler, 
Clinton's  rival,  and  Rufus  King,  who  had  been  a  man  of  no  small  note  in 
Massachusetts,  but  was  now  a  citizen  of  the  empire  State.  From  Pennsylvania 
came  the  distinguished  financier,  Robert  Morris ; — from  Connecticut,  Oliver 
Ellsworth  and  William  S.  Johnson,  both  of  Congress  formerly,  and  of  the 
Convention ; — and  from  South  Carolina,  Pierce  Butler,  who  had  in  the  same 
way  served  his  State.  There  were  also  John  Langdon  from  New  Hamp- 
shire, then  governor ;  William  Patterson,  from  New  Jersey ;  George  Read, 
from  Delaware ;  and  William  Few,  from  Georgia,  all  delegates  in  the  Con- 
vention, where  Patterson  played  a  conspicuous  part;  and  Charles  Carroll, 
from  Maryland,  who,  as  well  as  Read,  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence ;  and  all,  except  Patterson,  had  served  in  Congress.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  twenty-two  were  of  less  eminence. 

On  the  first  Wednesday  in  the  new  year,  January  the  7th,  1789,  the  electors 
of  the  President  and  Vice-President  were,  by  order  of  Congress,  chosen  in 
all  the  States  except  New  York.  The  plans  followed  were  various ;  but  the 
legislatures,  in  most  instances,  arrogated  this  privilege.  It  is  especially  to  be 
noted,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  in  the  settlement  of  this  question  there 
was  little  recurrence  to  the  State-sovereignty  principle, — that  Virginia  left 
the  choice  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  districts  being  marked  out  for  this  parti- 
cular purpose  ;  and  that  in  Massachusetts  each  Congressional  district  chose 
:  three  persons,  from  whom  the  legislature  selected  one,  the  citizens  throughout 
:the  State  choosing  two  in  addition,  to  make  up  the  number.  And  these  elect- 
ors, on  the  first  Wednesday  in  February,  the  4th,  proceeded  to  the  choice  of 
the  Executive;  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution. 

The  functions  of  the  old  Continental  Congress  ceased  here.  Its  actual  ex- 
tinction was  neither  observed  nor  recorded.  "  History,"  says  one  of  its  latest 
annalists, "  knows  few  bodies  so  remarkable.  The  Long  Parliament  of  Charles 
I.,  the  French  National  Assembly,  are  alone  to  be  compared  with  it.  Coming 
together,  in  the  first  instance,  a  mere  collection  of  consulting  delegates,  it  had 
boldly  seized  the  reins  of  power,  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  insurgent 
States,  issued  bills  of  credit,  raised  armies,  declared  Independence,  negotiated 
foreign  treaties,  carried  the  nation  through  an  eight  years'  war ;  and  finally, 
had  extorted  from  the  proud  and  powerful  mother-country  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  sovereign  authority,  so  daringly  assumed,  and  so  indomitably 
maintained.  But  this  brilliant  career  had  been  as  short  as  it  was  glorious. 
The  decline  had  commenced,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  war."  The  people 
grew  weary  through  their  prodigious  efforts,  and  faltered  in  their  obedierifce 
to  the  extemporized  authority,  which  in  the  heat  of  their  early  enthusiasm 
they  had  readily  acknowledged.  And  the  endeavour  to  replace  by  prudential 
"  Articles  "  the  spirit  "  of  Confederation  "  which  had  fled,  utterly  failed. 
,     The  spontaneous  growth  of  the  hour  of  peril,  Congress  was  unfitted  for  the 


694  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

work  of  government  in  time  of  peace.  An  embodiment  of  patriotic  volun- 
taryism,— when  the  manifest  call  for  immediate  self-sacrifice  was  no  longer 
heard,  it  could  not  obtain  revenue  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  preserve  its  credit. 
The  representative  of  the  aspiration  after  independence, — it  could  not  obtain 
the  allegiance  of  the  sovereignties  it  had  given  birth  to.  "  Overwhelmed  with 
debts,"  a  pensioner  of  the  court  of  France,  its  paper-money  depreciated  and 
repudiated,  its  requisitions  disregarded,  "insulted  by  mutineers,  unable  to 
fulfil  the  treaties  it  had  made,"  or  to  procure  their  fulfilment  by  others,  hum- 
bly but  "  vainly  begging  for  additional  authority," — it  presented  the  lament- 
able spectacle  of  an  institution  which  has  outlived  its  purpose  and  its  day ; 
one  so  fallen  and  enfeebled,  that  it  lacks  the  force  even  to  depart  with  dig- 
nity. When  it  had  succeeded  in  extorting  from  Great  Britain  the  Treaty  of 
Versailles,  that  hour  it  should  have  died.  It  lived  on  through  six  years  of 
intestine  strife  and  confusion,  which  it  could  neither  compose  nor  control ; 
and  forced,  at  last,  to  abdicate  the  powers  it  could  no  longer  grasp,  it  perished 
thus, — "  unwept,  unhonoured,  and  unsung." 

Delighted  at  the  distinction  conferred  on  their  city  by  its  appointment  as 
the  place  for  the  assembling  of  Congress,  some  of  the  rich  merchants,  and 
others  of  New  York,  contributed  a  sum  sufficient  to  repair  the  old  City  Hall; 
that  a  "  Federal  Hall  "  might  be  provided  for  the  sessions  of  the  legislature. 
And,  but  for  this,  the  first  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  new  government 
must  have  lacked  one  its  happiest  auguries,  regarding  the  success  of  the  vast 
experiment  in  political  science,  with  the  conduct  of  which  they  were  charged  ; 
for  the  treasury  of  the  Confederation  was  exhausted^  and  that  of  the  State 
was  in  the  same  condition ;  nor  could  any  public  body  have  authorized  the 
needful  preparation. 

The  expected  day,  the  4th  of  March,  at  length  arrived,  and  was  greeted 
with  salvos  of  artillery  and  peals  of  bells  ;  but  alas !  for  the  vanity  of  human 
hopes, — slow  stages  and  bad  roads,  added  to  the  dilatory  habits  which  the 
long  unsettled  position  of  public  affairs  had  occasioned,  and  which  the  novelty 
of  the  tasks  now  contemplated  must  have  enhanced, — these  and  other  causes 
prevented  the  arrival  of  the  requisite  numbers  for  beginning  business.  Only 
some  one  and  twenty  of  both  Houses  had  come,  and  no  addition  was  made  to 
them  for  above  a  week ;  nor  could  a  quorum  be  assembled  of  either  division 
of  Congress,  although  two  circular  letters  were  despatched  earnestly  praying 
the  absentees  to  hasten  to  their  assistance,  before  the  end  of  that  month  and 
the  beginning  of  the  next. 

On  the  6th  of  April,  the  Senate,  aided  by  the  Representatives,  proceeded  to 
the  official  enumeration  of  the  votes  in  the  Presidential  election ;  Langdon  of 
New  Hampshire  being  chosen  president  "  for  that  sole  purpose." 

The  result  of  that  election  was,  of  course,  generally  known  before  this  time. 
Indeed,  as  soon  as  it  became  certain  that  the  Constitution  would  be  ratified  by 
the  stipulated  number  of  States,  the  universal  feeling  was,  that  but  one  per- 
son could  be  qualified  for  the  first  presidency  of  the  United  States, — George 
Washington.      It  was  well  known  that  no  affectation  of  love  of  retirement 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  695 

prompted  the  hopes  he  often  expressed,  of  spending  the  remainder  of  his  days   chap. 
at  Mount  Vernon.     And  it  was  as  well  known,  that  if  called  to  the  post  of 


difficulty,  by  the  voice  of  his  country,  he  would  yield  a  willing  obedience  to  to  1789. 
the  call.  In  reply  to  his  friends,  who  pointed  out  to  him  the  certainty  that 
he  would  be  elected  to  the  chief  magistracy,  he  avowed  the  sincerest  reluc- 
tance to  engage  in  public  life  again ;  and  suggested  every  consideration  which 
might  induce  the  people  to  hesitate  in  choosing  him,  and  himself  to  decline 
the  honour  that  awaited  him. 

When  it  was  known  that  he  was  chosen,  he  ceased  to  argue  against  what 
then  appeared  to  him  "  inevitable."  And  with  a  view  to  the  discharge  of  the 
onerous  duties  imposed  on  him,  he  arranged  all  his  private  affairs ;  and  even 
commenced  special  readings  in  history.  So  that  he  was  prepared,  not  only 
for  the  communication  of  the  Senate,  but  for  the  office  itself,  when  actually 
invited  to  assume  it. 

The  whole  number  of  votes  to  be  given  in  the  electoral  colleges  was  sixty- 
nine  ;  and  that  number  was  recorded  for  George  Washington.  All  the  second 
votes  of  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  were  given  to  John  Adams,  together 
with  the  majority  of  those  of  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania,  half  those  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  one  from  New  Jersey, — in  all  thirty-four ;  which  raised  him  to  the 
office  of  Vice-President.  The  remainder  of  the  New  Jersey  votes,  with  all 
those  of  Delaware,  and  one  from  Virginia,  nine  in  all,  were  given  to  John  Jay. 
Robert  H.  Harrison,  who  had  been  secretary  to  Washington,  and  was  at  the 
time  Chief-Justice  of  Maryland,  received  the  six  votes  of  that  State.  John 
Rutledge  had  six  of  the  South  Carolina  votes.  The  remaining  one  was  given 
to  John  Hancock,  who  also  received  one  from  Virginia,  and  two  from  Penn- 
sylvania ;  in  all,  four.  To  George  Clinton  were  given  the  three  remaining 
votes  of  Virginia ;  and  to  S.  Huntington,  the  remaining  two  of  Connecticut. 
Whilst  Georgia  gave  two  of  its  votes  to  John  Milton,  one  to  Edward  Telfair, 
one  to  J.  Armstrong,  (of  whom  Telfair  alone  was  known  beyond  the  borders 
of  the  State,)  and  one  to  General  Lincoln.  These  details  are  highly  interest- 
ing and  valuable  in  themselves ;  and  will  acquire  fresh  interest  when  compared 
with  those  of  other  Congressional  and  Presidential  elections. 

Langdon,  the  pro  tempore  president  of  the  Senate,  immediately  sent  off 
special  messengers  to  Washington  and  Adams,  informing  them  of  their  choice 
as  President  and  Vice-President,  with  due  congratulations.  And  preparations 
were  made  to  show  becoming  honour  to  the  executive  representatives  of  the 
people. 

John  Adams,  who  had  recently  been  engaged  as  minister  in  England,  and 
who  had  acquired  (it  was  thought)  too  lively  a  relish  for  official  pomp  and 
circumstance  for  the  magistrate  of  a  republic, — set  off  for  New  York  escorted 
by  a  troop  of  horse ;  and  was  accompanied  with  the  same  ceremony  through- 
out his  journey.  A  host  of  citizens  and  militia  attended  him  on  his  entrance 
into  New  York  ;  and  he  took  the  chair  of  the  Senate,  on  the  21st  of  April, 
addressing  an  appropriate  but  not  remarkable  speech  to  the  members  as- 
sembled. 


696  HISTORY    OF    AMERICA. 

chap.       The  journey  of  President  elect,  from  Mount  Vernon  to  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, was  one  continued  ovation.     Escorts  of  the  civic  soldiers,  of  the  princi- 


touss.8  pal  citizens,  of  ladies  and  young  girls  dressed  in  white,  with  banquets, 
triumphal  arches,  and  congratulatory  odes  and  addresses,  met  him  from  States, 
cities,  towns,  and  villages.  On  April  the  23rd,  he  was  attended,  from  Eliza- 
beth-town Point,  by  some  of  the  highest  officers  of  the  new  government,  in  a 
splendid  barge,  across  the  noble  embouchure  of  the  Hudson,  to  New  York, 
followed  by  an  extemporized  procession  of  barges  and  boats  of  every  kind. 
Landing  amid  the  thunders  of  artillery,  he  was  welcomed  by  Governor  Clinton, 
and  conducted  to  his  official  residence.  He  was  afterwards  entertained  by 
the  governor ;  and  at  night  the  whole  city  was  illuminated.  Not  till  the 
30th,  however,  was  he  foimally  installed.  The  ceremonial  was  in  the  highest 
degree  impressive,  and  befitting  the  occasion. '  All  the  places  of  worship  in 
the  city  were  opened  in  the  morning,  and  special  services  held.  Soon  after 
noon,  preceded  by  the  soldiery,  and  accompanied,  in  long  procession,  by  the 
foreign  ministers,  the  government  officers,  the  committees  of  Congress  and 
others,  with  a  great  concourse  of  citizens,  Washington  went  in  state  to  "  Fe- 
deral Hall."  And  having  arrived,  ascended  to  the  Senate  chamber,  and  in 
an  open  gallery,  fronting  Broad  Street,  in  the  sight  of  the  multitudes  below, 
Chancellor  Livingston  administered  the  oath  of  office  to  him,  and  then  pro- 
claimed him  President ;  the  people  answering  the  announcement  with  shouts 
of,  "  Long  live  George  Washington  !  "  "  God  bless  our  Washington  !  " 
te  Long  life  to  our  beloved  President !  " 

Returning  to  the  Senate  chamber,  he  took  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  apart- 
ment, and  delivered  to  the  members  of  both  Houses  his  inaugural  address. 
In  which,  after  a  touching  but  manly  reference  to  the  hopes  he  had  indulged 
of  rest  and  seclusion,  after  his  former  service  of  his  country ;  and  to  his  own 
sense  of  insufficiency  for  the  arduous  task  of  administering  affairs  of  such 
magnitude,  as  those  of  the  Union,  he  said ;  "  All  I  dare  hope  is,  that  if,  in 
executing  this  task,  I  have  been  too  much  swayed  by  a  grateful  remembrance 
of  former  instances,  or  by  an  affectionate  sensibility  to  this  transcendent  proof 
of  the  confidence  of  my  fellow-citizens  ;  and  have,  thence,  too  little  consulted 
my  incapacity,  as  well  as  disinclination,  for  the  weighty  and  untried  cares  be- 
fore me,  my  errors  will  be  palliated  by  the  motives  which  misled  me,  and  its 
consequences  be  judged  by  my  country,  with  some  share  of  the  partiality  in 
which  they  originated." 

Then,  having  very  suitably  remarked  on  the  indications  of  an  overruling 
Providence,  which  the  history  of  the  establishment  of  Independence  in  Ame- 
rica, and  of  the  formation  and  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution,  showed ; 
he  dwelt  upon  the  duty  of  the  President  to  recommend  to  Congress  public 
measures  which  he  might  judge  necessary  and  expedient.  "  The  circum- 
stances," said  he,  "  under  which  I  now  meet  you,  will  acquit  me  from  enter- 
ing into  that  subject,  further  than  to  refer  you  to  the  great  constitutional 
charter,  under  which  we  are  assembled  ;  and  which,  in  defining  your  powers, 
designates  the  objects  to  which  your  attention  is  to  be  given.     It  will  be 


/T\ 


A.  I).  1787 
to  1789. 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA.  697 

more  consistent  with  those  circumstances,  and  far  more  congenial  with  the  chap 
feelings  which  actuate  me,  to  substitute,  in  place  of  a  recommendation  of  par- 
ticular measures,  the  tribute  that  is  due  to  the  talents,  the  rectitude,  and  the 
patriotism,  which  adorn  the  characters  selected  to  devise  and  adopt  them.  In 
these  honourable  qualification,  I  behold  the  surest  pledges,  that  as,  on  one 
side,  no  local  prejudices  or  attachments,  no  separate  views  or  party  animosi- 
ties, will  misdirect  the  comprehensive  and  equal  eye,  which  ought  to  watch 
over  this  great  assemblage  of  communities  and  interests ;  so,  on  another,  that 
the  foundations  of  our  national  policy  will  be  laid  in  the  pure  and  immutable 
principles  of  private  morality,  and  the  pre-eminence  of  a  free  government  be 
exemplified  by  all  the  attributes,  which  can  win  the  affections  of  its  citizens, 
and  command  the  respect  of  the  world. 

"  I  dwell  on  this  prospect,"  he  continued,  "  with  every  satisfaction  which 
an  ardent  love  for  my  country  can  inspire;  since  there  is  no  truth  more 
thoroughly  established,  than  that  there  exists,  in  the  economy  and  course  of 
nature,  an  indissoluble  union  between  virtue  and  happiness,  between  duty 
and  advantage,  between  the  genuine  maxims  of  an  honest  and  magnanimous 
policy,  and  the  solid  rewards  of  public  prosperity  and  felicity  ;  since  we  ought 
to  be  no  less  persuaded  that  the  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven  can  never  be  ex- 
pected on  a  nation  that  disregards  the  eternal  rules  of  order  and  right  which 
Heaven  itself  has  ordained ;  and  since  the  preservation  of  the  sacred  fire  of 
liberty,  and  the  destiny  of  the  republican  model  of  government,  are  justly 
considered  as  deeply,  perhaps  as  finally,  staked  on  the  experiment  intrusted 
to  the  hands  of  the  American  people." 

Alluding  to  the  amendments,  which  the  ratifying  States  had  proposed  in 
the  Constitution,  he  observed; — "Besides  the  ordinary  objects  submitted  to 
your  care,  it  will  remain  with  your  judgment  to  decide  how  far  an  exercise 
of  the  occasional  power,  delegated  by  the  fifth  article  of  the  Constitution,  is 
rendered  expedient  at  the  present  juncture,  by  the  nature  of  objections  which 
have  been  urged  against  the  system,  or  by  the  degree  of  inquietude  which 
has  given  birth  to  them.  Instead  of  undertaking  particular  recommendations 
on  this  subject,  in  which  I  could  be  guided  by  no  lights  derived  from  official 
opportunities,  I  shall  again  give  way  to  my  entire  confidence  in  your  discern- 
ment and  pursuit  of  the  public  good ;  for  I  assure  myself,  that,  whilst  you 
carefully  avoid  every  alteration  which  might  endanger  the  benefits  of  a  united 
and  effective  government,  or  which  ought  to  await  the  future  lessons  of  expe- 
rience ;  a  reverence  for  the  characteristic  rights  of  freemen,  and  a  regard  for 
the  public  harmony,  will  sufficiently  influence  your  deliberations  on  the  ques- 
tion, how  far  the  former  can  be  more  impregnably  fortified,  or  the  latter  be 
safely  and  advantageously  promoted." 

Then,  having  renounced  all  claims  for  compensation  during  his  continu- 
ance in  office,  except  for  "  such  actual  expenditures  as  the  public  good  might 
be  thought  to  require ; "  he  added, — "  Having  thus  imparted  to  you  my 
sentiments,  as  they  have  been  awakened  by  the  occasion  which  brings  us  to- 
gether, I  shall  take  my  present  leave ;  but  not  without  resorting  once  more 

4c 


698  HISTORY    OF   AMERICA. 

hap.  to  the  benign  Parent  of  the  human  race,  in  humble  supplication,  that,  since 
he  has  been  pleased  to  favour  the  American  people  with  opportunities  for  de- 


u  1V39.  liberating  in  perfect  tranquillity,  and  dispositions  for  deciding  with  unparal- 
leled unanimity,  on  a  form  of  government  for  the  security  of  their  Union,  and 
the  advancement  of  their  happiness ;  so  his  Divine  blessing  may  be  equally 
conspicuous  in  the  enlarged  views,  the  temperate  consultations,  and  the  wise 
measures,  on  which  the  success  of  the  government  must  depend." 

On  the  conclusion  of  this  admirable  address,  with  both  Houses  of  the  legis- 
lature he  proceeded  to  St.  Paul's  church,  where  the  Bishop  of  New  York, 
who  had  been  nominated  one  of  the  chaplains  of  Congress,  read  prayers  suit- 
able to  the  occasion ;  and  then  returned  under  escort  to  his  official  residence. 
Another  illumination  and  a  pyrotechnical  display  concluded  the  celebration 
of  this  auspicious  day. 

And  thus  was  completed  the  inauguration  of  the  new  government,  which 
under  Washington's  wise  conduct  was,  destined  to  be  so  firmly  established, 
that  neither  have  commotions,  revolt,  dissension,  and  a  growth  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  nations,  been  able  to  shake  it ;  nor  its  administration  by  those 
most  opposed  to  its  spirit,  to  demonstrate  its  unfitness  to  secure  the  ends  for 
which  it  was  devised. 

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